Let’s put more Americans back to work

C

Canceled.LTroll.8

Banned
Even though our economy is growing again, these are still tough times for America.

Too many businesses are still shuttered.

Too many families can’t make ends meet, and while Friday, we learned that the unemployment rate has dropped below ten percent for the first time since summer, it is still unacceptably high – and too many Americans still can’t find work.

But, what we must remember at a time like this is that we are not helpless in the face of our difficulties.

As Americans, we make our own destiny. We forge our own path, and I am confident that if we come together and put aside the politics that keeps holding us back, we can do that again.

We can rebuild this economy on a new, stronger foundation that leads to more jobs and greater prosperity.

I believe a key part of that foundation is America’s small businesses – the places where most new jobs begin.

These companies represent the essence of the American spirit – the promise that anyone can succeed in this country if you have a good idea and the determination to see it through, and every once in awhile, these ideas don’t just lead to a new business and new jobs, but a new American product that forever changes the world.

After all, Hewlett Packard began in a garage. Google began as a simple research project.

Government can’t create these businesses, but it can give entrepreneurs the support they need to open their doors, expand, or hire more workers, and that’s what we’ve always done in this country.

The folks at Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff, Arizona started their company in a small home. Since getting a loan from the Small Business Administration, they’ve sold 160,000 wind turbines to about 90 different countries, and are hiring even more workers today.

When Sam Ko walked into one of the SBA’s small business development centers in Illinois, he didn’t have any business experience at all – just a patent for a new metal manufacturing technology. He was given a loan and a business plan, and today his company is still growing, with offices all over the Midwest.

Last year, the steps we took supported over 47,000 loans to small businesses and delivered billions in tax relief to small business owners, which helped companies keep their doors open, make payroll, and hire workers.

But, we can and must do more. That’s why I’ve proposed a series of steps this week to support small business owners and the jobs they create – to provide more access to credit, more incentives to hire, and more opportunities to grow and sell products all over the world.

Because financing remains difficult for good, credit-worthy small businesses across the country, I’ve proposed that we take $30 billion from the TARP fund originally used for Wall Street and create a new Small Business Lending Fund that will provide capital for community banks on Main Street.

These are the small, local banks that will be able to give our small business owners more of the credit they need to stay afloat.

We should also continue to waive fees, increase guarantees, and expand the size of SBA-backed loans for small businesses, and yesterday, I proposed making it easier for small business owners to refinance their mortgages during these tough times.

To give these companies greater incentives to grow and create jobs, I’ve proposed a new tax credit for more than one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, as well as the elimination of all capital gains taxes on small business investment.

Finally, we should provide targeted support to the most innovative small businesses – the ones with the greatest potential to export new goods and products all over the world.

A lot of these companies – like the wind turbine manufacturer I mentioned – are the foundation on which we can rebuild our economy to compete in the 21st century.

They just need a little help securing the financing they need to get off the ground. We have every incentive to help them do that.

Next week, Congress will start debating many of these proposals, and if anyone has additional ideas to support small businesses and create jobs, I’m happy to consider them.

My door is always open, but I urge members of both parties: do not oppose good ideas just because it’s good politics to do so.

The proposals I’ve outlined are not Democratic or Republican; liberal or conservative. They are pro-business, they are pro-growth, and they are pro-job. Leaders in both parties have supported similar ideas in the past.

So, let’s come together and pass these measures without delay.

Let’s put more Americans back to work, and let’s give our small business owners the support to do what they’ve always done: the freedom to pursue their dreams and build our country’s future
 
Thank you, Mister President.

Big Gubmint looks forward to expanding rapidly and extensively under your leadership.
 
Wow, it only took a year for you to realize that putting Americans to work would be a good idea when millions were losing their jobs! Good job, dude!
 
Damocles said:
Wow, it only took a year for you to realize that putting Americans to work would be a good idea when millions were losing their jobs! Good job, dude!
Click to expand...

Indeed. The idea that massively hiring by public sector, funded by a dwindling private sector is going to work well? Delusional.
 
The road to recovery is never straight, and that we have to continue to work every single day to get our economy moving again.

For most Americans, and for me, that means jobs. It means whether we are putting people back to work.

Job losses for the last quarter of 2009 were one-tenth of what we were experiencing in the first quarter.

