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Weekly Address: President Obama – Investing in Technology and Infrastructure to Create Jobs

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

 

From the White House – Weekly Address

In his weekly address, President Obama said he took action this week to launch new manufacturing hubs and expand a competition to fund transformative infrastructure projects. Both are policies aimed at expanding economic opportunity for all by creating jobs and ensuring the long-term strength of the American economy. Congress can boost this effort by passing a bipartisan proposal to create a nationwide network of high-tech manufacturing hubs and taking steps to invest in our nation’s infrastructure – rebuilding our transportation system, creating new construction jobs, and better connecting Americans to economic opportunities.

Transcript: Weekly Address – Investing in Technology and Infrastructure to Create Jobs

Hi everybody.  In my State of the Union Address, I said that the best measure of opportunity is access to a good job.  And after the worst recession of our lifetimes, our businesses have created eight and a half million new jobs in the last four years.

But we need to do more to make America a magnet for good jobs for the future.  And in this year of action, where Congress won’t do that, I will do whatever I can to expand opportunity for more Americans.  This week, I took two actions to attract new jobs to America – jobs in American manufacturing, and jobs rebuilding America’s infrastructure.

Here’s why this is important.  In the 2000s alone, we lost more than one-third of all American manufacturing jobs.  One in three.  And when the housing bubble burst, workers in the construction industry were hit harder than just about anybody.  The good news is, today, our manufacturers have added more than 620,000 jobs over the last four years – the first sustained growth in manufacturing jobs since the 1990s.

Still, the economy has changed.  If we want to attract more good manufacturing jobs to America, we’ve got to make sure we’re on the cutting edge of new manufacturing technologies and techniques.  And in today’s global economy, first-class jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure.

That’s why, on Tuesday, I launched two new high-tech manufacturing hubs – places where businesses and universities will partner to turn groundbreaking research into real-world goods Made in America.  So far, we’ve launched four of these hubs, where our workers can master 3-D printing, energy-efficient electronics, lightweight metals, and digital manufacturing – all technologies that can help ensure a steady stream of good jobs well into the 21st century.

Then on Wednesday, I launched a new competition to build 21st century infrastructure – roads and bridges, mass transit, more efficient ports, and faster passenger rail.  Rebuilding America won’t just attract new businesses; it will create good construction jobs that can’t be shipped overseas.

Of course, Congress could make an even bigger difference in both areas.  Thanks to the leadership of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, there’s a bill in Congress right now that would create an entire network of high-tech manufacturing hubs all across the country.  And next week, I’ll send Congress a budget that will rebuild our transportation systems and support millions of jobs nationwide.

There’s a lot we can do if we work together.  And while Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to rebuild an economy where everyone who works hard has the chance to get ahead – where we’re restoring our founding vision of opportunity for all.

Thanks, everybody, and have a great weekend.  

Bolding added.

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Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 18 Comments

18 comments

  2. JanF

    New York Times Email:

    Putin Asks Russia’s Senate for Permission to Send Troops to Ukraine

    As Russian-backed armed forces effectively seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on Saturday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia formally requested that the Russian Senate authorize him to use military force in Ukraine.

    Mr. Putin’s request, largely a formality, acknowledged publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama who just hours earlier had pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.

    Even as Mr. Putin submitted his request to the Senate, formally called the Federation Council, it was clear that forces allied with Moscow were largely in control of the peninsula.

    Sen. John “NOT The President” McCain (R-AZ) says that “We are all Ukrainians now” and then revised it to say “We are all ‘whoever we can pretend to like so that we can start a war where we can bomb people heh heh’ now”.

    The actual president said this yesterday:

    Statement by the President on Ukraine

    The events of the past several months remind us of how difficult democracy can be in a country with deep divisions.  But the Ukrainian people have also reminded us that human beings have a universal right to determine their own future.

    Right now, the situation remains very fluid.  Vice President Biden just spoke with Prime Minister — the Prime Minister of Ukraine to assure him that in this difficult moment the United States supports his government’s efforts and stands for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and democratic future of Ukraine.  I also commend the Ukrainian government’s restraint and its commitment to uphold its international obligations.

