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cal04

(41,505 posts)
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 08:59 AM Dec 2014

Weekly Address: Ensuring Americans Feel the Gains of a Growing Economy

Source: White House

In this week’s address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday’s jobs report – that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs. Even with a full month to go, 2014 has already been the best year of job creation since the 1990s. This number brings total private-sector job creation to 10.9 million over 57 consecutive months – the longest streak on record.

But even with this real, tangible evidence of our progress, there is always more that can be done. Congress needs to pass a budget and keep the government from a Christmas shutdown.
We have an opportunity to work together to support the continued growth of higher-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure, reforming the business tax code, expanding markets for America’s goods and services, making common-sense reforms to the immigration system, and increasing the minimum wage.



Read more: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/12/06/weekly-address-ensuring-americans-feel-gains-growing-economy



Transcript

(snip)
Last month, our businesses created 314,000 new jobs. And that’s not a fluke – it keeps up the solid pace of job creation we’ve seen all year long. November was the tenth month in a row we’ve added more than 200,000 jobs. So far this year, our economy has created 2.65 million new jobs. That’s the most of any year since the 1990s – even with a full month to go. All told, our businesses have created 10.9 million new jobs over the past 57 months. And that’s the longest streak of private-sector job creation on record.

We also know that the upswing in job growth this year has come in industries with higher wages. Overall wages are on the rise. And that’s some very welcome news for millions of hardworking Americans. Because even though corporate profits and the stock market have hit all-time highs, the typical family isn’t bringing home more than they did 15 years ago. And that still has to change. And a vibrant jobs market gives us the opportunity to keep up this progress, and begin to undo that decades-long middle-class squeeze.

But first, we need the outgoing Congress to pass a budget and keep our government open. A Christmas shutdown is not a good idea. Then, when the new Congress convenes in January, we need to work together to invest in the things that support faster growth in higher-paying jobs.

Building new roads and bridges creates jobs. Growing our exports creates jobs. Reforming our outdated tax system and our broken immigration system creates jobs. Raising the minimum wage would benefit nearly 28 million American workers, giving them more money to spend at local businesses – and that helps those businesses create jobs.

America, we still have a lot of work to do together. But we do have real, tangible evidence of our progress. 10.9 million new jobs. 10 million more Americans with health insurance. Manufacturing has grown. Our deficits have shrunk. Our dependence on foreign oil is down. Clean energy is up. More young Americans are graduating from high school and earning college degrees than ever before. Over the last four years, this country has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and every advanced economy combined.

rest at link
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/06/weekly-address-ensuring-americans-feel-gains-growing-economy
17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Weekly Address: Ensuring Americans Feel the Gains of a Growing Economy (Original Post) cal04 Dec 2014 OP
Listened in this morning BumRushDaShow Dec 2014 #1
Thank you for posting last weeks cal04 Dec 2014 #10
Obama/Democrats have been HORRIBLE at pushing the good news. The CEC has dominated WhoWoodaKnew Dec 2014 #2
The numbers are impressive, but I want to know what jobs have been created? JDPriestly Dec 2014 #7
Rachel maddow covered this last night, Dec 5th. JoePhilly Dec 2014 #3
Thanks I missed her show last night riversedge Dec 2014 #5
While he has promoted policies to edhopper Dec 2014 #4
NOTHING? Not according to Krugman. pampango Dec 2014 #15
As usually the case edhopper Dec 2014 #16
So -- what is the proposal, the plan for doing all these wonderful things. JDPriestly Dec 2014 #6
The strong middle classes and unions in Germany, Sweden and pampango Dec 2014 #17
What "gains"? candelista Dec 2014 #8
But the TPP will be worse than NAFTA QED Dec 2014 #9
Thanks for link. 840high Dec 2014 #12
I don't feel any gains. 840high Dec 2014 #11
Thanks Obama.. 'cause so many just have more Whine about the good news. mahalo cal Cha Dec 2014 #13
Whoopty doo. Alkene Dec 2014 #14

BumRushDaShow

(129,047 posts)
1. Listened in this morning
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 10:15 AM
Dec 2014

Thanks for posting!
(also pinch-hit for ya last weekend )

The President also signed an EO Firday giving us feds 12/26 off.

WhoWoodaKnew

(847 posts)
2. Obama/Democrats have been HORRIBLE at pushing the good news. The CEC has dominated
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 10:31 AM
Dec 2014

in pushing every tiny negative thing for six years now. They'll shut up, of course, the next time a republican is president.

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
7. The numbers are impressive, but I want to know what jobs have been created?
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 04:04 PM
Dec 2014

How much do they pay?

Will they build our economy or are most of the newly employed just standing at cash registers in stores that sell imported goods, waiting tables, giving massages, etc.?

The numbers don't really say much.

We are already in the Christmas season. How many of these jobs are temporary or part-time?

We need to keep asking questions.

