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The U.S. lost a record number of jobs during the Obama administration, but the president also inherited an historically deep recession. Private-sector employment has grown steadily, if slowly, since about March 2010, but the public sector has shown some net losses since then, especially after the economic-stimulus money ran out.
In May, Obama proposed a tax credit worth up to 10 percent of increased payroll for businesses that hire new employees. The administration criticized an earlier Republican proposal to allow small businesses to deduct 20 percent of income in 2012, saying the provision didn’t require businesses to hire and that it would provide tax breaks for wealthy individuals who own businesses.
Obama approved a second wave of bailout money for the auto industry as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that started under President George W. Bush. Chrysler and GM have repaid most of the money they borrowed while restructuring and trying to stay afloat, but the Treasury Department has acknowledged that taxpayers will never recover all the funds provided. Independent studies have concluded that the bailouts saved at least one million jobs.
The president has proposed a minimum corporate tax of at least 20 percent on foreign earnings. In theory, this would discourage companies from moving operations overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates abroad.
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Obama on JobsObama's Statements (171)
Because it's easy to say you're independent and you're going to bring people together and all that stuff -- until you actually have to do it. And when the vote comes on energy, and there’s a choice between standing with big oil or fighting for the clean energy jobs of the future, whose side are you going to be on? Martha is going to be on your side.
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It's the oldest play in the book. But everybody here knows that the choices that have to be made in order to get this economy moving -- to make sure that people are actually working in jobs that pay a living wage, that we have a green energy economy that is freeing ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, that young people can actually afford to go to college and can look forward to graduating to careers that are building this country -- that those things aren’t going to happen overnight and they're not going to be easy. But we sure aren’t going to get there if we look backwards and try to reinstitute the same failed policies that we've had over the past decade.
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And when we walked through these doors last year our first and most urgent task was to rescue our economy, to give immediate relief to those who were hurt by its downturn, but also to rebuild it on a new, stronger foundation for job creation. So we helped state and local governments keep cops and firefighters and teachers on the job, helping to plug their budgets. We invested in areas with the most potential for job growth both immediate and lasting –- in our infrastructure, in science and technology, in education, in clean energy. And these steps have saved or created about 2 million jobs so far.
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But more than 7 million have been lost as a consequence of this recession –- an epidemic that demands our relentless and sustained response. Now, last month the House passed a new jobs bill. The Senate, as we speak, is hard at work developing its own job creation package. Creating good, sustainable jobs is the single most important thing we can do to rebuild the middle class -– and I won't rest until we're doing just that.
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We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities -- and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs. And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America.
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Now, the House has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these steps. As the first order of business this year, I urge the Senate to do the same, and I know they will. They will. People are out of work. They're hurting. They need our help. And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.
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But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. And, yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.
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Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I'll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans. And when the vote comes tomorrow, the Senate should restore the pay-as-you-go law that was a big reason for why we had record surpluses in the 1990s.
Now, I know that some in my own party will argue that we can't address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting. And I agree -- which is why this freeze won't take effect until next year -- when the economy is stronger. That's how budgeting works. But understand –- understand if we don't take meaningful steps to rein in our debt, it could damage our markets, increase the cost of borrowing, and jeopardize our recovery -– all of which would have an even worse effect on our job growth and family incomes.
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And Tampa, like so many communities across our country, has felt the lash of shuttered businesses and lost jobs and home foreclosures and vanished or dwindling savings. And this storm came at the end of what some call a lost decade -- because what happened between 2000 and now, it was a decade in which paychecks shrank and jobs barely grew, and the costs of everything from health care to college education went up. Irresponsibility from Wall Street to Washington left good, responsible Americans who did everything right still struggling in ways they never imagined.
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So that -- I want to make that point first, because, frankly, it would be so much easier to work with your brother, if he hadn't gone to jail in the first place, to get a job. Thirty-three felonies is a lot. I mean, that's a long rap sheet, which means that it's very -- I'm just being realistic. If I'm a business owner, and I'm saying to myself, right now the unemployment rate is 10 percent, so there are a whole lot of folks who have never been to jail who are looking for a job -- it's hard for me to say, I'll choose the guy who went to jail instead of the person who never went to jail and has been laid off.
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And the fact is we're standing in a very different place than we were just a year ago. Just last year, businesses were cutting 700,000 jobs per month. The markets were plummeting. Many people feared another Great Depression. Today, we've stopped the flood of job losses, we've stabilized the financial system, and we can safely say that we've avoided that looming depression.
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Today, I'm proposing what I believe is the best way to cut taxes while promoting hiring by small businesses: through a tax credit for companies that add workers or increase salaries this year. Now is the perfect time for this kind of incentive because the economy is growing, but businesses are still hesitant to start hiring again. The economy is growing, but job growth is lagging. Companies are recovering but not yet taking that next step and taking on somebody full time. And while businesses will always be the engines of job creation in this country, government can create the conditions for those businesses to expand and hire more workers.
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The House of Representatives has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these proposals. I expect the Senate to do the same. I'm open to any good ideas from Democrats or Republicans. In fact, several members of Congress have proposed tax breaks for businesses similar to what I've proposed, and I'm looking forward to working with them. The key thing is it's time to put America back to work.
We've had two very tough years. And while these proposals will create jobs all across America, we've got a long way to go to make up for the millions of jobs that we lost in this recession. And I don’t have to tell folks in Baltimore that even before this recession hit, the middle class was facing real hardships: stagnant incomes, rising costs, growing economic security [sic]. So rebuilding this economy and rebuilding -- and rebuilding it stronger than before -- will take time and it's going to take hard work and vigilance.
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But no matter what's happened in the past, the important thing for all of us is to move forward together. We have some issues right in front of us on which I believe we should agree, because as successful as we've been in spurring new economic growth, everybody understands that job growth has been lagging. Some of that's predictable. Every economist will say jobs are a lagging indicator, but that's no consolation for the folks who are out there suffering right now. And since 7 million Americans have lost their jobs in this recession, we've got to do everything we can to accelerate it.
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So I mean, I think we can score political points on the basis of the fact that we underestimated how severe the job losses were going to be. But those job losses took place before any stimulus, whether it was the ones that you guys have proposed or the ones that we proposed, could have ever taken into effect. Now, that's just the fact, Mike, and I don't think anybody would dispute that. You could not find an economist who would dispute that.
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Now, we can -- here's what I know going forward, though. I mean, we're talking -- we were talking about the past. We can talk about this going forward. I have looked at every idea out there in terms of accelerating job growth to match the economic growth that's already taken place. The jobs credit that I'm discussing right now is one that a lot of people think would be the most cost-effective way for encouraging people to pick up their hiring.
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But we got a ways to go, especially in the hardest hit regions like Las Vegas, where there are just too many blocks littered with brown lawns and "for sale" signs, too many mortgage holders are underwater, and where job losses continue to exact a terrible toll. So for these communities, recovery depends on continued responsible efforts to stop the downward spiral of defaults, foreclosures, and declining home values.
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You don't need me to tell you that. All of you in some way have felt this recession. You felt it in the tourism and hospitality industry. You felt it in the construction industry. The unemployment rate here is 13 percent, which is the second highest in the nation. Foreclosures are also among the highest. Home values have fallen by more than almost anyplace else. And this is after a decade when, for most middle-class families, incomes actually shrank and wages flat-lined, and the only thing rising faster was medical costs and the cost of education.
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Now, if you were listening to the Republicans, you'd think that last year we weren't paying any attention to jobs, that we were just kind of -- I don't know what we were doing, Harry. I guess we were just sort of sitting around. The truth is, is that everything we did last year was designed around how do we break the back of the recession and move the economic recovery forward in order to promote job growth.
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You can't have job growth if the economy is contracting by 6 percent, because businesses look and they say nobody is spending money, we got no customers, we can't hire. So the first thing we had to do was to make sure that companies were starting to make a profit again, and the economy was growing. We are now in that position, because of the work that Harry did and a lot of -- and these two outstanding members of Congress did, Congresswoman Berkley and Titus. The economy is now growing again.
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But here's the larger point that I'm trying to make. The steps we took last year were about saving the economy from collapse, not about expanding government's reach into the economy. The jobs bill working through Congress right now are similarly designed to be targeted and temporary. And I'm pleased that a few hours ago the Senate just passed a series of tax cuts for small businesses that hire more workers. This is an important step forward in putting more Americans back to work as soon as possible.