    We will continue to coordinate closely with our European allies.  We will continue to communicate directly with the Russian government.  And we will continue to keep all of you in the press corps and the American people informed as events develop.Over the last several days, the United States has been responding to events as they unfold in Ukraine.  Throughout this crisis, we have been very clear about one fundamental principle: The Ukrainian people deserve the opportunity to determine their own future.  Together with our European allies, we have urged an end to the violence and encouraged Ukrainians to pursue a course in which they stabilize their country, forge a broad-based government and move to elections this spring.

    I also spoke several days ago with President Putin, and my administration has been in daily communication with Russian officials, and we’ve made clear that they can be part of an international community’s effort to support the stability and success of a united Ukraine going forward, which is not only in the interest of The people of Ukraine and the international community, but also in Russia’s interest.

    However, we are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine.  Russia has a historic relationship with Ukraine, including cultural and economic ties, and a military facility in Crimea, but any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of Ukraine, Russia, or Europe.

    It would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people.  It would be a clear violation of Russia’s commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, and of international laws.  And just days after the world came to Russia for the Olympic Games, it would invite the condemnation of nations around the world.  And indeed, the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.

    The events of the past several months remind us of how difficult democracy can be in a country with deep divisions.  But the Ukrainian people have also reminded us that human beings have a universal right to determine their own future.

    Right now, the situation remains very fluid.  Vice President Biden just spoke with Prime Minister — the Prime Minister of Ukraine to assure him that in this difficult moment the United States supports his government’s efforts and stands for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and democratic future of Ukraine.  I also commend the Ukrainian government’s restraint and its commitment to uphold its international obligations.

    We will continue to coordinate closely with our European allies.  We will continue to communicate directly with the Russian government.  And we will continue to keep all of you in the press corps and the American people informed as events develop.

  3. JanF

    Uganda Sees Financial Backlash From Anti-Gay Law

    The World Bank on Thursday announced that it would be indefinitely delaying $90 million worth of loans to Uganda, the largest repercussion yet to President Yoseri Museveni signing a bill earlier this week that threatens life in jail for Ugandan gays.

    Earlier this week, Museveni ignored criticism from the United States and signed the bill, which aside from making homosexual behavior punishable by up to life in prison, bans all advocacy on LGBT issues. The law also provides incentives for citizens to turn in associates who are gay and declares that performing a same-sex marriage carries a sentence of seven years in prison. While the United States’ response has been mostly rhetorical in nature, pending an “internal review,” the World Bank chose to move forward with consequences on Thursday evening.

    “We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law,” a World Bank spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

  4. JanF

    Senate GOP Blocks Vets’ Benefits Bill Over Diplomacy-Killing Iran Sanctions

    After numerous attempts [to get a vote on Iran sanctions] failed, the Senate GOP used Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) veterans’ benefits bill to bring the issue up again but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refused to go along. “Republicans say they want to help veterans. They have a strange way of showing it. We introduced a bill that would do just that. Republicans immediately inject partisan politics into the mix, insisting on amendments that have nothing to do with helping veterans,” Reid said on Wednesday.

    One of the nation’s largest veterans groups, the American Legion, agreed. “Iran is a serious issue that Congress needs to address, but it cannot be tied to S. 1982, which is extremely important as our nation prepares to welcome millions of U.S. military servicemen and women home from war,” American Legion National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger said in a statement this week. “This comprehensive bill aims to help veterans find good jobs, get the health care they need and make in-state tuition rates applicable to all who are using their GI Bill benefits.”

    “There was a right way to vote and a wrong way to vote today, and 41 senators chose the wrong way,” the American Legion tweeted on Thursday.

  5. JanF

    Immigration Agency Rejects Woman’s Citizenship Application Because Of Her Secular Beliefs

    When Adriana Ramirez, a legal immigrant living in California, applied for citizenship, she wrote that she is a “conscientious objector” who will not bear arms for the United States because of her secularism. In late January, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials rejected her application because her “unwillingness is not based on religious training or belief.” But on Thursday, Ramirez sent a letter to the federal immigration agency to reverse its decision or risk a legal challenge.

    The U.S. citizenship oath process requires applicants to renounce allegiance to other countries while promising to “bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law” and to “perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law.” But applicants who have a conscientious objection can request to take a modified oath in which they would have to provide proof of one’s inability to bear arms, due to opposing “any type of service,” religious belief, or that “his or her beliefs are sincere, meaningful, and deeply held.”