This speech looks like it is a response to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and a few other of our politicians' pressure about the fact that our economy is destroying our middle class and impoverishing more and more Americans.

But what is the substance? Remember, the devil as they say is in the details.

Looks like an attempt to pacify those of us who really don't see much of a future in the US unless the tax reform taxes incomes and money including stock market income and not just earned income. Our low wage structure means that taxable "earned income" is a smaller portion of the income earned overall from economic activity in the US than it was when we devised our tax code to draw such a large portion of our taxes from income earned from labor. I fear that tax reform is just going to worsen that unfair allocation of the tax burden on working people. That will make things worse.

These numbers make me happy for people who now have at least a little income and had none a few months ago. But it is not yet meaningful in terms of improvement in our economy overall. There are just too many questions about who is benefiting and who is losing out with this so-called "recovery."

Don't be fooled by this. Ask questions.

edhopper

(33,580 posts)
4. While he has promoted policies to
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 12:06 PM
Dec 2014

help with job growth.
He and the Dems have done nothing, NOTHING, to stop the super wealthy from taking a bigger and bigger piece of the pie.
Income inequity has continued to accelerate under Obama.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
15. NOTHING? Not according to Krugman.
Sun Dec 7, 2014, 10:17 AM
Dec 2014
Why the One Percent Hates Obama - Their tax rates back to pre-Reagan levels

A peculiar aspect of the Obama years has been the disconnect between the rage of Obama’s enemies and the yawns of his sort-of allies. The right denounces financial reform as a vast government takeover — and lobbies fiercely against it — while the left dismisses reform as symbols without substance. The right accuses Obama of being a socialist stealing the money of hard-working billionaires, while the left dismisses him as having done nothing to address inequality.

On all these issues, the truth is that Obama has done far more than he gets credit for — not everything you’d want, to be sure, or even most of what should be done, but enough so that the right has reason to be furious.

The latest case in point: taxes on the one percent. I keep hearing that Obama has done nothing to make the one percent pay more; the Congressional Budget Office does not agree.

According to CBO, the effective tax rate on the one percent — reflecting the end of the Bush tax cuts at the top end, plus additional taxes associated with Obamacare — is now back to pre-Reagan levels. You could argue that we should have raised taxes at the top much more, to lean against the widening of market inequality, and I would agree. But it’s still a much bigger change than I think anyone on the left seems to realize.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/why-the-one-percent-hates-obama/?_r=0

edhopper

(33,580 posts)
16. As usually the case
Sun Dec 7, 2014, 10:22 AM
Dec 2014

Krugman is right, and I did not realize it.
Thanks for the correction.
I fear what the current Repuke Congress will try to ram through, since lowering the top rat is their #1 priority.

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
6. So -- what is the proposal, the plan for doing all these wonderful things.
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 04:01 PM
Dec 2014

TPP? Because if that is the first order of business, I'm agin' it. agin' it. agin' it.

We are told all these wonderful things every time the oligarchs want to push another trade agreement over on us.

Remember how many jobs NAFTA was going to create?

CAFTA?

The World Trade agreement that opened our markets to the flood of Chinese junk?

It's great that jobs are being created. But what wages are these jobs paying?

Are they just service sector? Like masseuse? Waiters and waitresses? Or are they jobs in industries and sectors that lead to careers, steady work, don't require you to stay young and physically strong all your life and that pay well?

This speech sounds good but what is really going on?

pampango

(24,692 posts)
17. The strong middle classes and unions in Germany, Sweden and
Sun Dec 7, 2014, 10:23 AM
Dec 2014

other countries that have more "NAFTA's" than in your worst nightmare will be surprised to learn that they have been decimated by their "NAFTA's" and the WTO. It is the far right and Europe that wants to withdraw from their trade agreements.

QED

(2,747 posts)
9. But the TPP will be worse than NAFTA
Sat Dec 6, 2014, 04:16 PM
Dec 2014
Obama says he willing to defy Democrats on his support of Trans-Pacific Partnership

President Obama signaled Wednesday that, at least on international trade, he is willing to defy his fellow Democrats and his own liberal base to pursue a partnership with Republicans. Trade represents one of Obama’s best chances for a legacy-building achievement in the final two years of his presidency, but he acknowledged that it is an idea he still has to sell to many of his traditional allies.

Speaking at a gathering of business leaders, Obama offered his strongest public defense of his administration’s pursuit of a major 12-nation trade deal in the Asia Pacific, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that has been opposed by Democrats, labor unions and environmental groups.

The administration has argued that the trade deals will boost U.S. exports and lower tariffs for American goods in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, where the United States has faced increasing economic competition from China.

More:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-says-he-willing-to-defy-democrats-on-his-support-of-trans-pacific-partnership/2014/12/03/25edcaf4-7b30-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

Basically elevating corporations to nationhood status. More on that here:

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/23891-william-rivers-pitt-sick-of-secrets
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