No, it's not. Liar.
It's urgent for your political career, only.
Posted on 10/03/2009 5:56:35 AM PDT by cc2k
The President discusses ongoing efforts to spur job creation. He also explains why health insurance reform is needed not just for long-term economic stability, but in the immediate future, discussing statistics on how costs will continue to skyrocket and hurt small businesses even next year.
download .mp3 |download .mp4 (108 MB) | read the transcript
Transcript (from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/...
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 3, 2009
WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Explains
How Health Insurance Reform Will Strengthen America’s Small BusinessesWASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Barack Obama spoke of how the rising costs of health care are stifling America’s small businesses, and how reform will strengthen these businesses and the economy. Small businesses create roughly half of all new jobs, but they also pay up to 18 percent more for the very same insurance plans as larger businesses. Too many have been forced to cut benefits, drop coverage, shed jobs, or shut their doors entirely. Health insurance reform is integral to laying a new foundation for our economy so that small businesses can grow and create new jobs.
The audio and video will be available at 6:00am Saturday, October 3, 2009 at www.whitehouse.gov.
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Washington, DCOctober 3, 2009
When I took office eight months ago, our nation was in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we’d seen in generations. While I was confident that our economy would recover, we know that employment is often the last thing to come back after a recession. Our task is to do everything we possibly can to accelerate that process.
And we’ve certainly made progress on this front since the period last winter when we were losing an average of 700,000 jobs each month. But yesterday’s report on September job losses was a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts, and that we will need to grind out this recovery step by step.
That’s why I’m working closely with my economic team to explore additional options to promote job creation. And I won’t let up until those who seek jobs can find them; until businesses that seek capital and credit can thrive; and until all responsible homeowners can stay in their homes.
It won’t be easy. It will require us to lay a new foundation for our economy – one that gives our workers the skills and education they need to compete; that invests in renewable energy and the jobs of the future; and that makes health care affordable for families and businesses – particularly small businesses, many of which have been overwhelmed by rising health care costs.
This is something I hear about from entrepreneurs I meet – people who’ve got a good idea, and the expertise and determination to build it into a thriving business. But many can’t take that leap because they can’t afford to lose the health insurance they have at their current job.
I hear about it from small business owners who want to grow their companies and hire more people, but they can’t, because they can barely afford to insure the employees they have. One small business owner wrote to me that health care costs are – and I quote – "stifling my business growth." He said that the money he wanted to use for research and development, and to expand his operations, has instead been "thrown into the pocket of healthcare insurance carriers."
These small businesses are the mom and pop stores and restaurants, beauty shops and construction companies that support families and sustain communities. They’re the small startups with big ideas, hoping to be the next Google, or Apple, or HP. Altogether, they create roughly half of all new jobs.
And right now, they are paying up to 18 percent more for the very same insurance plans as larger businesses because they have higher administrative costs and less bargaining power. Many have been forced to cut benefits or drop coverage. Some have shed jobs or shut their doors entirely. And recent studies show that if we fail to act now, employers will pay six percent more to insure their employees next year – and more than twice as much over the next decade.
Rising health care costs are undermining our businesses, exploding our deficits, and costing our nation more jobs with each passing month.
So we know that reforming our health insurance system will be a critical step in rebuilding our economy so that our entrepreneurs can pursue the American Dream again, and our small businesses can grow and expand and create new jobs again.
That is precisely what the reform legislation before Congress right now will do. Under these proposals, small businesses will be able to purchase health insurance through an insurance exchange, a marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now.
Small businesses won’t be required to cover their employees, but many that do will receive a tax credit to help them pay for it. If a small business chooses not to provide coverage, its employees will receive tax credits to help them purchase health insurance on their own through the insurance exchange.
And no matter how you get your insurance, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny your coverage because of a pre-existing condition. They won’t be able to drop your coverage if you get too sick, or lose your job, or change jobs. And we’ll limit the amount your insurance company can force you to pay out of your own pocket.
By now, the urgency of these reforms is abundantly clear. And after long hours of thoughtful deliberation and tough negotiation, the Senate Finance Committee – the final congressional committee involved in shaping health care legislation – has finished the process of crafting their reform proposal.