    So unless you can show that your conscientious objections come from a religious basis, you are not entitled to object to going to war? I hope this gets overturned.

  6. JanF

    Come on down, state Rep. Josh Miller of Arkansas! Join other Republicans Paul Ryan (Social Security Survivor benefits) and Clarence Thomas (Affirmative Action) in making sure that the benefits you got are not available to anyone else:

    More than a decade ago, Arkansas Rep. Josh Miller (R) was in a catastrophic car accident that broke his neck and left him paralyzed. Medicare and Medicaid paid the $1 million bill for his hospitalization and rehabilitation.

    But this week, as the Arkansas legislature has debated continuing its privatized Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, Miller has remained steadfast in his opposition.

    “My problem is two things,” Miller said. “One, we are giving it to able-bodied folks who can work … and two, how do we pay for it?”

    We pay for it the same way we paid for your injury (which may have been caused by an act of negligence — drunk driving) by fully funding it … because health care is a right, not a privilege.

  7. JanF

    Russian Troops Take Possession of Crimea without Firing a Shot

    SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) – Russian troops took over the strategic Crimean peninsula Saturday without firing a shot. The newly installed government in Kiev was powerless to react, and despite calls by U.S. President Barack Obama for Russia to pull back its forces, Western governments had few options to counter Russia’s military moves.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin sought and quickly got his parliament’s approval to use its military to protect Russia’s interests across Ukraine. But while sometimes-violent pro-Russian protests broke out Saturday in a number of Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s immediate focus appeared to be Crimea.[…]

    Ignoring President Barack Obama’s warning Friday that “there will be costs” if Russia intervenes militarily, Putin sharply raised the stakes in the conflict over Ukraine’s future evoking memories of Cold War brinkmanship.

    After Russia’s parliament approved Putin’s motion, U.S. officials held a high-level meeting at the White House to review Russia’s military moves in Ukraine. The White House said Obama spoke with Putin by telephone for 90 minutes and expressed his “deep concern” about “Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

  8. JanF

    The birth of obstruction

    … its interesting to look at the recently released 1993 memo from Bill Kristol informing Republicans about what their response should be to President Clinton’s health care reform proposal.

       

    Any Republican urge to negotiate a “least bad” compromise with the Democrats, and thereby gain momentary public credit for helping the president “do something” about health care, should also be resisted…On grounds of national policy alone, the plan should not be amended; it should be erased.

    As we all know, the Republicans were successful in doing what Kristol suggested. And so its interesting to speculate about whether or not this was the birth of obstruction as a comprehensive strategy during the Obama era.

    But its also interesting to look at why Kristol so vehemently opposed health care reform during a time when Republicans were open to working with a Democratic president.

       

    Passage of the Clinton health care plan, in any form, would guarantee and likely make permanent an unprecedented federal intrusion into and disruption of the American economy–and the establishment of the largest federal entitlement program since Social Security. Its success would signal a rebirth of centralized welfare-state policy at the very moment we have begun rolling back that idea in other areas…

       But the long-term political effects of a successful Clinton health care bill will be even worse–much worse. It will relegitimize middle-class dependence for “security” on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government.

    Kristol knew that health care reform would challenge the trajectory of rolling back federal programs that had begun during the Reagan years. In other words, it would be transformative because it would work (notice how he elusively compares it to a beloved and effective program like Social Security?)

  9. princesspat

    Democrats Try Wooing Ones Who Got Away: White Men

    ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Frank Houston knows something about the longtime estrangement of white men from the Democratic Party. His family roots are in nearby Macomb County, the symbolic home of working-class Reagan Democrats who, distressed by economic and social tumult, decided a liberal Democratic Party had left them, not the other way around.

    ~snip~

    Now, as chairman of the Democratic Party in Oakland County, Michigan’s second largest, Mr. Houston is finding out how difficult it can be to persuade other white men here to support Democrats, even among the 20 or so, mostly construction workers, who join him in a rotating poker game.

    Mr. Houston is part of an internal debate at all levels of his party over how hard it should work to win over white men, especially working-class men without college degrees, at a time when Democrats are gaining support from growing numbers of female and minority voters.

    Reading this reminds me of how puzzled I was re the half hearted support I noticed among the mostly higher ed associated men I knew for Al Gore. To me it was a clear case of voting for, but not supporting, their own best interests. Still puzzles me.

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