In fact, in November we saw the first gain in jobs in nearly two years.

What this underscores, though, is that we have to continue to explore every avenue to accelerate the return to hiring.

The Recovery Act has been a major force in breaking the trajectory of this recession and stimulating growth and hiring, and one of the most popular elements of it has been a clean energy manufacturing initiative that will put Americans to work while helping America gain the lead when it comes to clean energy.

It’s clear why such an effort is so important.

Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future -- jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

But, it’s also how we will reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, a dependence that endangers our economy and our security, and it is how we will combat the threat of climate change and leave our children a planet that’s safer than the one we inherited.

Harnessing new forms of energy will be one of the defining challenges of the 21st century, and unfortunately, right now the United States, the nation that pioneered the use of clean energy, is being outpaced by nations around the world.

It’s China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient.

We spearheaded the development of solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it, and almost all of the batteries that we use to power our hybrid vehicles are still manufactured by Japanese companies or in Asia -- though we’re beginning to produce more of these batteries here at home.

Now, I welcome and am pleased to see a real competition emerging around the world to develop these kinds of clean energy technologies.

Competition is what fuels innovation, but I don’t want America to lose that competition. I don’t want the industries that yield the jobs of tomorrow to be built overseas. I don’t want the technology that will transform the way we use energy to be invented abroad.

I want the United States of America to be what it has always been -- and that is a leader -- the leader when it comes to a clean energy future.

We’ll take an important step toward meeting the goal I’ve set of doubling the amount of renewable power we use in the next three years with wind turbines and solar panels built right here in the U.S. of A.

We received requests for roughly three times as much in funding -- $7.6 billion -- as we could provide, and that’s why, as part of the jobs package on which I’m urging Congress to act, I’ve called for investing another $5 billion in this program, which could put even more Americans to work right away building and equipping clean energy manufacturing facilities here in the United States.

In the letters that I receive at night, and many of you know I get about 10 letters a night that I take a look at -- I often hear from Americans who are facing hard times -- Americans who’ve lost their jobs, or can’t afford to pay their bills; they’re worried about what the future holds.

I am confident that if we tap the talents of our workers, and our innovators, and our entrepreneurs; if we can gain the lead in clean energy worldwide; then we’ll forge a future where a better life is possible in our country over the long run.

That’s a future we’re now closer to building because of the steps that we’re taking today.

Thank you very much.
 
Annie said:
Indeed. The idea that massively hiring by public sector, funded by a dwindling private sector is going to work well? Delusional.
Click to expand...
Well, he spent the last year desperately trying to make somebody, even somebody on his own side, believe that passing health care malformation would somehow magically fix the economy. Nobody believed him and Brown got elected. This was a "wake up call" that he should now talk about people actually working and how that might fix the economy, while still focusing the November elections on Health Care by trying to force congress to talk about it and distract any blame away from the White House....

While people do understand this is a good idea (creating jobs), they fully understand that it should have begun a year ago rather than rushing headlong into massive malformation of a good chunk of the economy desperately trying to convince people that can't afford $5000 worth of insurance that a $5000 deductible after being forced to pay a premium would be "better" and somehow create a job for them. Amazingly it would make it "affordable" for them at the same time even though they have LESS money than ever to spend on it, and the deductible was as much as the insurance used to be....

Yup... Good stuff there, Obama. Now, they are going to spend the next 8 months desperately trying to get you to believe that they cared about your job the whole time by talking about it while (amazingly) STILL trying to convince you that health care malformation is the answer...
 
For two years, I had the privilege of traveling across this country, and I had a chance to talk to people like you, and go to diners and sit in barbershops, and hear directly about the challenges that all of you are facing in your lives, and the opportunities that you're taking advantage of, and all the things that we face together as a nation, and the single hardest thing -- people ask me this all the time -- about being President is that it's harder for me to do that nowadays.

It's harder to get out of the bubble.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the White House is a wonderful place to work. You live above the store-- which means I've got a very short commute.

I see my daughters before they go to school and I see them at night for dinner, even if I have to go back down to the office, and that makes everything so much better.

But, the truth is, this job is a little confining, and that is frustrating.

I can't just go to the barbershop or sit in a diner.