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And already, the Recovery Act has allowed us to jumpstart the clean energy industry in America -– an investment that will lead to 720,000 clean energy jobs by the year 2012. To take just one example, the United States used to make less than 2 percent of the world's advanced batteries for hybrid cars. By 2015, we’ll have enough capacity to make up to 40 percent of these batteries.
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You began your remarks, , by saying there was a glimmer of bipartisanship in the Senate for the passage of the jobs bill. I want you to know there was a blaze of bipartisanship in the House yesterday -- with, what, 406-19, we passed under leadership of Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Tom Perriello, Betsy Markey and others the lifting -- repealing the exemption that insurance companies have on health insurance and the antitrust laws for health insurance -- 406-19, a very strong message that, yes, the insurance companies need to be reined in. So put us down on that side of the ledger.
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Now, most folks just aren’t that lucky -- particularly in today’s economy when many people aren’t just working one job but are having to work two or three to get by, or they’re working longer hours, or they’re out of a job and they can’t afford to be choosy about things like flexibility and benefits.
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Many of you here represent companies and workplaces that are already doing just that -- embracing telecommuting, flextime, compressed work weeks, job sharing, flexible start and end times, and helping your employees generally find quality childcare and eldercare. And if you’re doing this not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because you’ve found that what’s good for your workers and is good for your families can be good for your bottom lines and your shareholders as well, then you need to spread the word.
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And just a few months after taking office, I also gathered the leaders of the world’s largest automakers, the heads of labor unions, environmental advocates, and public officials from California and across the country to reach a historic agreement to raise fuel economy standards in cars and trucks. And tomorrow, after decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be finalized, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump.
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All right, so that’s a third of the Recovery Act. Another third went to helping folks get back on their feet by extending unemployment benefits and making COBRA cheaper. I mean, I can’t tell you how many people I talk to -- it’s tough enough losing your job. It’s a lot tougher if you lose your job, and your COBRA payments, the payments to keep your health care from when you were on the job, are more than you can ever afford. So then you lose your health care at the same time as you’re losing your job. And the COBRA basically subsidized 65 percent of those costs. And it meant a lot of people even when they lost their job were able to keep their health care and, through unemployment benefits, keep the lights on until they were able to get back on their feet.
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Now, I don’t know where they were over the last 10 years, why they weren’t protesting and all that. That’s fine. I’m the President -- the buck stops with me. And we did have to add -- we did have to add short term to the deficit to deal with the economic crisis. All that unemployment benefits, those COBRA extensions, et cetera, that cost money. But we’ve also taken real concrete steps to address the long-term deficits that loom over our future.
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And each new wind farm has the potential to create hundreds of construction jobs, and dozens of permanent local jobs in communities just like Fort Madison. Robert -- we were talking about the fact that -- who’s catering the food here at the factory? That's suddenly a whole bunch of business for the local grocers. The folks who are installing the electricity here -- additional work. So there’s a ripple effect that occurs.
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We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for students and parents paying for college. And all of this -- not only did this help those individual families, but it increased purchasing power and spending power for businesses all across the country. And then we extended unemployment benefits and we made COBRA cheaper for folks who had lost their jobs. And then we helped give help to the states. And Pat Quinn will tell you, because of the federal assistance that was provided, we averted some massive layoffs of teachers and police officers and firefighters all across the country.
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I’ve said many times that the recession we’re emerging from was primarily caused by a lack of responsibility and accountability from Wall Street to Washington. It’s part of the reason our economy nearly collapsed. It’s what led to countless home foreclosures, the failure of community banks and small businesses, and a cascade of job losses that have left millions of Americans out of work. And that's why I made passage of Wall Street reform one of my top priorities as President -– so that a crisis like this does not happen again.
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As we continue to emerge from this recession, this reform is one important step that will strengthen our economy. And despite the ups and downs associated with a recovery, that economy is getting stronger by the day. It’s an economy that’s growing again. Last month, we added jobs -- the fourth straight month of job growth and the largest increase in four years. And we’re working closely with our G20 partners around the world to ensure that growth is balanced and sustained.
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And that’s what I want to talk to you about tonight –- because reviving our economy remains the central challenge that we’re facing today. I don’t have to tell you folks here in California, this state has been hit as hard as any state with economic troubles over the past few years. Jobs have been lost in heartbreaking numbers up and down the coast. The housing crisis hit the state with a vengeance. The budget problems have put a further strain on people here at a time when they really need help, and that forces the state government to make painful choices about where to spend, where to save.
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We also provided relief for those hardest hit -- who not only needed help, but would most likely use the relief to generate more economic activity. So we extended unemployment benefits for more than 3 million California residents and made COBRA cheaper for people who’d lost their jobs so they could keep their health care for their families. We provided $250 in relief to more than 5 million California seniors -- many whose life savings had taken a big hit in the financial crisis. And we provided emergency assistance to our governors to prevent teachers and police officers and firefighters from being laid off as a result of state budget shortfalls. At a time when California is facing a fiscal crisis, we know that this has saved the jobs of tens of thousands of educators and other needed public servants just in this state. And what was true in California was true all across the country.
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The G20 leaders renewed our commitment, made in Pittsburgh, to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. The United States has laid out our plans for achieving this goal, and we’re urging our G20 partners to do so as well. This would be one of the most important steps we can take to create clean energy jobs, increase our energy security and address the threat of climate change.
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And that’s why I’ve been fighting, in addition to everything we’ve done, for additional steps to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing. We want an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who lost their job through no fault of their own. We want to help small business owners get the loans they need to keep their doors open and hire more workers. We want relief for struggling states so they don’t have to lay off thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers.
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So already -- already we’ve provided entrepreneurs and small business owners with tax credits and loan guarantees that’s led to 720,000 clean energy jobs -- will lead to over 700,000 jobs in 2012. These are good-paying, middle-class, American jobs. I’ve seen them. I’ve gone to wind turbine plants where they’re creating wind turbines, and gone to solar plants where they’re making the latest generation of solar panels. And we’ve created an entire new advanced battery industry here in the United States. So where we were only getting 2 percent of that market, we’re now going to be getting 40 percent of that market. That was all done through the Recovery Act.
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And part of the thing that you guys will discover, your generation, but it’s already true for the generation that’s now entering into the workforce, it used to be you went to work at one job and you might keep that job for 30 years. Now, because the economy moves so fast, you might go into one industry and the industry might disappear 10 years later and you’ve got to retrain for a new industry.
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And so not only do we want to make sure that you have the money you need for college in those first four years, or first two if you’re going to community college, but you have the opportunity for life-long learning, so that a worker who is 35 or 40 wants to suddenly make a career change, or suddenly they’ve got new computers and equipment in their plant and they’ve got to retrain, that they’ve got an opportunity to get that training so that they can keep on upgrading their skills, get more money, get a higher paycheck, get more job security.
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But ultimately, our goal is to make sure the people who are looking for a job can find a job. And that's why it’s so important for the Senate to pass the additional steps that I’ve asked for to cut taxes and expand lending for America’s small businesses, our most important engine for hiring and for growth. And a small business jobs bill that contains these measures may come up for a final vote in the Senate in the next few days.
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Now, last night, after a series of partisan delays, the Senate took an important step forward by supporting a lending fund in the overall small business jobs bill. I want to thanks Senators Mary Landrieu and George Lemieux for their leadership and advocacy on behalf of the millions of small business people for whom this will make a meaningful difference. I was heartened that Senator LeMieux and Senator George Voinovich crossed party lines to help pass this lending provision last night, and I hope we can now finish the job and pass the small business jobs plan without delay and without additional partisan wrangling.
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So HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan have worked together to improve access to affordable housing and community supports and independent living arrangements for people with disabilities. And we continued a program that successfully helps people with disabilities transition to the community of their choice. And I’m proud of the work that the Department of Justice is doing to enforce Olmstead across the country.
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And we can’t afford to stand by as our dependence on foreign oil deepens, as we keep on pumping out the deadly pollutants that threaten our air and our water and the lives and livelihoods of our people. And we can’t stand by as we let China race ahead to create the clean energy jobs and industries of the future. We should be developing those renewable energy sources, and creating those high-wage, high-skill jobs right here in the United States of America.
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So all told, these and other steps are making a difference. But when you listen to the struggles that small business owners are still facing, it’s clear that we need to do more. And that’s why I’m urging the Senate to approve a jobs bill that will do two big things for small businesses: cut taxes and make more loans available. That’s what Dave and Carl and Theo and Brian and Tom and Catherine tell me they can use. And that’s what I’ve heard from small businesses all across America.
