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Obama’s Jobs Speech: What It Means for You

Allison Kade
Allison Kade
Posted on Sep 9, 2011

Obama Jobs SpeechLast night, President Obama addressed Congress and the nation about unemployment, the economy and what the future holds.

His speech revealed a bleak truth—things aren’t looking so rosy right now—but he also proposed a plan to create more jobs in the future. It’s clear that he hopes to shift the dialogue in Washington away from the budget deficit and onto jobs creation.

He came forward with the American Jobs Act, urging Congress to pass the $447 billion bill “right away.” As he noted more than once, it would be paid for by long-term spending cuts rather than adding to our current deficit.

The gist of his speech: If lawmakers don’t act now, they’d be implying that the economy is fine as it is.

Spoiler alert: It’s not.

Lay of Our Land: The Situation

Economists consider an unemployment rate of about 5% to be “healthy”: Anything lower than that can cause wage inflation and anything higher than that can threaten consumer spending.

Currently, unemployment in the U.S. is 9.1% and has shown little change since April. To add insult to injury, newly disappointing unemployment numbers were released yesterday morning. Companies aren’t laying off tons of people, but they aren’t exactly going on hiring sprees, either.

By way of comparison, average unemployment was 4.6% in 2007 and 5.8% in 2008. My, how times have changed.

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What You Need to Know

President Obama addressed Congress about a plan he hopes will spur new job creation. The key points of his proposal include:

  • Extending unemployment insurance benefits through 2012 (those that are currently set to expire in December)
  • Issuing tax credits to encourage companies to hire people who have been out of work for more than six months
  • Funding infrastructure projects to improve roads, bridges, railways and airports, as well as school renovations (to bolster America’s competitiveness on the world stage by building new science labs and installing high-speed internet in classrooms)
  • Implementing tax cuts for middle-class families (according to the president, the typical working family would receive a $1,500 tax cut next year)

The bill is intended to spur job creation and rejuvenate a country that many fear is in danger of slipping back into a recession, or losing its superpower status. It would, Obama says, champion small businesses, while creating more jobs for construction workers, recent grads, veterans and teachers.

Economists have been reserved in their assessment of the proposal, though, noting that the plan is relatively small and that the payroll tax cuts might not have a lasting impact. To read an entire transcript of the speech, click here.

What Everyone Needs to Agree On

Of course, this speech comes on the heels of a debt ceiling debate that was divisive for politicians and regular people alike. After what was almost universally seen as the embarrassing inability of politicians to work together across the aisle, Republican leaders seem to feel pressure to agree to at least some of the president’s proposal.

House Speaker John Boehner encouraged House Republicans to attend the president’s speech even though some had planned not to. Before the speech, he and Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote a letter to the president outlining areas of possible cooperation (such as creating a program similar to “Georgia Works,” which provides the unemployed with on-the-job training to expand their skill sets). We’re hopeful that politicians from both parties have learned from the debt ceiling debacle—and that cooperation and new jobs are on the way.

What can you do? If you feel strongly for or against this proposal, contact your Senator and Congressperson to tell them so. “What happens will be up to you,” Obama wrote in an email to supporters earlier this week. And it’s true: Whether you agree, or disagree, with the jobs bill, this is definitely your opportunity to speak up.

Always Be In-the-Know

We’re launching The Market, our brand-new weekly newsletter to keep you current on the economy and more advanced financial topics. Reserve your spot here.

We made a cheat sheet for Bernanke’s last big speech: read this.

This is how to keep your head up if you’re unemployed. And this is how you can help friends currently out of a job.

Image: Flickr/jurvetson

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  • Alex

    I would replace the sentence:

    “The gist of his speech: If lawmakers don’t act now, they’d be implying that the economy is fine as it is.”

    To:

    The gist of his speech: if Congress doesn’t hurry up and pass another one of my “jobs” bills, I’ll blame them for the economy and lack of job growth….oh and by the way I’m spending another $450Billion but it is budget neutral because I’m making them find $450Billion in budget cuts somewhere else by next week. (so I can then point fingers at them for cutting $450Billion from a service that serves the neediest of people in our society…suckers)

    Nothing but more political posturing and campaigning at our expense.

    I have an idea…STOP!

    Stop trying to create jobs, stop printing money, stop with the stimuli/incentives, stop demonizing the wealthy, stop implementing new laws and regulations…just back off, pass an actual budget for the first time in 4 years, set taxes at a rate for the next 10 years minimum, scale back regulations and the EPA, repeal the Healthcare law, and quit scaring investors/entrepreneurs/banks/energy suppliers/etc with wondering what is going to happen next. When is the hammer going to fall on me? Then everyone can come out of there economic bomb shelters and begin to implement plans to grow their business and invest in new business.

