Ensuring 2014 is a Year of Action to Grow the Economy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/01/11/weekly-address-ensuring-2014-year-action-grow-economy?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=011114-topper
Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for
Delivery
The White House
January 11, 2014
Hi, everybody.
Yesterday, we learned that in 2013, our businesses created 2.2 million
new jobs – including 87,000 last month.
Our unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since October 2008. And across our broader economy, there are
signs of progress. Our manufacturing and
housing sectors are rebounding. Our
energy, technology, and auto sectors are booming. Thanks in part to the reforms in the
Affordable Care Act, health care costs now eat up less of our economy – over
the past four years, costs have grown at the slowest rate on record. And since I took office, we’ve cut our
deficits by more than half.
Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of the American
people, our economy is growing stronger.
But we know we’ve got more work to do together. Our success as a country depends on more than
the success of our broader economy – it depends on the success of the American
people. It depends on your ability to
make ends meet, provide for your families, and, with a little hard work, feel
like you can get ahead.
So we’ve got to keep our economy growing, and make sure more
Americans have the opportunity to share in that growth. We’ve got to keep creating jobs that offer
new opportunity, and make sure those jobs offer the wages and benefits that let
you rebuild some security. We’ve got
more kids to educate, and families to get covered with health insurance, and an
immigration system to fix. And we’ve got
to make sure this recovery leaves no one behind.
This will be a year of action. I’ll keep doing everything I can to create
new jobs and new opportunities for American families – with Congress, on my
own, and with everyone willing to play their part. And that action should begin by extending
unemployment insurance for Americans who were laid off in the recession through
no fault of their own. This vital
economic lifeline helps people support their families while they look for a new
job. And it demands responsibility in
return by requiring that they prove they’re actively looking for work. But Republicans in Congress just let that
lifeline expire for 1.3 million Americans.
And if this doesn’t get fixed, it will actually hurt about 14 million
Americans over the course of this year.
Earlier this week, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate took the
first steps toward making this right.
But Congress needs to finish the job right away. More than one million Americans across the
country will feel a little hope right away.
Working folks are looking for the kind of stable, secure
jobs that went overseas in the past couple decades. So next week, I’ll join companies and
colleges and take action to boost the high-tech manufacturing that attracts the
kind of good new jobs a growing middle class requires.
Business owners are ready to play their part and hire more
workers. So next week, I’ll be joined by
college presidents as we lay out specific steps we can take to help more
workers earn the skills they need for today’s new jobs. Later this month I’ll host CEOs at the White
House to announce commitments we’re making to put more of the long-term
unemployed back to work.
And at the end of the month, in my State of the Union
Address, I will mobilize the country around the national mission of making sure
our economy offers everyone who works hard a fair shot at opportunity and
success. As Americans, that’s what we
should expect. And after everything
you’ve done to recover and rebuild from crisis these past five years – after
all your hard work and sacrifice – that’s what you deserve.
Thanks, and have a great weekend.
January 2014: Photo of the Day
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/photogallery/january-2014-photo-day