As we move forward in the coming weeks, I understand that members of Congress from both parties will want to engage in a vigorous debate and contribute their own ideas. And I welcome those contributions. I welcome any sincere attempts to improve legislation before it reaches my desk. But what I will not accept are attempts to stall, or drag our feet. I will not accept partisan efforts to block reform at any cost.
Instead, I expect us to move forward with a spirit of civility, a seriousness of purpose, and a willingness to compromise that characterizes our democratic process at its very best. If we do that, I am confident that we will pass reform this year, and help ensure that our entrepreneurs, our businesses, and our economy can thrive in the years ahead. Thank you.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
Government world wide is going to make this bad situation worse. None of their purposed fixes is going to actually fix anything.
What would make sense is a $1000 tax credit to business who hire new employees to cover training and hiring costs. Add to that a renewal of the Bush tax cuts to provide business with long term incentives to invest and spend and the economy will get moving again.
What all this govt intervention is doing is causing business, and capital, to hunker down in a bunker mentality wondering what new Govt boondoggle they are going to be told to pay for.
The problem is lack of jobs, the solution is to incentives the 10s of thousands of businesses around the country to hire a few people.
That is a long term solution that also provides immediate short term gains.
In a nutshell, what he’s saying is, the federal government’s cash flow is in bad need of a cash infusion—which it will get if the feds takeover the health industry. This is NOT about one American’s health care—this is about steering the health care industry’s money and jobs into the public sector, because the feds are sucking wind. Starve the government into massive layoffs, and the country will get better!!
Look folks, until 0bummerCare, Cap and Tax, forced unionization, Porkulus continuation, money supply blowout, and other Tax Increases are defeated, get the hell out of U.S. Investments.
We have possibly the worst investment climate this side of Zimbabwe.
Until 0bummer is soundly defeated, capital should flee, nobody should hire, and we should all grow vegetables.
Who is going to hire in that climate?
The only things that are accelerating are the unemployment rate and the rates of foreclosure on homes. Extending unemployment benefits, expanding welfare and foodstamp eligibility are hardly stimulative, but those are the only things that are being funded. We’re on track to exceed 2 million foreclosures this year, and that will only get worse into next year.
Remember all of those “shovel ready projects”?? We all knew that was a farce from the beginning, and I doubt anyone takes pleasure in saying “we told you so!”, but not even the Unions (outside of the UAW) are getting any of that “stimulus” money either. It turns out that the Chinese and Japanese aren’t buying our debt any longer, and during the 2nd Quarter, the Fed bought about half of the Treasuries that were offered, essentially printing money in massive amounts. The fact is that even if there was a way to spend all of that “stimulus” money that Congress approved, the Treasury simply cannot raise that kind of cash.
And Ben Bernacke sez the recession is essentially over...
The Labor Department admits to a 9.8% National unemployment rate, but it took no time yesterday for reliable evidence to surface that the real rate is closer to 17%. Here locally, the unemployment rate was 13.9% in August, and it will be mid-October before we find out what September looks like.
It is grim and getting grimmer here as Fall comes on. God help us when this house of cards finally collapses.
So that is going to be the excuse for unemployment.
The republicans wouldn’t sign onto O’s health care plan.
It is surreal to watch the liberal wrecking crew take US down brick by brick. Didn’t Colin Powell once say something like, regarding ‘military’ operations, you break it you own it. Well that same application is going to be the face of liberalism forever, once they destroy the US ‘health care’ economy.
Weak.
If healthcare reform is the fix for the economy then what was the stimulus package for?
And how would healthcare reform help create jobs now when the reform doesn’t kick in until 2013?
Not to mention the fact that a government takeover of healthcare isn’t going to help the economy at all.
I call B S on Barak Obama MmmMmmMmm
It’s time to stand and say it in unisome ...
Obammunism, pay back whitey, that's all that is going on here.
Here’s a video of Sen. McConnell’s press conference regarding the senate version of health care reform. CSPAN.org doesn’t have any formal Republican response to this specific WH release, yet anyway.
Chicago is OUT!!???
As Sinatra said,
Chicago is.
If Obama keeps on his job creating trajectory, we will all be unemployed.
As you say, the economy would do just fine if government would get out of the way, reduce regulations, reduce taxes, end the threat of job-killing anti-CO2 legislation and stop the pipe dream of chasing rainbow energy sources. Every action Congress takes kills jobs and sends them to other countries.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.