    • FL

      Yes, let’s keep the wealthy, wealthy,  Forget about middle income Americans and their struggles.  Maintain tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.  Continue trying to squeeze water out of a rock by not raising taxes on the wealthy and by making cuts to government services and cutting low-paying jobs.  Forget about the working poor.  Keep cutting the federal budget until all government dissappears, and our infrastucture falls apart.  But hey, at least the wealthy will be ok.

      • Alex

        @FL – Why lose $0.70 of every $1.00 to government bureaucracy? Why not just take the $1.00 from your successful neighbor yourself?

        You see the problem is we look at the economy as if its static, but its not. Would you blame your successful neighbor for moving if you or someone else kept taking money from them on your behalf? Of course not. Most “wealthy” people amassed their wealth in fair and honest ways by assessing the risks of investing in their own ideas or someone else’s and coming out on the right side. Much of their investment is time, work, sweat, persistence, and the willingness to do what others wouldn’t. So what stake do I have to their prize, which was in no way guaranteed?
        Also, most of those “greedy corporations” are publicly traded. When we try to “get our fair share” we aren’t realizing that its like going to George Bailey at the Building and Loan in It’s a Wonderful Life…that money is in Mr. Baker’s 401k and Mrs. Smith’s pension and so on. So when the stock is not producing the same yields it had before the big fund managers (which manage nearly 70% of the market) move your funds to a more favorable stock…and the corporation loses millions in equity in months…which leads to “cost control measures”…which leads to a reduction in force…which leads to more people wanting to take more money from the “wealthy”, whereas they may have been in line for a promotion prior to all of this happening and although it wasn’t the dream job it was providing a good life for their family and a bright future for advancement. Instead the business finds the only way to continue their cost-cutting measures necessary to provide yields high enough to entice fund managers to invest in them again is to move their operations overseas.

        It’s a vicious cycle…please wake up to it.

        I make $60K and support a family of four. Far from rich, but I realize that those “greedy corporations” and “wealthy” small business owners provide the security and income I need to support my family, while I seek my opportunity to one day be successful and dare I say…”wealthy”.

        • Lynda

          Right on Alex!
          By the way the American people don’t give their Congressmen raises Congress give them selves raises.  Have you checked their salaries lately–some have doubled or tripled since Obama has been in office.   Social Security is a Ponzi scheme–for what I have put into it over the years it will NOT be what I will get out of it before I die. Then what happens to all my money I put in SS taxes–it should go to my heirs!  The Democratic agenda wants all Americans dependent upon government programs so after a while Americans won’t e able to think for themselves with the involvement of some government agency to get them through life. The American voters better think very hard in 2012 or America as we know it now will be NO MORE.  We’ll become like Russia or China.
          Do you want some government TELLING you what you can and can’t do?  Why should I work my butt off for my wealth and then give it to a deadbeat who has his hand out for “More money”?

      • Triplett_pamela

        I guess u forgot were u come from. I know u were poor before u made what u got. Let me tell u something God can take everything u got and u will have nothing. Stop looking down on poor people because u may have to help someone so u better think about that. God still in control!!!

      • Joiya

        Again, who do you think pays for your paycheck from working? Wealthy people do. Without the wealthy you wouldn’t have a job. If there was only middle class people, and no rich people, how would people make their money? They couldn’t unless they started their own business, and guess what, they’d end up getting wealthy! and end up hiring people because their business is growing too large to do by themselves, and then people like you get to have a job because of this wealthy person!!!

        • Danie

          Apparently Joiya has never heard of a co-op. 

    • http://theWardrobeCode.com Nicole Longstreath

      Stop trying to create jobs – what?! There are 14 MILLION people who need one. Repeal the Healthcare law – so that an insurance company can discriminate against me because I’ve had migraines in the past? Scale back the EPA – so our air and drinking water can be further polluted by the most unscrupulous of companies? Quit scaring banks – when are they going to stop scaring us?

      • Alex

        @Nicole – The government can’t offer you a job at your local bank, store, factory, law firm, gas station, etc. Offering that business a $1200 tax credit to hire you, won’t offset the cost of your salary, benefits, taxes, and unemployment insurance. If the business simply had a stable set of rules conducive to growing their business and a level of security in knowing the rules aren’t going to be changed again or that they aren’t going to be targeted because they are operating successfully….then they would probably start hiring again.

        Like Warren Buffet says: Rule #1 Don’t lose money.

        Regarding healthcare, there are other options to address your needs besides the government taking over the healthcare system and (illegally) mandating that everyone buy in.

