September 8, 2010
We all understand the impact the foreclosure crisis has had on homeowners. But the crisis has hurt communities, too. Foreclosed and vacant homes have a debilitating effect on neighborhoods and often lead to blight, neighborhood decay and reduced property values.
That’s why the Administration is announcing today another $1 billion to help communities struggling with foreclosures. Already, HUD has provided $6 billion in two rounds of Neighborhood Stabilization Program...
This afternoon the President was in Cleveland, Ohio, the city where House Republican Leader Boehner recently put forth his party’s priorities for the economy. In his remarks, the President laid out a stark contrast between policies that help the economy work for the middle class, and the policies that allowed special interests to run amok -- and to run our economy...
Today, an op-ed from President Obama is running in major Spanish-language newspapers across the country. The op-ed discusses the benefits of the Affordable Care Act for Latinos and announces the release of a new Spanish-language version of HealthCare.gov – ...
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that some health insurance companies are blaming the Affordable Care Act for premium increases that were planned long before the law was passed. We knew this would happen, which is why the President called on insurance...
It is disturbing but unfortunately not surprising that an entire political party would rally together to hold tax relief for middle class families hostage as leverage to push through tax cuts for the very richest Americans -- people who don’t need them and haven’t even asked for them. But that is apparently what exactly what Republican Minority Leader John Boehner is trying to do.
Even as the Republican Party has tried to shed its dismal record on fiscal...
Cross posted from the Department of Transportation blog.
Together, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency have produced a new vehicle fuel economy label, and we want your feedback on our two proposed designs.
A year ago I...
Ed. Note: Building on the President’s commitment to address issues important to rural Americans, Administration officials are visiting State Fairs around the country, see a map of where we've been so far.
When you grow up in rural America, as I did, there is nothing more exciting than the state or county fair. yes"> Showing livestock, competing in baking and quilting contests, eyeing the...
Today, President Obama will speak in Cleveland, Ohio about his vision for the future of the American economy and about specific ways to move our economy forward. Earlier today, Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer previewed the President’s remarks and laid out the three additional steps the President is proposing to help grow the economy and help businesses spur hiring...
Today, the President will speaking in the Cleveland, Ohio about his vision for the future of the American economy and about specific ways to move our economy forward.
A few weeks ago, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner visited Cleveland to offer his party’s answer to our economic challenges. There were no new ideas, just the same philosophy we tried for the last decade and which led to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression – cut taxes for...
September 7, 2010
While the economy remains the President's central focus, which he will discuss again tomorrow in Cleveland, the First Lady continues to celebrate America's cultural heritage amongst her many other issues, from military families to tackling childhood obesity. First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off the White House Music Series more than a year ago with The Jazz Studio, describing it as an event that "exemplifies what I think the White House, the People's House, should be about. This...
In search of novel solutions to the tricky problem of how to keep astronauts fit during prolonged periods of weightlessness, NASA found an unlikely ally in Alex Altshuler. Altshuler works for a mechanical engineering firm in Foxboro, MA. He had never before responded to a formal government Request for Proposal (RFP), let alone worked with NASA. Yet, the exercise device he designed in response to a...
Yesterday I had the great honor of joining President Obama in Milwaukee to celebrate Labor Day. And it was a pleasure hearing his historic announcement of $50 billion in job-creating transportation infrastructure investments.
Infrastructure investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have...
September 6, 2010
President Barack Obama shakes hands with the...
Regular visitors are probably familiar with the Photo of the Day, a special pick selected by Pete Souza and the White House Photo Office daily. But you may not have realized that each one is loaded up as part of a gallery for that month, and as it turns out, looking back through the photos of the day is a pretty interesting way to recap the month. The gallery for August is below -- President Obama...
The Wall Street Journal ran a graph this weekend claiming, “The private sector is adding jobs … but the recovery is slower than in past cycles.” In fact, even though it is not fast enough, the rate of job growth is actually faster now than was the case at comparable points of the past two recoveries.
How did the Wall Street Journal get it wrong? The problem is that their graph indexes job growth to the start of the recession, not...
Lindsay Graham has often shown that he’s fully capable of being reasonable and bipartisan. Which made it particularly disappointing to see his misleading use of numbers yesterday.
On Meet the Press, the Senator, against a wave of evidence to the contrary, argued that the Recovery Act has been “an absolute disaster” and called for cancelling “a lot” of what’s left in the bill (transcript...
September 4, 2010
The Affordable Care Act is working to help bring down the cost of prescription drugs for seniors enrolled in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and today, we got more good news for our seniors.
This afternoon, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Medicare prescription drug plan premiums for 2011 will stay similar to rates beneficiaries are currently paying this year. The average premiums in 2010 were $29 per month – in 2011 we...
The President talks about his fight to make America work for the middle class and make sure hard work is rewarded -- rather than greed and recklessness .
September 3, 2010
The delegations have departed, the speeches have been delivered, and the talks have begun. Re-launching direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians was of course a first step, but the meetings this week at the White House and the State Department went quite well, and represent a good foundation for progress.
As Senator...
Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, affecting children across the nation and changing country’s overall health and wellness. Building on the momentum of the Let’s Move! campaign and highlighting the steps that individuals, families and communities can take to address this issue, President Obama recently issued a proclamation making September 2010 National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month...
On Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio, the President will update the American people on the state of the economy, talk about the progress we have made, and discuss some targeted proposals to keep the economy growing including extending tax cuts for the middle class, and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest.
As today’s jobs numbers demonstrate, we are headed in the right direction. We have gained private sector jobs for the last 8 months...
It has become somewhat of a tradition for Labor Secretaries to use Labor Day to give a “State of the American Worker” report, if you will. Some have made remarks from podiums. Others have testified on Capitol Hill. Some have chosen to address think tanks, corporations, or labor unions.
Those are all important forums. But as your Labor Secretary I have had the great opportunity to meet many of the working men and women who truly make America run, and this year I want to...
With Hurricane Earl moving up the East Coast and expected to arrive in New England by tonight, FEMA is taking aggressive actions to coordinate with Northeastern states as they prepare for possible severe weather. Initial reports from our teams in North Carolina and Virginia indicate that the storm passed close to them without causing the level of damage that it could have, but we still don’t know what Earl’s impact will be in the Northeast United States. Earl is still...
This morning Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer laid out the basics of the jobs numbers for August out this morning: the private sector added 67,000 jobs, Census workers continued to come to end of their work as planned, and people coming back into the job hunt bumped the unemployment rate up by .1%.
To discuss the news, the...
What two countries lead the world in energy consumption, energy production and greenhouse gas emissions? The United States and China. Can our two countries work together to help lead the world in a transition to clean energy? A recent announcement by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is an important step in that direction.
Yesterday, Secretary Chu announced that the University of Michigan and West Virginia University will each lead...