I can't always visit people directly.

This is part of the reason why I've taken to the practice of reading 10 letters, out of the 40,000 that I get, every night just so that I can stay in touch and hear from you.

But, nothing beats a day where I can make an escape, I break out, and so I appreciate the chance to come here.
 
Yeah... giving your "advisers" a shot at making sure you get only the letters that drive you towards whatever conclusion they want you to reach...

I'd wax nostalgic about that after you are out of office...
 
Now, here's the message I want you to take away -- and we're not going to have a lot of time for questions, but I want to make this absolutely clear.

I did not run for President to turn away from these challenges.

I didn't run to kick these challenges down the road. I ran for President to confront them –- once and for all.

I ran for this office to rebuild our economy so it works not just for the fortunate few, but for everybody who's willing to work hard in this country -- -- to create good jobs that can support a family; to get wages growing and incomes rising; to improve the quality of America's schools and lift up great community colleges like this one so that people are constantly learning, constantly retraining for the jobs of the 21st century; to make higher education affordable for the children of working families -- and, yes, to deal with the problem of runaway health insurance costs that are breaking family budgets and breaking business budgets and breaking our national budgets.

Now, since this has been in the news a little bit this week -- let me say a little something about health care.

I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard. Seven Presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it -- and all of them had failed, and I had a whole bunch of political advisors telling me this may not be the smartest thing to do.

"You've got a lot on your plate: the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression; two wars. You may not get a lot of cooperation. you're going to have a lot of pushback from the insurance companies and the drug companies. It's complicated. Don't do it."

Now, let me tell you why I did it.

I knew that insurance premiums had more than doubled in the past decade.

I knew that out-of-pocket expenses had skyrocketed. I knew that millions more people had lost their insurance, and I knew that because of that economic crisis that was only going to get worse.

When you lose 7 million jobs, like we lost over the last two years, what do you think happens to those folks' health insurance?

What happens when their COBRA runs out?

I took this up because I wanted to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can't afford to pay outrageous rates, and I wanted to protect mothers and fathers and children by being targeted by some of the worst practices of the insurance industry that I had heard time and time again as I traveled through this country.

Now, let me dispel this notion that somehow we were focused on that, and so, as a consequence, not focused on the economy.

First of all, all I think about is how we're going to create jobs in this area. All I think about is how do we get banks lending again. I've been doing that the entire year, but what I also know is, is that health care is part of the drag on our economy. It's part of the eroding security that middle-class families feel.

So here's the good news: We've gotten pretty far down the road. But I've got to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week.

Now, I also know that part of the reason is, is that this process was so long and so drawn out -- this is just what happens in Congress.

I mean, it's just an ugly process.

You're running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that's aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done, and then you've got ads that are scaring the beJesus out of everybody, and the longer it take, the uglier it looks.

So, I understand why people would say, boy, I'm not so sure about this -- even though they know that what they got isn't working, and I understand why, after the Massachusetts election, people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats; what does it mean for Obama?

Is he weakened? Is he -- oh, how's he going to survive this? That's what they do.

But I want you to understand, this is not about me.

This is not about me. This is about you.

I didn't take this up to boost my poll numbers. You know the way to boost your poll numbers is not do anything. That's how you do it. You don't offend anybody. I'd have real high poll numbers. All of Washington would be saying, "What a genius!"

I didn't take this on to score political points. I know there are some folks who think if Obama loses, we win.

But, you know what? I think that I win when you win. That's how I think about it.

So, if I was trying to take the path of least resistance, I would have done something a lot easier. But, I'm trying to solve the problems that folks across this country face every day, and I'm not going to walk away just because it's hard.

We are going to keep on working to get this done -- with Democrats, I hope with Republicans -- anybody who's willing to step up.

Because I'm not going to watch more people get crushed by costs or denied care they need by insurance company bureaucrats.

I'm not going to have insurance companies click their heels and watch their stocks skyrocket because once again there's no control on what they do.

So long as I have some breath in me, so long as I have the privilege of serving as your President, I will not stop fighting for you. I will take my lumps, but I won't stop fighting to bring back jobs here.

I won't stop fighting for an economy where hard work is rewarded.

I won't stop fighting to make sure there's accountability in our financial system.