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It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college. It’s an economic issue when eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. It’s an economic issue when countries that out-educate us today are going to out-compete us tomorrow.
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And my answer to people who have playing politics the past year and a half is, they should come to this plant. They should go to any of the dozen new battery factories, or the new electrical vehicle manufacturers, or the new wind turbine makers, or the solar plants that are popping up all over this country, and they should have to explain why they think these clean energy jobs are better off being made in Germany or China or Spain, instead of right here in the United States.
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And these ideas shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican ideas. They are common-sense ideas. And yet, most of the Republicans in Congress voted no on just about every one of these policies. Do you remember when I was running, we had a little slogan -- “Yes, we can.” These guys’ slogan is, “No, we can’t.” No on closing loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas. No on the tax cuts for small businesses. No on the clean energy jobs. No on the railroad and highway projects.
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These steps and others are making some difference. But when you listen to these three business owners and you talk to small business owners across the country, it’s clear that we’ve got to do more. And that’s why I’m urging the Senate once again to approve a jobs bill that will do two big things for small businesses: cut more taxes and make available more loans. That’s what folks like the three people standing behind me say would be helpful. That’s what I’ve heard from small business owners across America.
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So when Congress reconvenes, this jobs bill will be the first business out of the gate, and I ask Senate Republicans to drop their efforts to block it. I believe we can work together to get this done for the folks standing beside me, and for small businesses, their employees, and communities that depend on them all across the country.
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And the same is true when it comes to fighting for jobs and opportunity for the people of this state. You’ve seen her go to bat to keep Boeing jobs and aerospace jobs right here in Washington. You’ve seen her fight for clean energy jobs and new infrastructure jobs right here in Washington. She’s a senator who still flies across the country every weekend to come home, to listen -- to listen to you, the cares and concerns of her constituents. So this is -- this is the kind of person you want representing you. Especially in a time like this, this is the kind of leader you need. The country needs Patty.
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Patty was in the lead on all these measures. And all these reforms make America more competitive in the 21st century. They move us forward. And on each of these reforms, we reached out to Democrats and Republicans for ideas and support. But in just about every instance -- I’m sure there’s an exception that's escaping my mind -- in almost every instance, Republicans in Congress said no. No on help for small businesses. No on middle-class tax cuts. No on clean energy jobs. No on making college more affordable. No on Wall Street reform.
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One of the problems we’ve had for a lot of young people is they go to college, training for a job, thinking that their job -- or thinking there’s a job out there, and actually the economy has moved on. And what we need to do is tailor people’s education so that they are linked up with businesses who say, we need this many engineers, or we need this kind of technical training, and we’ll help design what that training is -- so that when that person goes to college and they’re taking out some of those loans to go to college, they know at the end of the road there’s actually going to be a job available to them.
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And these reforms, all these reforms taken together, are going to make America more competitive in the 21st century. They move us forward. And on each of these reforms, we reached out to Democrats and Republicans for ideas and for support. But I have to tell you in just about every instance, almost every Republican in Congress said no. No on help for small businesses. No on middle-class tax cuts. No on clean energy jobs. No on making college more affordable. No on Wall Street reform.
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And if you’ll join Alex Sink, and if you’ll join Kendrick Meek, and you join me to build a future where all our kids are getting educated, and small businesses are flourishing because of their ideas and their ingenuity, and we're creating clean energy jobs all across America -- if you’ll join me in building a future that thinks about more than just politics, thinks about how are we going to meet this solemn obligation we have to those who ae coming after us -- I'm absolutely positive that the 21st century is going to be the American Century, just like the 20th.
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All these reforms will make America more competitive in the 21st century. All these reforms are helping to move us forward. And on each of these reforms, we reached out to Democrats and Republicans for ideas and support. But in just about every instance, almost every Republican in Congress said no. They said no to help for small businesses. They’re still saying no. They said no on middle-class tax cuts. This is supposed to be the party of tax cuts -- said no when it came to tax cuts for folks who needed them. No on clean energy jobs right here in Ohio and across the country. No on making college more affordable. No on Wall Street reform.
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So because of all of you -- all the advocates, all the organizers who are here today, folks standing behind me who’ve worked so hard, who never gave up hope -- you are all leading the way toward a better future for this city with innovative approaches to fight poverty and improve health care, reduce crime, and create opportunities for young people. Because of you, New Orleans is coming back.
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We’re tackling the corruption and inefficiency that has long plagued the New Orleans Housing Authority. We’re helping homeowners rebuild and making it easier for renters to find affordable options. And we’re helping people to move out of temporary homes. You know, when I took office, more than three years after the storm, tens of thousands of families were still stuck in disaster housing -- many still living in small trailers that had been provided by FEMA. We were spending huge sums of money on temporary shelters when we knew it would be better for families, and less costly for taxpayers, to help people get into affordable, stable, and more permanent housing. So we’ve helped make it possible for people to find those homes, and we’ve dramatically reduced the number of families in emergency housing.
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But we have to do more. And there’s currently a jobs bill before Congress that would do two big things for small business owners: cut more taxes and make available more loans. It would help them get the credit they need, and eliminate capital gains taxes on key investments so they have more incentive to invest right now. And it would accelerate $55 billion of tax relief to encourage American businesses, small and large, to expand their investments over the next 14 months.
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During that same period of time, job growth was the most sluggish that it’s been since World War II. So part of the reason I decided to run for President was because we had all these problems that we hadn’t been dealing with for a long time, even before the crisis hit, that we had to deal with -- if we want to stay competitive for the 21st century. And the number one issue in terms of us succeeding as an economy is going to be how well we educate and how well we train our kids. Nothing else comes close.
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Homeless veterans. The notion that we’ve got somebody who served our country and they’re now on the streets, they don’t have a house? So we’ve said we’re going to have zero tolerance for homeless veterans. We are going to do everything we can to make sure that every single person who has served our country, that they’ve got proper medical care and they’ve got a roof over their heads. And oftentimes that means counseling. And the irony is if you make the investments early, then it turns out that they’re less expensive over the long term.
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I guess what my commentary comes down to is, as the government gets more and more involved in business and gets more involved in taxes to pay for an awful lot of programs, what you’re finding is you’re strangling those job-creation vehicles that are available -- you’re sort of strangling the engine that does create the jobs. We have jobs that we offer, I mean, regularly. There’s always an opportunity for somebody that wants to work hard. I don’t care what the background is. I don’t care what the health level, what the education is, or where they came from.
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The single most important thing I can do to drive the poverty rate down is to grow the economy. What has really increased poverty is folks losing their jobs and being much more vulnerable. So everything we can do to provide tax breaks for small businesses that are starting up, to make sure that we are encouraging -- for example, trying to accelerate investment in plants and equipment this year, and letting people write it off more quickly so that companies that are on the sidelines that are thinking about investing, they say, you know what, why don’t we go ahead and take the plunge now and start hiring now, instead of later -- all that can make a big difference in terms of growing the economy, reducing the unemployment rate. That’ll reduce the poverty rate.
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There’s one candidate who fought for and helped pass the most progressive and largest middle-class tax cut in history. There’s only one candidate who is fighting to create thousands of construction jobs all throughout California, rebuilding its roads and its bridges and its highways so that this great state has the best infrastructure in the world.
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And just talking to her, you can tell that this is somebody who understands what it means to work hard and to raise a family. And both Tom and I know what it’s like to see our families struggle once in a while. And we know that government doesn’t have all the answers to our problems. And we believe government should be lean and it should be efficient. And we believe that job growth is going to come from the private sector, and that each of us have responsibilities to take individual initiative to make it.
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I just took a tour with Bob and saw a little bit of what you guys do here, saw the workers turning raw metal into sheets, cutting it into shapes, banging it into finished products. Everybody here is proud of what they do, and it shows in the great work that you do. This is a company with a proud history. Paul Stromberg, a former Navy metalsmith, founded it in 1940. In 1958, a young former Marine -- Bob -- came on as chief engineer. And nearly 30 years later, Bob bought the company. Today, it is in its 70th year of operation, it is employee-owned, it continues to grow. We’ve got a unionized workforce that -- where folks who put in a hard day’s work get a living wage that allows them to support a family. This is a community business where even during downturns in tough times people are looking out for each other.
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Our automakers are in the midst of their strongest period of job growth in more than a decade. Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the industry has created more than 75,000 new jobs. For the first time in six years, Ford, GM and Chrysler are all operating at a profit. In fact, last week, GM announced its best quarter in over 11 years. And most importantly, American workers are back at the assembly line manufacturing the high-quality, fuel-efficient, American-made cars of tomorrow, capable of going toe to toe with any other manufacturer in the world.
