Motley Moose – Archive

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

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

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

From the White House:

White House Blog: A Numbers-Based Case for Why It’s Time to Act on Infrastructure

The United States was once known as a leader in infrastructure, and we’re slipping:

When the American Society of Civil Engineers graded our infrastructure systems last fall, they gave our road and transit systems a D, our bridges a C+, and our levees a D-.

But here’s the real problem: The funding we have in place to fix them is set to run out by fall. That puts at risk more than 112,000 active projects that are currently paving our roads and building our bridges, as well as approximately 5,600 projects that are actively improving our transit systems – not to mention the nearly 700,000 jobs that these collective projects support.

It’s time to get this done. That’s why this week, the President is calling on Congress to pass a bill to put Americans to work repairing our crumbling roads and bridges – avoiding a crisis in the short term, and helping to position our economy for long-term growth.

And today, we’re releasing a new analysis that makes a numbers-based case for exactly why we need to invest in infrastructure right now – and what it’s going to mean for all of us if Congress fails to act.

Take a look at the new analysis that the White House released today – we guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know. And when you do, you should pass it on.

More …

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, President Obama said that before Congress leaves for vacation, they should extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million hardworking Americans who will lose this lifeline at the end of the year. For families, unemployment benefits can mean the difference between hardship and catastrophe, and it is also one of the most effective ways to boost our economy. This holiday season, Congress should do the right thing for the American people and make it easier for our economy to keep growing and adding jobs.  

At 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific), President Obama will address a joint session of Congress to deliver his plan to create jobs and grow the economy. Senior Advisor, David Plouffe, who has been a key figure in crafting the strategy, says we can expect to hear the President detail a plan that will rebuild our economy, and further, issue a challenge to Congress to meet their responsibilities. All indications are that the address will be part policy, and part politics:

Barack Obama is to throw down the gauntlet to Republicans, demanding they back his $300 billion jobs plan or face the wrath of voters blaming them for refusing to help revive the American economy.

The stakes are high, and so are expectations. This just might be the President’s last, best chance to jumpstart the economy and bring some semblance of balance to the debate in Washington, where The H2tN (Hell to the NO!) Party have been dry-humping the agenda since the midterms. The challenges are immense: Can he appeal to D.C.-weary independents? Appease liberals? We’ll find out soon enough.