Transcript:

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, July 11th, 2009

This week, we’ve made important progress toward the goal of bringing about change abroad and change at home. During my visit to Russia, we began the process of resetting relations so that we can address key national priorities like the threat of nuclear weapons and extremism. At the G8 summit, leaders from nearly thirty nations met to discuss how we will collectively confront the urgent challenges of our time, from managing the global recession to fighting global warming to addressing global hunger and poverty. And in Ghana, I laid out my agenda for supporting democracy and development in Africa and around the world.

But even as we make progress on these challenges abroad, my thoughts are on the state of our economy at home. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

We came into office facing the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. At the time, we were losing, on average 700,000 jobs a month. And many feared that our financial system was on the verge of collapse.

As a result of the swift and aggressive action we took in the first few months of this year, we’ve been able to pull our financial system and our economy back from the brink. We took steps to re-start lending to families and businesses, stabilize our major financial institutions, and help homeowners stay in their homes and pay their mortgages. We also passed the largest and most sweeping economic recovery plan in our nation’s history.

The Recovery Act wasn’t designed to restore the economy to full health on its own, but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall. It was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis. And it was designed to save jobs and create new ones.

In a little over one hundred days, this Recovery Act has worked as intended. It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession. It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and businesses. Without the help the Recovery Act has provided to struggling states, its estimated that state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs – layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.

The Recovery Act has allowed small businesses and clean energy companies to hire new workers or scrap their plans for eliminating current jobs. And it’s led to new jobs building roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, thousands of which are only beginning now. In the months to come, thousands more projects will begin, leading to additional jobs. 

Now, I realize that when we passed this Recovery Act, there were those who felt that doing nothing was somehow an answer. Today, some of those same critics are already judging the effort a failure although they have yet to offer a plausible alternative. Others believed that the recovery plan should have been even larger, and are already calling for a second recovery plan.

But, as I made clear at the time it was passed, the Recovery Act was not designed to work in four months – it was designed to work over two years. We also knew that it would take some time for the money to get out the door, because we are committed to spending it in a way that is effective and transparent. Crucially, this is a plan that will also accelerate greatly throughout the summer and the fall. We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.

I am confident that the United States of America will weather this economic storm. But once we clear away the wreckage, the real question is what we will build in its place. Even as we rescue this economy from a full blown crisis, I have insisted that we must rebuild it better than before.

Without serious reforms, we are destined to either see more crises, or suffer stagnant growth rates for the foreseeable future, or a combination of the two. That’s a future I absolutely reject. And that’s why we’re laying a new foundation that’s not only strong enough to withstand the challenges of the 21st century, but one that will allow us to thrive and compete in a global economy. That means investing in the jobs of the future, training our workers to compete for those jobs, and controlling the health care costs that are driving us into debt. 

Through the clean energy investments we’ve made in the Recovery Act, we’re already seeing start-ups and small businesses make plans to create thousands of new jobs. In California, 3000 people will be employed to build a new solar plant. In Michigan, investment in wind turbines and wind technology is expected to create over 2,600 jobs. And a few weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed historic legislation that would finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy, leading to whole new industries and jobs that can’t be outsourced.

To give our workers the skills and education they need to compete for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future, we’re working on reforms that will close achievement gaps, ensure that our schools meet high standards, reward our teachers for performance and give them new pathways to advancement.

Finally, we have made important progress in the last few weeks on health care reform that will finally control the costs that are driving our families, our businesses, and our government into debt. Both the Senate and the House have now produced legislation that will bring down costs, provide better care for patients, and curb the worst practices of insurance companies, so that they can no longer deny Americans coverage based on a pre-existing medical condition. It’s a plan that would also allow Americans to keep their health insurance if they lose their job or if they change their job. And it would set up a health insurance exchange – a marketplace that will allow families and small businesses to access one-stop-shopping for quality, affordable coverage, and help them compare prices and choose the plan that best suits their needs. One such choice would be a public option that would make health care more affordable through competition that keeps the insurance companies honest.

One other point. Part of what makes our current economic situation so challenging is that we already had massive deficits as the recession gathered force. And although the Recovery Act represents just a small fraction of our long term debt, people have legitimate questions as to whether we can afford reform without making our deficits much worse.

So let me be clear; I have been firm in insisting that both health care reform and clean energy legislation cannot add to our deficit. And I intend to continue the work of reducing waste, eliminating programs that don’t work, and reforming our entitlement programs to ensure that our long term deficits are brought under control.

I said when I took office that it would take many months to move our economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity. We are not there yet, and I continue to believe that even one American out of work is one too many. But we are moving in the right direction. We are cleaning up the wreckage of this storm. And we are laying a firmer, stronger foundation so that we may better weather whatever future storms may come. This year has been and will continue to be a year of rescuing our economy from disaster.

But just as important will be the work of rebuilding a long term engine for economic growth. It won’t be easy, and there will continue to be those who argue that we have to put off hard decisions that we have already deferred for far too long. But earlier generations of Americans didn’t build this great country by fearing the future and shrinking our dreams.

This generation – our generation – has to show that same courage and determination. I believe we will.

Thanks for listening.

Which brings me to a Freedom of Speech discussion. Yes, we have a First Amendment that allows us the freedom to speak our minds and sometimes this freedom is a signed confession to hatred, stupidity, bigotry and inadvertent comedy.

Please out this link to the comments in the Daily Kos and use it when people like Bill O’Reilly or Michelle Malkin talk about hate speech from the left. 

And before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, yes, there are plenty of similar hateful, hurtful and stupid comments left by Liberals on right leaning websites. 