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I remember coming to Kokomo a little over two years ago. Joe will remember this. Some of you might have been here. What was happening here reflected what was happening all over the country, all over this region. For a decade or more, families had felt a growing sense of economic insecurity. A lot of manufacturing had left the area. And then a recession started taking hold, and folks were seeing job losses and facing new hardships.
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To bring Kokomo back, to bring the automobile industry back, we knew we had to change things. We couldn’t just keep doing the things the way we did. We knew the auto industry had to get leaner, had to get tougher, had to be more competitive. And we insisted that they did. And now you see the result -- an old industry adapting to a whole new era, competing again, leading again, and most importantly, hiring again. Hiring again.
, I know you know this, but the last year of the last outfit we succeeded, they lost 461,000 automobile-related jobs. And so far we’ve created almost 75,000 new jobs, and a lot more to come.
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John J. Sweeney. As a champion for the American worker, John J. Sweeney has strengthened our families, our economy and our country. The son of Irish immigrants, he worked his way up in the labor movement, serving as president of the Service Employees International Union and president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, all the while reaffirming our nation’s commitment to rewarding the enduring values of hard work and responsibility. The United States proudly honors John Sweeney for a lifetime of courageous service on behalf of working people.
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We talked about the fact that people were encouraged by the investments we’re making in clean energy, but one of the most important things we heard could be done -- and this is something that Steve is going to be taking up with his Startup America -- is creating networking opportunities in particular fields and in particular clusters because oftentimes it’s the contacts that you make in that networking process that may open up job opportunities. And you know what? That doesn’t cost the U.S. Treasury anything to set up but may make all the difference in terms of success.
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We’re expanding the clean energy partnerships that are key to creating green jobs and addressing climate change, which is evident in the glacier melt in this region. As a member of the Energy and Climate Partnership for the Americas that I proposed, Chile is already sharing its expertise with solar with the region.
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And we’re coming together, as a hemisphere, to create clean energy jobs and pursue more secure and sustainable energy futures. And if anybody doubts the urgency of climate change, they look -- they should look no further than the Americas -- from the stronger storms in the Caribbean, to glacier melt in the Andes, to the loss of forests and farmland across the region.
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Companies can locate anywhere today, and they’re going to choose to locate in those places where they’ve got the most well-educated, best-trained workforce, because then that saves them money. They don’t have to re-train people. They know that whoever they hire they’re going to have good math skills and good science skills and good communication skills. So that’s a huge competitive advantage for any state in the country. And it’s important, I think, for you to make sure that all your state and local officials know this is something that you’re paying attention to.
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So we’ve made enormous progress, but those letters tell me that we haven’t made enough. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do to continue to lower the unemployment rate and grow the economy. We’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that we get control over a deficit and debt that is a serious threat to our long-term future. And we’ve got to do it in a way that ensures that we’re making the investments that allow us to be competitive in the 21st century -- investments in education, investments in infrastructure, investments in basic research and science, which have always been the hallmark of a dynamic American economy.
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Remarks by the President on the Critical Role the Manufacturing Sector Plays in the American Economy
Now, we also know that strengthening our manufacturing sector requires workers getting the skills and training they need. Today, there are more than four job-seekers for every job opening in America. Every one job, there are four folks looking for work. But when it comes to the high-tech fields, the opposite is true: Businesses say they’re having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill the openings that they have.
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We have to have an energy policy in this country. We still don’t have one, which is why so many people around the country are so vulnerable to changes in the price of oil. And so what we’ve done through the Recovery Act and through clean energy programs all across the country is making sure that clean energy jobs are created here in the United States and we’re starting to create a more efficient transportation sector so that we can start weaning ourselves off of dependence on foreign oil.
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Well, first of all, I have to say that gentrification has been a problem in some communities. But right now, frankly, that would probably be a problem that a lot of communities would welcome if there was a lot of investment going on. We’re probably seeing in a lot of cities around the country the reverse problem, which is no investment, people not building new homes, young people not moving back into some of these communities and it's emptying out. So as problems go for cities, this is probably not a bad problem to have because it means the city is growing and attracting new businesses and new energy.
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Well, there are some things that we can do without Congress, and we’re trying to do them. So, for example, I set up a jobs council made up of a lot of employers, both small businesses but also some of the biggest companies in the world, and asked them what can we be doing to encourage job growth. And they’ve come up with a series of recommendations, some of which don’t involve Congress at all, and we’re trying to implement them.
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Q Some of those programs are dependent upon the unemployment rate. My question is, with the unemployment rate, you’re only counting the people who are actually on unemployment. It’s not counting the people who worked a temporary job that was not eligible for unemployment or the people who were on unemployment and now that unemployment has ran out. So those people are not being counted.
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So that affects specifically the FEMA funding that our Henry County gets. Henry County is not eligible for the FEMA money. They get the set-aside. And this year, because of the unemployment rate, we were not even able to get those set-aside funds. So I think that’s kind of a skewed number by using the unemployment rate.
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We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, got the economy moving again, created 2 million private sector jobs over the last 17 months. But over the last six months, we've had a run of bad luck.
Everything in this proposal, everything in this legislation, everything in the American Jobs Act ... will be paid for.
Everything in this jobs bill has been supported in the past by Republicans and Democrats. Everything in this jobs bill is paid for. The idea for a big boost in construction is supported by the AFL-CIO, but it’s also supported by the Chamber of Commerce. Those two don't get along on much, but they agree we should rebuild America.
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But as a nation, we also have an obligation to make sure that all of our children have the resources they need to learn, because they’re spending a lot of time outside of the household. They’re spending the bulk of their waking hours in school. And that means that we’ve got to make sure we’ve got quality schools, good teachers, the latest textbooks, the right technology. And that, by the way, is something we can do something about right away. That’s why I sent the jobs bill to Congress that would put thousands of teachers back to work all across the country and modernize at least 35,000 schools.
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Right now we’ve got millions of construction workers out of a job. So this bill says, let’s put those men and women back to work in their own communities rebuilding our roads and our bridges. Let’s give these folks a job rebuilding our schools. Let’s put these folks to work rehabilitating foreclosed homes in the hardest-hit neighborhoods of Detroit and Atlanta and Washington. This is a no-brainer.
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Why should we let China build the newest airports, the fastest railroads? Tell me why our children should be allowed to study in a school that’s falling apart? I don’t want that for my kids or your kids. I don’t want that for any kid. You tell me how it makes sense when we know that education is the most important thing for success in the 21st century. Let’s put our people back to work doing the work America needs done. Let’s pass this jobs bill.
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We’ve got millions of unemployed Americans and young people looking for work but running out of options. So this jobs bill says, let’s give them a pathway, a new pathway back to work. Let’s extend unemployment insurance so that more than six million Americans don’t lose that lifeline. But let’s also encourage reforms that help the long-term unemployed keep their skills sharp and get a foot in the door. Let’s give summer jobs for low-income youth that don’t just give them their first paycheck but arm them with the skills they need for life.
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These Republicans in Congress like to talk about job creators. How about doing something real for job creators? Pass this jobs bill, and every small business owner in America, including 100,000 black-owned businesses, will get a tax cut. You say you’re the party of tax cuts. Pass this jobs bill, and every worker in America, including nearly 20 million African American workers, will get a tax cut. Pass this jobs bill, and prove you’ll fight just as hard for a tax cut for ordinary folks as you do for all your contributors.
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They say it kills jobs -- oh, that's going to kill jobs. We’re not proposing anything other than returning to the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans that existed under Bill Clinton. I played golf with Bill Clinton today. I was asking him, how did that go? Well, it turns out we had a lot of jobs. The well-to-do, they did even better. So did the middle class. We lifted millions out of poverty. And then we cut taxes for folks like me, and we went through a decade of zero job growth.
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About two weeks ago, I sent to Congress a bill called the American jobs bill. Some of you might have heard about this. Everything in it is the kind of proposal that's been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. Everything in it will be paid for. It will put people back to work. It will put more money into the pockets of working people. Congress should pass this bill right away.
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And that’s one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You’ve got skilled people with experience in an industry. That industry changes, and you were fortunate enough to be able to move. Some folks, because of the decline in the housing industry, are having trouble with mobility in finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity.