        Regarding the EPA, contrary to popular belief my conservative principles do not including poisoning the water and air that my children drink and breathe. The EPA has over stepped its boundaries and is killing US industry. Is the pollution from Asia better for us? If not, why do we keep forcing businesses to relocate there?

        Regarding banks, how are they scaring you? By undewriting millions of risky mortgages because the government forced them to and insured the loans leading to our economic crisis? Or because now they won’t make risky loans and they are just sitting on their money because there is literally no where to invest it? Even leaving the money in a vault its depreciating everyday. 70% of US treasuries (the “safe-haven” investment) is being purchased by the Federal Reserve because no one else in the world wants to touch them.

        It’s time to quit thinking emotionally and start thinking rationally…similar to the first steps of getting out of debt as advised here.

      • Alex

        @Nicole – The government can’t offer you a job at your local bank, store, factory, law firm, gas station, etc. Offering that business a $1200 tax credit to hire you, won’t offset the cost of your salary, benefits, taxes, and unemployment insurance. If the business simply had a stable set of rules conducive to growing their business and a level of security in knowing the rules aren’t going to be changed again or that they aren’t going to be targeted because they are operating successfully….then they would probably start hiring again.

        Like Warren Buffet says: Rule #1 Don’t lose money.

        Regarding healthcare, there are other options to address your needs besides the government taking over the healthcare system and (illegally) mandating that everyone buy in.

        Regarding the EPA, contrary to popular belief my conservative principles do not including poisoning the water and air that my children drink and breathe. The EPA has over stepped its boundaries and is killing US industry. Is the pollution from Asia better for us? If not, why do we keep forcing businesses to relocate there?

        Regarding banks, how are they scaring you? By undewriting millions of risky mortgages because the government forced them to and insured the loans leading to our economic crisis? Or because now they won’t make risky loans and they are just sitting on their money because there is literally no where to invest it? Even leaving the money in a vault its depreciating everyday. 70% of US treasuries (the “safe-haven” investment) is being purchased by the Federal Reserve because no one else in the world wants to touch them.

        It’s time to quit thinking emotionally and start thinking rationally…similar to the first steps of getting out of debt as advised here.

        • Jeholt

          I agree wholeheartedly with you Alex. You said it all. Judy

      • HdShroom

        I can live without the so-called jobs that companies these days are ‘creating’. They are hiring more part-time workers, taking hours away from current part-time workers in order to do so. So now there are 2 people each working 6 hours a week, and barely affording the gas to get them to/from their job. Not everyone lives where there is public transport.

    • Lynda

      Oh the hammer will fall but it’ll be on you and me.  We’ll be TAXED to death and then we won’t have anything to pay our bills except to foreclosure on our homes–no place to live and then WE become the homeless.
      Food has increased, gasoline has increased, utilities have increased, property taxes have increase even if you home value has dumped while our Congressmen are not incurring any hardships like the American citizens have.  Did you notice I wrote CITIZEN of the USA?

  • Djhillyard

    why didn’t the President and the Senators give up their raises this year, they did one year.
    Also some of the cuts are coming from Social Secutity and Medicare, does anyone care that the older people pay out more for their meds, than the young people and its very true that some of the older people are eating dog and cat food, but does he care about that, while he is eating steak, hell no.

    • Joiya

      The government’s job is not to take care of you. People need to take care of themselves. It just makes people lazy and not want to work, they just think the government will always be there to take care of them.

      • Prince King

        I like your views Joiya about the hardwork & stay in strength in own self. People want to complaint  but we are the solution provider.

        Regards:-
        Prince King
        E-mail:-  Prince.King@live.in

    • Forobama2012

      How do you know he’s eating steak?  And do you know of any “OLD” people who are eating “dog & cat” food?

      • Djobrown55

        I know “OLD” people who dumpster dive in order to have enough to eat!  Her food stamps went from $60 a month to 20 a month.  I wonder what they will cut from her 700 a moth next.  We should all know what we are talking about before we oen our mouths.   Not just repeating the reteric and campaign speeches that come our way!! 

  • Anonymous

    What is considered the “working poor”? 

  • Janet Hobson

    I think that this would work just fine. Its a very good start,we need this kind of work to get America back on her feet. Our schools, our infrastructure really does need to be upgraded! I know that alot of people are saying that the government does not need to spend any more money. But, as I’ve always been told…”To make money,you have to spend money”! But, I can say that it is for a darn good cause! an investment into the America people,and to America. So, lets just do it.Stop the hating and all the ingnorant BS! LETS BE STRONG AND AT #1  AGAIN! And may GOD BLESS US ALL.