My point in posting is for balance and frankly a call for responsible, reasonable debate of the issues. Surely, we CAN all get along even if we disagree (come to Drinking Liberally in Santa Ana at the Memphis Bar on Broadway every Thursday night for living and breathing examples of Republicans and Democrats talking politics and sharing a good laugh in each other’s company).

Simpsons on Gay Marriage

Massachusetts, where I lived for nine years, really marked the first domino to fall in New England (c’mon Rhode Island, we’re waiting for you!). Now, Massachusetts has challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which may be the first step on the path on a trip to the Supreme Court of legalize Gay Marriage in all 50 states.

From the report:

“In enacting DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act), Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,” the state said in a lawsuit filed today in US District Court in Massachusetts.

The lawsuit said that more than 16,000 same-sex couples have married in Massachusetts since the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that gay marriage was legal in 2004 “and the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state.”

[...] The lawsuit argues that DOMA, which was enacted in 1996, precludes same-sex spouses from a wide range of protections, including federal income tax credits, employment and retirement benefits, health insurance coverage, and Social Security payments.

While this move in no way should make those of us in Orange County and in California who believe in equal rights for all lessen our efforts to repeal Prop 8, its good to know other like-minded people are on our side and doing something about it in the court system.

The LA Times reports this morning that the Bush Administration’s domestic spying program against Americans went well beyond wiretaps.

From the story:

“The report was compiled at the request of Congress by five government agency watchdogs: the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon, CIA, Directorate of National Intelligence and National Security Agency.

It represents the most detailed public disclosure of the existence of secret surveillance efforts beyond the warrantless wiretapping program, saying the overall package of efforts came to be known in the Bush administration as the “President’s Surveillance Program.”

However, the report did not describe the other programs or explain how they worked.

“All of these activities were authorized in a single presidential authorization,” the report said, referring to the warrantless wiretapping as a “terrorist surveillance program” and the undisclosed efforts as “other intelligence activities.”

“The specific details of the other intelligence activities remain highly classified,” the report said.”

And there’s an OC connection. John Yoo, a low level Justice Department lawyer, wrote memos legally supporting these measures. Yoo was a guest faculty member at Chapman University earlier this year. 

I just want to know when will the current Justice Department start issuing indictments.

She's noting that the governor’s claim that his in-home supportive services (IHSS) “reform” to combat fraud will reap 25 percent in program savings is inconsistent with the findings of a statewide audit released by his own administration in 2008.
 
“It’s disappointing to see the governor making up ‘facts’ to suit his agenda,” said Evans in a press release.  “According to his own administration, just 1% of IHSS cases involve fraud.  The governor should not try to criminalize seniors and the disabled in order to close our budget gap.”
 
In 2007, 41 counties performed a random quality assurance review of 23,823 cases as part of the state-mandated California Department of Social Services (CDSS) IHSS Quality Assurance effort.  This review involved intense auditing of each case to insure that state assessments are uniform and that errors are minimized.  These reviews also checked for fraud or any other inconsistencies.
 
“The governor has been unable to produce evidence to support his claim that 25% of IHSS costs are due to fraud,” added Evans.  “In fact, this is just another proposal to gut the IHSS program using fraud as a fig leaf.  Contrary to the governor’s unsupported assertions, this recent audit is an unbiased analysis of fraud in IHSS and provides the best projection for any potential budget savings through reforms geared to reduce fraud.”

There's more...

Transcript:

Assemblymember Noreen Evans

Hello, this is Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans with another important budget update.

With the governor’s refusal to sign off on three billion dollars in necessary cuts last week, California has been forced to issue expensive IOU’s.

And now, with banks beginning to refuse those IOU’s, the governor is conditioning any budget progress on the acceptance of last minute policy proposals like the ones voters rejected in 2005.

An analysis by the Assembly Budget Committee shows virtually none of the governor’s so-called reform proposals he dumped into the process at the last minute have anything to do with our current cash crisis and budget deficit.

That’s why we’re calling on the governor to follow his own advice and focus on resolving the budget problem. 

With more than a dozen last minute proposals thrown on the table by the governor, we have to take a careful look at what works and what doesn’t.

The governor’s procurement proposal, for example, would institutionalize the Oracle computer scandal from 2001 by allowing the same company to both write the rules for state contracts and then receive those contracts.

The governor’s proposal to throw entire families off CalWORKs assistance has been widely criticized as the exact opposite of what should be done as vulnerable families struggle more than ever in a period of record unemployment.

Just this week Los Angeles County reported CalWORKs families have seen a 30 percent increase in homelessness.

The fact is, we’ve already voted for deep spending cuts that will balance the budget deficit and we have important reform legislation already moving through the process – including bills to prevent fraud in the valuable IHSS program that helps keep frail elderly and disabled Californians in their own homes and out of expensive institutions.

Now it’s time for the governor to put California before his political scorecard and do his part to close the budget gap. We can start working on vigorous reforms just as soon as we revise the budget and stop issuing IOUs.

This has been Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans.

Thank you for listening.

Burris bails

California’s next residents: “The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now estranged from Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California.”

Six whole percent? “Only six percent of America’s scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five percent call themselves Democrats. By comparison, 23 percent of the overall public considers itself Republican, while 35 percent say they’re Democrats.”

Gay couple detained for cheek kiss near Salt Lake LDS Temple: The Liberal OC is shocked, shocked we tell you, by the revelation that it wasn’t just the co-opting of the term “marriage” that Mormons objected to after all.

Whoda thunk it? Energy industry trade groups and lobbyists are using misleading data in an attempt to persuade Congress not to regulate Hydraulic Fracturing.

Union vs union: “…many unions are making war — largely with one another — in the biggest, nastiest surge of labor fratricide in decades.”