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So that’s part of the reason why one of the things that we’re also proposing, separate and apart from the jobs bill, is we’ve got to do a better job of retraining workers so that they, in their second or third or fourth careers, are able to go back to a community college, maybe take a short six-month course or a one-year course that trains them on the kinds of skills that are going to be needed for jobs that are actually hiring, or businesses that are actually hiring right now.
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As Jeff said, I'm from Chicago, recently unemployed, and my fear is that the longer I'm unemployed the harder it is going to be for me to get employed. It seems that nowadays employers are hiring people who are currently employed because they're in touch with their skill set. What programs do you think should be in place for individuals such as myself to keep in touch with our skills, be in demand, marketable and eventually get hired?
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We, as part of the American Jobs Act, are actually supporting legislation in Congress that says employers can't discriminate against somebody just because they're currently unemployed -- because that doesn’t seem fair. That doesn’t make any sense. But the most important thing probably we can do for you is just make sure that the unemployment rate generally goes down, the labor market gets a little tighter so that employers start looking beyond just the people who are currently employed to folks who have terrific skills and just have been out of the market for a while.
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We’ve also then started to put together a network of business, and I actually asked for a pledge from the private sector, and we’ve got a commitment that 100,000 veterans will be hired over the next several years. And that creates a network -- and maybe they’ll end up using Linkedin, I don’t know. But what we want to do is to make sure that, whether it’s the certification process, whether it’s the job search process, whether it’s resume preparation, whether it’s using electronic networking, that we’re using the huge capacity of the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense, and all the federal agencies, to link up together more effectively.
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So we've done a lot. But here is the challenge I have for all of you. We've got so much more work to do. Yes, we stabilized the economy, but at a level where the unemployment rate was way, way too high. And we still have all sorts of international challenges that we're facing, from Europe to Asia. So we're still going to have to do a lot to restructure our economy to meet the competitive challenges of the 21st century. And that means we've got to continue to invest in cutting-edge research that enables the kind of explosion of technology that's taken place here in Silicon Valley. It means that we've continually got to revamp our education system. It means that we've got to make sure that we're rebuilding the best infrastructure in the world.
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And that's why I need your help. That's why I need your help. Because the fact of the matter is, is that too many people are hurting out there right now, and we've got to take some steps right now. So before I even talk to you about the campaign, I need your help to make sure that we get this jobs bill passed that puts people back to work.
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Every idea that we have in this jobs bill has, in the past, been supported by Democrats and Republicans. Rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our airports and our schools -- that's not a partisan idea, that's part of what made America an economic superpower. We’ve got all kinds of workers out there who are unemployed because of the housing bubble burst. We could put them to work right now rebuilding America. It will be good for the economy now, but it will also be good for our economic future.
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We need to put teachers back in the classroom. We have -- even in the midst of this economic crisis, we've actually created 2 million jobs over the last couple of years. The problem is we've also lost half a million jobs, mostly in state and local government, and a huge proportion of those are teachers that should be in our classrooms right now. We've got to change that, and the jobs bill would put people back in the classroom where they belong.
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This jobs bill provides a tax cut not only to every working family in America, which will put more money in their pockets and allows them to make sure that they can buy all the great products that are created here in Silicon Valley -- but it also cuts taxes for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It cuts taxes for companies that are hiring new workers or who are providing their workers raises. And it provides a tax credit for those who are hiring veterans.
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There's no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge. Help us rebuild America. Help us put construction workers back to work. Pass this bill.
So there’s a vision out there to be had, and we’re going to have to drive towards it. Now, short term, what we need to do is just put people back to work. And that’s why a couple of weeks ago, I said, pass this jobs bill now. We can put people to work rebuilding America, rebuilding our schools and our roads and our bridges. Construction workers are out of work. Contractors are begging for work -- they’re able to come on and finish a project on time and under budget. The interest rates are low. Now is the time to do it.
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Look, pass this jobs bill, and right here in Colorado, thousands of construction workers will have a job again. This is one of the most common-sense ideas out there. All over the country there are roads and bridges and schools just like Lincoln that are in need of repair. One of the reasons we came here was this is the fastest-growing school in one of the fastest-growing school districts in Colorado.
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Why should we let China build the newest airports, the fastest railroads? We should build them right here in America, right here in Denver, right here in Colorado. There is work to be done. There are workers ready to do it. So tell Congress: Pass this jobs bill right away.
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Let’s pass this jobs bill and put teachers back in the classroom where they belong. Places like South Korea, they’re adding teachers in droves to prepare their kids for the global economy. We’re laying off our teachers left and right. All across the country, budget cuts are forcing superintendents to make choices they don’t want to make.
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If Congress passes this jobs bill, companies will get new tax credits for hiring America’s veterans. Think about it -- these men and women, they leave their careers, they leave their families. They are protecting us and our freedom. And the last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home. That’s why Congress needs to pass this bill -- to make it easier for businesses to hire our veterans and use the skills that they’ve developed protecting us.
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If Congress doesn’t act -- if Congress fails to pass this bill -- middle-class families will get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time. We can’t let that happen. Republicans say they’re the party of tax cuts. Well, let them prove it. Tell them to fight just as hard for tax cuts for working Americans as they fight for the wealthiest Americans. Tell them to pass this jobs bill right now.
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Last week, I laid out a plan that would not only pay for the jobs bill but would begin to actually reduce our debt over time. It’s a plan that says if we want to create jobs and close the deficit, then we’ve got to not only make some of the cuts that we’ve made -- tough cuts that, with the help of Mark and Michael, we were able to get done -- but we’ve also got to ask the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.
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And so what we said was, look, let us, right now, focus on putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done. Let’s make sure that construction workers who have been laid off, let’s put them back to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our schools. America used to have the best infrastructure. That's what made us an economic superpower. And right now we’ve got millions of folks who are out of work and ready to get on the job, let’s put them back to work right now rebuilding America. Pass the jobs bill. I need your help to tell Congress to pass this jobs bill right now.
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But the jobs bill doesn't just talk about building stuff. Look, in South Korea right now they are hiring teachers in droves because they understand that if we’re going to be successful in a 21st century economy, then we’ve got to make sure our kids are trained. And yet, here in America, we’re laying off teachers in droves right here in California. It doesn't make any sense. It’s unfair to our kids. It is unfair to our future. And if we pass this jobs bill, we can put teachers back in the classroom where they belong. Pass this jobs bill!
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Some people in Congress may think that the only way to settle our differences is wait till the next election. I’ve got news for them. The next election is 14 months away, and a lot of folks out there can’t wait. A lot of people out there can’t wait. They’re living paycheck to paycheck, day to day. They need help now. And that’s why we need to pass this jobs bill now. And I’m going to need your help. I’m going to need your help.
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We need to work short term and we’re going to need to work long term. Because, after we pass this jobs bill, we’re still going to have work to do. We’re still going to have to reform our education system. We’re still going to have to make sure that we’ve got an immigration system in this country that is fair -- and, yes, secures our borders, but also makes sure that folks who are here aren’t living in the shadows. We’ve still got to make sure that we have an energy policy that is smart for our pocketbooks and frees ourselves from dependence on foreign oil -- and make sure that we’re doing something about climate change.
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MS. MEDINA: So my first question: , your proposed jobs bill addresses tax breaks for small businesses and the repair of infrastructure like roads and bridges. But that seems like a short-term solution to a much larger problem. With the unemployment rate among Latinos at 11.3 percent across the nation, what do you plan to do for the remainder of your term, and if reelected, to ensure that large factories and Fortune 1000 companies begin hiring again?
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So a lot of the work has to be done in terms of reforming how education is delivered. We need to improve the construction of schools. My jobs bill included building and repairing schools. And especially in the Latino community where there's a large youth population, you're seeing overcrowded schools, kids learning in trailers. That's not sending a good signal to people about the importance of education. So passing this jobs bill can be very important in terms of improving the school, the physical plant, but also putting teachers back in the classroom.
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Last week, for the second time this month, Republicans in the Senate blocked a jobs bill from moving forward -- a bill that would have meant nearly 400,000 teachers, firefighters, and first responders being back on the job. It was the kind of proposal that in the past, at least, Republicans and Democrats have supported. It was paid for, and it was supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people. But they still said no.
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If Congress passes this jobs bill, we can get Project Rebuild moving right away. If Congress acts, then people in Nevada and all across the country can get significant relief. But remember what I said. We can’t just wait for Congress. Until they act, until they do what they need to do, we’re going to act on our own, because we can’t wait for Congress to help our families and our economy.