    • Joiya

      And to spend money, you have to have money. 14 Trillion dollars in debt?!!! And you want to go another $100s of billions in debt?!!! The government is not like a regular business, spending money is not going to make it any money. All it does to make money is steal money out of people’s hard earned paychecks. Our government will just keep stealing more and more people’s money until even the rich are poor, then eventually the government will run out of money, then it will collapse…

      • Markvator

        Did you read the part about cutting medicare to pay for it?  You know, the medical insurance for retired people. The ones who paid for medicare for the retired people who came before them. You seem to be another Obama basher Joiya!

  • Aguialdo

    the speech was just fine ,but again the republicans wont and will not be thinking about the poor and the working class who elected them and gave them the big raises that they live on. again we dont matter its all about the rich .maybe we should just govern ourselves,we do a better job than washington. again its about if the president aint white he wont get anything from the white bigots that signs off on the policys.

    • Joiya

      And who is the one who pays your paycheck? The rich person. Poor people don’t pay your paycheck, Working class people don’t pay for your paycheck. As long as you are against the rich, chances are high that you’re not gonna have a job, and that you’ll stay poor. As you can see, most democrats don’t make a lot of money, and they don’t make much money for a reason.

      • Markvator

        The rich are keeping the tax cuts they receive, They have been doing it since the Reagan era. Don’t you understand trickle down has NEVER worked! 

      • billy

        yes the working class pay paychecks, they are customers dont forget, and the customer is always right !

      • Danie

        You could look at the other way as well. Without the middle class and poor the rich would not have anyone to exploit so they can become rich. We are the ones who do the actual work and we are the ones who buy the majority of the products and services that are produced.

        They fully realize they need us. However we have not yet realized this which allows them to continue to exploit us.

        And your sweeping generalizations are nonsense.

        • Fey

          Only because we’ve allowed ourselves to be exploited to the rich.

  • mom of 3

    President Obama’s speech was not just fine. It was lacking in any real solutions. All of the financial advisers here at LV will tell you if you are in over your head in debt, stop spending. The poor and working class voted for the President not Republicans because he promised to redistribute the wealth. The problem with that is making the rich poorer does NOT make the poor richer. People need to take responsibility for themselves. People of means and churches and organizations need to help their neighbors. Government is inefficient at moving people out of poverty. PEOPLE need to help each other and the government needs to get out of the way. When our current welfare state was instituted, families were intact, children were graduating from high school with real educations and home ownership was something you saved for NOT expected. Over 40% of children today are born unmarried parents and that fact is one of the leading indicators of future poverty. We need to take a long hard look at the society of instant gratification and ego centrism that we have become. We’re living only in the moment and taking too many “easy” paths and it is destroying our country.

    This is NOT about race. That excuse hit the dust bin almost 3 years ago. I don’t care what color a person’s skin is – a good idea is embraced and bad ideas need to be abandoned or tweaked. (And NO ideas, which is what this administration has been offering for the last 3 years would get you fired in the private sector.)

    • billy

      how can the poor take care of themselves with no job or low paying jobs, meanwhile the rich get richer ?

  • billy

    We only need to do one thing! end free trade and have fair trade! otherwise our way of life, economy, and standard of living will go down until we can compete with third world countrys, in the meantime we will become a third world country !

    • Tina

      I don’t shop at WalMart anymore.  My new place to shop is called “Macy’s”.

  • disi82

    When the government is the only employer able to hire, it is doom for the economy.  The only income the government has for paying those salaries is:  TADA! you guessed it >>>>> tax dollars!   Anyone who pays taxes (and it is so few of us) CANNOT put as much money into the economy through spending or providing jobs if 40% of income goes directly to the government.  The government is clearly irresponsible with our money ( truth: this president has outspent ALL of his predecessors combined).   Wake UP, people.  Don’t believe the lies that most of the media are feeding you: question  them,  research them.   Maybe even listen to the other side for one or two days just to see if there is possibly much more commom sense in what they have to say.  Don’t fall for the scare tactics   Search out the truth. 
      Sure some rich just had it handed to them but the majority worked hard and honestly for their wealth.  Meanwhile many of the homeless I have known got there through some kind of substance abuse or an attitude that someone else owed them  (otherwise known as entitlement).  It’s time for some soul-searching, America.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=508135236 Lauren Packard

    I’ve read that the unemployment rate of 9.1% isn’t including as many of
    those that have rusty skill sets, those that are underemployed or those
    that have given up looking for jobs because they can’t get one. Taking
    into account those MILLIONS of people, the unemployment rate goes up to
    around 16%….

  • Tomtappett

    This guy is a charlaartan – the government does not “create jobs” other than government jobs. For every bureaucrat paper-pusher he has hired, three or four private sector workers have lost their gainful employment. When are they going to JUST STOP SPENDING, get rid of the illegals and put this country back on track toward #1 again?