I'm not going to stop fighting until we have jobs for everybody.

That's why I'm calling on Congress to pass a jobs bill to put more Americans to work building off our Recovery Act; put more Americans back to work rebuilding roads and railways; provide tax breaks to small businesses for hiring people; offer families incentives to make their homes more energy-efficient, saving them money while creating jobs.

You know, I said at the beginning how much it means to me to be able to travel this country, and how much it means for me to be here, and that is true now more than ever, because there's no doubt that it's easy to get a pretty warped view of things in Washington.

But, then you start talking to the guys working on those machines, creating products all across the country, you go into the diner and you meet folks who are raising their kids and working hard and trying to keep things together, and I'm reminded of the strength and the resilience and the perseverance of the American people.

I'm reminded of the fundamental character of the Americans that I'm so privileged to serve.

It's that character that has borne our nation through the roughest of seas, a lot rougher than the ones we're going through right now. That's the character that will carry us through this storm to better days ahead.

I am confident of that, because of you, and I'm very grateful for all of you taking the time to be here today.

Thank you.
 
You sure are smart, Yurt.


A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice.
-Bill Cosby-


I remember when I first saw Catherine as the "bad-girl" in The Phantom. She was way hot, but mostly went un-noticed until Zorro. I wish she'd sleep with me (a guy many years younger than her) instead of Michael Douglass (practically her dad).
-Threedee-
 
Annie said:
Indeed. The idea that massively hiring by public sector, funded by a dwindling private sector is going to work well? Delusional.
Click to expand...

That's a convincing argument if I've ever heard one. I especially like the part where you proved it by simply attacking it, rather than going into any analysis.

Spending by the public sector goes into the private sector eventually. The big thing here is that it forces the money to be spent rather than saved. It also isn't "funded" by the private sector. It's funded on deficit. Obviously, funding public sector spending by raising taxes wouldn't make sense in a recession, but funding it on deficit does good, because it puts unused capitol that's just wasting away back into the economy.

I know conservatives consider think of tax cuts in the same way a sorcerer thinks of magic, but a simple economic analysis leads you to the conclusion that you'd need tax cuts three times the size of a real stimulus to get the same amount of economic stimulus. That's a 2.1 trillion tax cut to equal the stimulus. You'd literally need a tax cut bigger than all the taxes the government takes in to do the same amount of good. That's fine for a conservative deficit peacock, but for anyone with common sense you're a fool.
 
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Watermark is so smart.

__________________
"For the believing Christian, death is no big deal... for the non-believer, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence--what a horrible act!"


For once in his life, Scalia gets something right.
 
Damocles said:
Well, he spent the last year desperately trying to make somebody, even somebody on his own side, believe that passing health care malformation would somehow magically fix the economy. Nobody believed him and Brown got elected. This was a "wake up call" that he should now talk about people actually working and how that might fix the economy, while still focusing the November elections on Health Care by trying to force congress to talk about it and distract any blame away from the White House....

While people do understand this is a good idea (creating jobs), they fully understand that it should have begun a year ago rather than rushing headlong into massive malformation of a good chunk of the economy desperately trying to convince people that can't afford $5000 worth of insurance that a $5000 deductible after being forced to pay a premium would be "better" and somehow create a job for them. Amazingly it would make it "affordable" for them at the same time even though they have LESS money than ever to spend on it, and the deductible was as much as the insurance used to be....

Yup... Good stuff there, Obama. Now, they are going to spend the next 8 months desperately trying to get you to believe that they cared about your job the whole time by talking about it while (amazingly) STILL trying to convince you that health care malformation is the answer...
Click to expand...

You're a delusional rabble rousing fool. This garbage is not worthy of a response by me.
 
The difference between a liberal and a conservative? The conservative thinks. The liberal repeats.
__________________
"For the believing Christian, death is no big deal... for the non-believer, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence--what a horrible act!"


For once in his life, Scalia gets something right.
 
HUGH G DIPSHITZ said:
The difference between a liberal and a conservative? The conservative thinks. The liberal repeats.
__________________
"For the believing Christian, death is no big deal... for the non-believer, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence--what a horrible act!"


For once in his life, Scalia gets something right.
Click to expand...

See how that works? Beautiful.
 
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