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Now, let me just say this in closing. These steps that I’ve highlighted today, they're not going to solve all the problems in the housing market here in Nevada or across the country. Given the magnitude of the housing bubble and the huge inventory of unsold homes in places like Nevada, it's going to take time to solve these challenges. We still need Congress to pass the jobs bill. We still need them to move forward on Project Rebuild so we can have more homes like this, and wonderful families having an opportunity to live out the American Dream.
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But even if we do all those things, the housing market is not going to be fully healed until the unemployment rate comes down and the inventory of homes on the market also comes down. But that's no excuse for inaction. That's no excuse for just saying “no” to Americans who need help right now. It's no excuse for all the games and the gridlock that we’ve been seeing in Washington.
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People out here don’t have a lot of time or a lot of patience for some of that nonsense that's been going on in Washington. If any member of Congress thinks there are no unemployed workers or no down-on-their-luck neighborhoods in their district that would benefit from the proposals in the jobs bill, then they better think again. They should come and talk to the families out here in Nevada. These members of Congress who aren’t doing the right thing right now, they still have a chance to take meaningful action to put people back to work, and to help middle-class families and homeowners like the Bonillas.
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So we've got huge challenges in places like Nevada. We've got a jobs bill out there that is paid for and addresses those challenges. The question is, why, despite all the support -- despite all the experts who say this jobs bill couldn't come at a more important time, when so many people are hurting -- why the Republicans in Washington have said no? They keep voting against it. Now, maybe it's just because I am the one sponsoring it. I don't know. But last week, we had a separate vote on a part of the jobs bill that would put 400,000 teachers, firefighters and police officers back on the job, paid for by asking people who make more than $1 million to pay one-half of 1 percent in additional taxes. For somebody making $1.1 million a year, that's an extra $500. Five hundred bucks. And with that, we could have saved $400,000 jobs.
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But because things are tough, because folks are struggling, because the unemployment rate is still way too high, a lot of folks out there have lost confidence in Washington’s ability to act. And so we’re going to have an uphill battle. This is going to be a different campaign than it was in 2008 -- because I didn't have gray hair then. I was new and fresh. And everybody had "Hope" posters. You know.
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And we are fighting hard to break through and have the decency of the American people reflected in the decisions we make. Right now, we’ve got a big debate about a jobs bill that we’re putting forward. Obviously, the biggest problem we have right now is we stabilized the economy but with an unemployment rate that’s way too high. And we’re going to have to make a lot of progress if we’re going to be able to put people back to work.
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You've got leaders like Michael Bennet and Mark Udall and Diana DeGette that are looking out for you. But the problem is there are some in Washington -- (audience interruption) -- there are some in Washington who don't seem to share this same sense of urgency. Last week, for the second time this month, Republicans in the Senate blocked a jobs bill from moving forward.
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So the truth is the only way we can attack our economic challenges on the scale that’s necessary -- the only way we can put hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people, back to work is if Congress is willing to cooperate with the executive branch and we are able to do some bold action -- like passing the jobs bill. That’s what we need.
And that’s why I am going to keep forcing these senators to vote on common-sense, paid-for jobs proposals. And I’m going to need you to help send them the message. You don’t need to tell Michael Bennet -- he's already on the page. But I’m going to need you guys to be out there calling and tweeting and all the stuff you do.
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Now, three years later, it’s clear that Washington has not gotten the message yet. That’s why, over the last month, I’ve been hammering at Congress to see if they can actually do something for folks who are hurting out here. That’s why we introduced a jobs bill that could actually start putting people back to work right now.
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Last week we had a separate vote on a part of the jobs bill that would put 400,000 teachers and firefighters and police officers back on the job. And it was paid for by asking people who make over a million dollars a year to pay one-half of 1 percent more in taxes. So for someone making $1.1 million a year, that’s an extra $500 that would save 400,000 jobs all across the country. And not just any jobs, but jobs that are vital to the well-being of our kids and our communities.
Most people I know who make more than a million dollars a year would make that contribution willingly. They’re patriots. They want to see America strong. But all the Republicans in the Senate, 100 percent, voted no.
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Now, unfortunately, Washington doesn't seem to have gotten the message yet. For the last month we’ve been debating a jobs bill. We successfully stabilized an economy that was in freefall. We prevented ourselves from going into a great depression and seeing a financial meltdown. But unemployment is brutally high.
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So I put forward a jobs bill that incorporated ideas that traditionally have gotten support from Democrats and Republicans. We said, you know what, all these construction workers that got laid off after the housing bubble burst, how about putting them to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our schools all across the country? Not only is it good for our workers, but it’s good for our economy. America became an economic superpower because we knew how to build things. We built the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Hoover Dam, and the Interstate Highway System. And now, we’re settling for China having the best high-speed rail, and Singapore having better airports? When did that happen?
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When I took office, we had already lost 4 million jobs in the previous quarter and lost another 4 million in the three months when I first came into office.
Back in September, I sent Congress a jobs bill. And in it, I proposed a tax credit for any business that hires a veteran who’s been unemployed for at least four weeks. I proposed an even bigger tax break if a business hires a veteran who’s been unemployed for at least six months. And if a business hires an unemployed veteran with a disability related to their service, I proposed doubling the tax break that we already have in place.
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And yesterday, I signed into law two new tax breaks for businesses that hire America’s vets –- because nobody who fights for America overseas should have to fight for a job when they come home. Now, I proposed these tax breaks back in September as part of my jobs bill, and thanks to folks like Jeanne Shaheen -- and some Republicans -- we actually got this part of the bill passed. We finally got them to say “yes” to taking action that will create jobs and boost this economy.
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Now, we can’t let that happen. Not right now. It would be bad for the economy. It would be bad for employment. That’s why my jobs bill extends that tax cut. In fact, it does it one better -– it expands the tax cut. Instead of a $1,000-a-year tax cut next year, the average working family would get a tax cut of more than $1,500. And that’s $1,500 that would have been taken out of your paycheck, would instead be going into your pocket. And that means you’d be spending in small businesses, and that would increase their business, which means they would potentially hire more people.
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But two months ago, I sent a particular piece of legislation to Congress called the American Jobs Act. This is a jobs bill that will put more Americans to work, put more money back in the pockets of working families. It’s contains ideas that historically have been supported by Democrats and Republicans. It’s paid for by asking our wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share. And independent economists said that it would create up to 2 million jobs, and grow the economy by as much as 2 percent. And that’s what we need right now.
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Now, here’s the problem -- there is a problem. Folks in Washington don’t seem to be getting the message. When this jobs bill came to a vote, Republicans in the Senate got together and they blocked it. They refused to even debate it. Even though polls showed that two-thirds of Americans of all political stripes supported the ideas in this bill, not one single Republican stepped up to say, this is the right thing to do.
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So let’s just take a look over the past several weeks. We said, we can’t wait. We just went ahead and started taking some steps on our own to give working Americans a leg up in a tough economy. For homeowners, I announced a new policy that will help families refinance their mortgages and save thousands of dollars. For all the young people out here -- we reformed our student loan process to make it easier for more students to pay off their debts earlier. For our veterans out here -- and I see some veterans in the crowd -- we ordered several new initiatives to help our returning heroes find new jobs and get trained for those jobs. Because you shouldn’t have to fight for a job when you come home after fighting for America -- you shouldn’t have to do that.
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And that’s why my jobs bill -- part of the American Jobs Act was to extend this tax cut for another year. In fact, it does one better. It says, let’s expand that tax cut. Instead of a $1,000 tax cut next year, the typical working family under my plan would get a tax cut of $1,500. Instead of it coming out of your paycheck, it would be going into your pocket. Now, that’s money that you can spend on a small business right here in Scranton. If you’re a small business owner, my jobs bill will cut your payroll taxes in half. So if you’ve got 50 employees making $50,000 each, you’d get a tax cut of nearly $80,000. That’s money that you can then use to hire some more workers and get this economy moving again. That’s a good thing.
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The bad news is some of those same Republicans voted “no” on my jobs bill and those tax cuts. I don’t know whether it’s just because I proposed it. I don’t know. They said “no” to cutting taxes for small business owners and working families. One of them said just two years ago that this kind of tax cut would boost job creation, and now that I’m proposing it, he said we should let it expire. I mean, what happened?
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But we need to meet the moment. We’ve got to up our game. We need to remember that we can only do that together. It starts by making education a national mission -- a national mission. Government and businesses, parents and citizens. In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class. The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. And their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. Which means we shouldn’t be laying off good teachers right now -- we should be hiring them. We shouldn’t be expecting less of our schools –- we should be demanding more. We shouldn’t be making it harder to afford college -- we should be a country where everyone has a chance to go and doesn’t rack up $100,000 of debt just because they went.
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When Bryan Ritterby was laid off from his job making furniture, he said he worried that at 55, no one would give him a second chance. But he found work at Energetx, a wind turbine manufacturer in Michigan. Before the recession, the factory only made luxury yachts. Today, it’s hiring workers like Bryan, who said, “I’m proud to be working in the industry of the future.”
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Today, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. Their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. College is the single most important investment you can make in your future. And I'm proud that all of you are making that investment.
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As Rob said, the last three years we've obviously gone through historic times, a set of historic challenges -- the worst economic crisis and financial crisis since the Great Depression, two wars, a transformation of our geopolitics. And I couldn't be prouder of the track record that we've been able to put together over the last three years -- not only in preventing us from sliding into a Great Depression, not only shifting from a situation where we were losing 800,000 jobs per month to 22 consecutive months of job growth, the highest manufacturing job growth since the '90s, the largest job growth, period, last year since 2005, passing historic health care legislation that we're in the process now of implementing, tough Wall Street reform legislation that is going to make sure that we don't see the same kind of reckless behavior that got us into this mess in the first place, along with a set of laws that are going to make sure that the values we care so deeply about are the law of the land --things like ending "don’t ask, don't tell," or making sure that people are actually getting equal pay for equal work, one of the strongest environmental records of any President in the modern era.
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At the same time, though, what we're starting to see is the incredible resilience of the American people and the American economy. So this month, we saw 250,000 jobs created. I'm sure some of it had to do with Microsoft -- (laughter.) That's a million-job swing. We've now had 23 consecutive months of job growth, about 3.7 million jobs being created, the highest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s. And you get a sense as you talk to small businesses, large businesses, people across the country, there is a sense that we may have gotten through the heaviest storms.
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Today, the unemployment rate for Americans with at least a college degree is about half the national average. Their incomes are about twice as high as those who only have a high school diploma. So this is what we should be focused on as a nation. This is what we should be talking about and debating. The countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That’s a simple fact. And if we want America to continue to be number one and stay number one, we’ve got some work to do.
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Whether you're here at a four-year college or university, or you're at a two-year community college, in today’s economy, there's no greater predictor of individual success than a good education. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. The incomes of folks with a college degree are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. A higher education is the clearest path into the middle class.
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In today’s economy, there's no greater predictor of individual success than a good education. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. Their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. Higher education, whether it's a four-year college or two years at a community college, is the clearest path we've got to the middle class.
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In today’s economy, there's no greater predictor of individual success than a good education. That's at the top. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. Their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. A higher education is the single clearest path to the middle class.
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But we’ve got a lot more to do. I won’t be satisfied until everybody can find a job that pays a living wage and allows them either to stay in the middle class, but also creates those ladders of opportunity into the middle class.
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I sent them a jobs bill that would have put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back to work repairing our roads, our bridges, schools, transit systems, along with saving the jobs of cops and teachers and firefighters, creating a new tax cut for businesses. They said no.
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And obviously, we come here at a time where -- I just want to repeat my condolences to everybody in the building and construction trades on the passing of Mark Ayers. Mark was a tremendous leader. He was a good friend. His commitment to the labor movement and to working people will leave a mark for years to come. And my thoughts and prayers are with his family. But I know that Sean is going to do an outstanding job, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors. So congratulations.
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Q Yes, thank you, . Yesterday, your friend and ally, Cory Booker said that an ad that you released, that your campaign released was nauseating. And it alleged that Romney at Bain Capital was “responsible for job losses at a Kansas City steel mill.” Is that your view that Romney is personally responsible for those job losses? Will comments from Booker and your former auto czar Steve Rattner that have criticized some of these advertisements call on you to pull back a little bit? And, generally, can you give us your sense -- three part, . Could you give us your sense of just what private equity’s role is in stemming job losses as they seek a return on investment for their investors? Thank you.
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And when you’re President, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. Your job is to think about those workers who got laid off and how are we paying for their retraining. Your job is to think about how those communities can start creating new clusters so that they can attract new businesses. Your job as President is to think about how do we set up a equitable tax system so that everybody is paying their fair share that allows us then to invest in science and technology and infrastructure, all of which are going to help us grow.
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In fact, there’s still criticism about some of the decisions we made. But one of the things we were able to do was to act forcefully to solve a lot of these problems early, which is why credit markets that were locked up started loosening up again. That's why businesses started investing again. That's why we’ve seen job growth of over 4 million jobs over the last two years. That's why corporations are making money and that's why we’ve seen strong economic growth for a long time.
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The ideas that [Republicans are] putting forward have been tried. We tried them between 2000 and 2008, and it resulted in the most sluggish job growth that we've ever seen.
But our message today is serious. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. They earn twice as much as those who don’t have a high school diploma. So whether it's at a four-year college, or a community college, or a technical program, some form of higher education, something beyond high school has never been more important. It's the surest path to finding a good job, earning a good salary, making it into the middle class.
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So Governor Romney disagrees with my vision. And his allies in Congress disagree with my vision. Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes. Not a penny more. It’s the reason -- that's the reason we haven't reached an agreement on how to reduce our deficit. That's the reason my jobs bill that would put a million more people back to work has been voted down by Republicans in Congress time and time again. It is the biggest source of gridlock in Washington, and has been over the last three years.
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We don’t need more top-down economics. What we need is a better plan for education and training -- and energy independence and infrastructure and innovation that rebuilds America. What we need is a tax code that encourages companies to create jobs and manufacturing here in the United States -- and that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more to help pay down our deficit. Listen, we don’t expect government to solve all our problems, and it shouldn’t try to solve all our problems. I learned from my mom no education policy can take the place of a parent’s love and attention -- and sometimes scolding. As a young man, I worked with a group of Catholic churches who taught me that no poverty program can make as much of a difference as the kindness and commitment and involvement of caring neighbors and friends and fellow parishioners.
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That’s the reason we haven’t reached an agreement on our deficit. It’s the reason my jobs bill that would put more than 1 million people back to work has been voted down by Republicans in the Congress again and again and again. It’s been the biggest source of gridlock in Washington for the last three years.
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Mr. Romney disagrees with this vision. His allies in Congress disagree with this vision. Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes. That’s the reason why we haven’t reached an agreement to lower our deficits. That’s the reason my jobs bill that independent economists say would put 1 million more people back to work has been voted down time and time again. It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington for the last three years.
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Now, Governor Romney disagrees with my vision. That's what democracy is all about -- we choose. His allies in Congress disagree with my vision. They’ve got a different approach. Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks folks like me or Marc Anthony -- to pay even a nickel more in taxes. That's the reason we haven’t reached an agreement on our deficit. It’s the reason my jobs bill that independent economists say would put an additional million people back to work has been voted down time and time again. It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington these last three years.
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And what’s amazing, though, when I think about it was how many people you’d meet from every walk of life all across Illinois in big cities, small towns, upstate, downstate, quads, you name it. And you’d always hear similar stories from people about their parents or their grandparents and the struggles they had gone through, and how they had been able to find a job that paid a living wage and look after their families and their kids had done a little better than they did. And those stories would resonate with me and Michelle because that was our story, that was our lives.
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And in 2008 we came together -- not just Democrats, we had independents, we had Republicans -- all who recognized that that basic bargain was starting to fray, that it was getting weaker. We’ve gone through a decade that had seen wages and incomes not go up, job growth sluggish, surpluses turning into deficits. That middle-class dream seemed like it was slipping away for too many people.
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And so our mission now is the same mission that we had in 2008. Yes, it’s to get people back to work right away and to solve some of these housing problems right away, but it’s also, how do we build an economy that lasts and works for everybody? How do we build an economy where hard work pays off -- whether you’re starting a business or punching a clock, you know that if you put in the effort, you’ll get ahead?
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And I want folks to be clear: Unemployment insurance -- unemployment benefits, they're paid for. Your employer paid for them. Directly and indirectly, you paid for them. The idea is to have that safety net because everybody once in a while can have some bad luck.
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All these issues connect. Whether it’s bringing manufacturing and construction jobs back, or protecting your health care, or making sure our kids are getting the best education, making sure our veterans are getting the care that they have earned -- all these things make up a middle-class life. They’re all central to the idea that made this country great -- that promise that if you work hard, you can get ahead.
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We do expect that, if you’re willing to put in the effort, you should be able to find a job that pays a living wage. You shouldn’t go broke just because you get sick. You should be able to send your kids to a good school. You should retire with dignity and respect -- and you should be able to provide your children and hopefully your grandchildren with opportunities that you might not even have imagined, that they’re going to do even better than you did. That’s what America is all about. That’s at the heart of the American idea.
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And all these things, whether it's bringing manufacturing or construction jobs back, or protecting your health care, or making sure your grandkids can stay on your -- their parent's health insurance plan if they don't have a job that provides health insurance, or making sure that our veterans are cared for, or making sure that young people can afford college -- all these things go back to that original idea, the idea that if you work hard, you can make it in this country. You can get ahead.
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And so, everywhere I’d go around Illinois and eventually everywhere I went as a presidential candidate, what I’d consistently see is this running thread, this core theme, this basic bargain that is at the heart of this country. And it can be described very simply -- it’s that here in America, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your last name is, no matter where you worship, here in America, if you’re willing to work hard, you can make it. Here in America, if you are acting responsibly, you can succeed. Here in America, this basic notion that if you’re willing to make an effort, you can find a job that pays a living wage and allows you to support a family, that you can get a home that you can call your own, that you can have the security that if somebody in your family gets sick you won’t go bankrupt, that you can send your kids to a good school, you can retire with some dignity and respect, and that your kids can do better than you ever imagined.
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We were losing 800,000 jobs a month when I was sworn in. Now, we've seen more than two years of job growth every single month. We're at 4.5 million new jobs. An auto industry on the brink of collapse -- we made sure that we bet on American workers and American manufacturing. And it's come roaring back. We moved to make sure that college was more affordable for young people, and that more Americans had access to health care.
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Now, over the last three and a half years we've had a lot of work to do. But because of our efforts, instead of losing 800,000 jobs per month we created 4.5 million jobs over the last several years -- half a million in manufacturing, strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s. We saved an auto industry that was on the brink of collapse. We were able to stabilize the financial system, help small businesses, and slowly the unemployment rate has begun to come down.
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Now, over the last three and a half years we've had a lot of work to do. But because of our efforts, instead of losing 800,000 jobs per month we created 4.5 million jobs over the last several years -- half a million in manufacturing, strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s. We saved an auto industry that was on the brink of collapse. We were able to stabilize the financial system, help small businesses, and slowly the unemployment rate has begun to come down.
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And what I try to remind people is that when we ran in 2008, our task was not simply to get back to where we were in 2007. Our job was to rebuild an economy where here in America, if you were willing to work hard and take responsibility for your own life, you could make it -- where you could find a job that pays a living wage so you could pay the bills and support a family, where you could have a home that you would call your own, that you weren’t bankrupt when you got sick and you could retire with dignity and respect -- and most importantly, an economy in which you knew that you could get your kid a good education and your grandchild a good education, and that they could dream bigger and do better than you ever imagined.
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Issue Position |
Romney has promised tax cuts and regulation reform as a way to encourage private-sector hiring. The former governor claims to have created tens of thousands of jobs while heading Bain Capital, a pioneering investment firm he co-founded. He has praised right-to-work laws and has been hostile toward unions.
Romney showed mild support for President Obama’s 2009 proposal to provide tax incentives for businesses that hire new workers, describing the measure as “not a terrible idea.” But he said the government could make a greater impact by cutting taxes and allowing businesses to expense equipment purchases.
The former chief executive said in his economic plan that investing in green technology doesn’t create jobs. Yet he used his executive power in Massachusetts to expedite the deployment of funds from a renewable-energy trust aimed at supporting green-technology development and direct grants to select green-energy companies.
Romney has spoken out repeatedly against unions, saying he would be willing to sign a national right-to-work law as president. Such a measure would prohibit mandatory union membership as a condition for employment at any company.
Massachusetts ranked 47th in the nation for job growth during Romney’s term as governor. He blamed his state’s lagging numbers on its tech-sector dependence and its lack of an established sales force to attract new companies when he first entered office.
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Romney's Statements (23)
President Obama has stood watch over the greatest job loss in modern American history.
Long Term Employment Is Now Worse Than the Great Depression
25 million Americans are out of work, or have stopped looking, or have only part time jobs but want full-time work. Hispanics have been hit terribly hard, with an unemployment rate that is higher than the national one. Home values have dropped more than they did during the Depression and Florida has seen some of the worst of it. National debt is almost as large as our entire economy, and we owe a huge chunk of it to China.
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Right-to-work states, those 22, have created 3 million jobs over the last 10 years. The union states have lost about half a million jobs. So right to work is the way to go if you want good jobs.
The unemployment rate has been over 8% for 33 months. Our country has been running a deficit for 36 months. And just last week, nearly 400,000 Americans filed new jobless claims.
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As the governor of Massachusetts, when I came in, jobs were being lost month after month after month. We turned that around.
The unemployment rate has been over 8% for 34 months. Over the last four years, the median American income has fallen by 10%, even as the costs of food and fuel and healthcare have risen. Americans are suffering. The poor have a safety net and the rich are doing just fine, but middle-income Americans have never seen things so bad.
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We created more jobs in Massachusetts than this president's created in the entire country.
In the business I had, we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net, taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs.
Well, I hope I get a chance to talk about the topic you began with. We'll come back to the direct attack from Speaker Gingrich in a moment, so let's go back and talk about first what you do to get the economy going. And of course we’ve spoken time and again about our tax code that's out of alignment with other nations. We’ve spoken about the fact that regulation is overwhelming us. That we need to take care of our energy resources and become energy secure. We have to open up markets and we have to crack down on China when they cheat. But I'd like to talk about something else that President Obama has been doing. He's been practicing crony capitalism. If you want to get America going again, you've got to stop the spread of crony capitalism. He gives General Motors to the UAW. He takes $500 million and sticks it into Solyndra. He stacks the labor stooges on the NLRB so they can say no to Boeing and take care of their friends in the labor movement. You go across the country with regards to energy because he has to bow to the most extreme members of the environmental movement. He turns down the Keystone Pipeline which would bring energy and jobs to America. This president is the biggest impediment to job growth in this country, and we have to replace Barack Obama to get America working again.
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Three years ago, a newly elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to borrow nearly a trillion dollars, he would hold unemployment below 8 percent.
For 36 months, the unemployment rate has been over 8 percent. 24 million of our fellow Americans are struggling to find work. There are 3 million “missing workers” who have given up on finding a job altogether. Home values gone down, foreclosures are at a record high. Our debt is too great, and our opportunities too few.
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Labor unions once served as a symbol of worker rights, fair treatment, and a growing middle class. Today, they too often represent the worst of special interests and crony capitalism.
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Freedom is becoming the victim of unbounded government appetite – and so is economic growth, job growth, and wage growth. As government takes more and more, there is less and less incentive to take risk, to invest, to innovate, and to hire.
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Freedom is the victim of unbounded government appetite – and so is economic growth, job growth, and wage growth. As government takes more and more, there is less and less incentive to take risk, to invest, to innovate, and to hire.
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The President unfortunately ... has made it harder for new businesses to start up. As a matter of fact, the number of new business start-ups per year has dropped by 100,000 per year.
We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery.
That’s a theme for another day. But two observations. First, even though job opportunities are scarce in this economy, it is not for nothing that you have spent this time preparing. Jerry Falwell, Senior, long ago observed that “You do not determine a man’s greatness by his talent or wealth, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him.” America needs your skill and talent. If we take the right course, we will see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world, and that will open new doors of opportunity for those who are prepared as you are.
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We were able to help create over 100,000 jobs. On the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto industry... so he's hardly one to point a finger.
Just compare this President’s record with Ronald Reagan’s first term. President Reagan also faced an economic crisis. In fact, in 1982, the unemployment rate peaked at nearly 11 percent. But in the two years that followed, he delivered a true recovery – economic growth and job creation were three times higher than in the Obama Economy.
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If President Obama had delivered a real recovery – a Reagan recovery – we would have five million more jobs today. The unemployment rate would be about six percent. And our economy would be at least one trillion dollars larger.
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We know our economy can’t grow if we’re mortgaging our future to pay for the big government programs of today. As President, I will rein in spending and balance the budget. And I will repeal Obamacare. We cannot afford another $2 trillion entitlement. Obamacare depresses job growth. In one study, 73 percent of business owners said that Obamacare has made it harder for them to hire people. Repealing Obamacare and replacing it will give businesses the certainty they need to hire, expand, and grow.
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If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone. Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, and median family wealth are all worse for the black community. In June, while the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the unemployment rate for African Americans actually went up, from 13.6 percent to 14.4 percent.
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