Obama: Look for economic comeback in small-town America
President Barack Obama speaks during the Rural Economic Forum, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, at Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa.
/ AP Photo/Charlie NeibergallTelling residents of Peosta, Iowa that small towns hold the key to economic recovery, President Obama today announced a series of initiatives aimed at increasing the number of jobs in rural America. The president said the new initiatives are steps the administration can take without consulting Congress -- but he pressed citizens to call on Congress to accomplish more.
"I've been traveling through these small towns and talking to folks, sitting down at diners, and you listen to people," the president said. "You do your part. You meet your obligations. Well, it's time Washington acted as responsibly as you do every single day. It's past time."
On the second day of a three-day tour across the Midwest, the president hosted a rural economic forum at Northeast Iowa Community College. The economic comeback, Mr. Obama said, "isn't going to be driven by Washington. It is going to be driven by folks here in Iowa... It's going to start on the ranchlands and farms of the Midwest, in the workshops of basement inventors, in the storefronts of small- business owners."
But, he added, "the rural economy is still not as strong as it could be."
For that reason, Mr. Obama said his administration is ratcheting up efforts to get capital to small businesses in rural areas and increasing its commitment to small-business lending programs.
"We're going to make it easier for people in rural areas looking for work to find out about companies that are hiring," he said. "We're going to do more to speed the development of next-generation biofuels. And we're going to promote renewable energy and conservation."
On a conference call today, administration officials described a new joint program to produce new-generation biofuels using homegrown, U.S. feedstocks. Three departments -- the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Navy -- will each kick in $170 million to the program, for total of $510 million over three years.
The fuels will first be produced for aviation and marine use by the Navy and then for commercial use. The departments will work with the private sector on the program, which requires no new federal funding -- the funding will come from redirecting existing appropriations.
Mr. Obama said today in Iowa that the new initiatives will be accomplished by simply re-allocating resources.
"But we could do even more if Congress is willing to get in the game," he said. The only thing standing in the way, he said, "is the refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party, and that has to stop. Our economy cannot afford it."
As the president sells his economic policies to the Midwest, his Republican opponents are tearing them down, blaming the president for the stalled economy. As Mr. Obama was speaking in Peosta today, the newest Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry was just about 10 miles away in Dubuque, holding his own economic roundtable with business leaders.
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Folks, have a better idea:
LET US DEMAND THAT THE PRESIDENT SHOW US HIS COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF HIS PROPOSALS, with numbers and benchmarks of success or failure. His initial stimulus was a bust; his green jobs programs were a bust; and his CHEVY VOLT sold a whopping 125 in July. Obama has proven that HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT JOB CREATION, NOR HOW TO GROW AN ECONOMY.
There are a growing number of Americans that are tired calling and writing members of Congress, when we know that it is not the Legislative Branch's responsibility of SUBMITTING BUDGETS! (HAVE NOT HAD A FEDERAL BUDGET IN OVER 850 DAYS MR. OBAMA -- WHY??)
In other words folks, why are we calling Congress when we will not know what we are talking about -- other than saying "OBAMA TOLD US TO CALL YOU AND WHINE!"????
Has Obama totally lost it??? Has he become delusional??
The only way, there will be recovery, in the country, as a whole, is if the Congress passes severe tax penalties for importing products from off shore, by US corporations.
That isn't likely to happen (Congress is in denial of the truth), so, we can expect bad economic conditions far into the future, in the US.
See wording of HR 3962 below:
''(6) NOT TREATED AS TAX IMPOSED BY THIS
2 CHAPTER FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES.—The tax im3
posed under this section shall not be treated as tax
4 imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining
5 the amount of any credit under this chapter or for
6 purposes of section 55."
We all know that President Obama is on a campaign tour, and like many other Presidents, he is going this on the taxpayer's dime. The President calls this a "listening tour", but everyone in the United States knows that he is not listening to anyone. The majority of Americans did not want, and still do not want, this horrible health care law - but it does not matter to President Obama, he has no intention of getting rid of the idiotic law. He has seen the polls on this issue, he simply is not listening. He can call this tour whatever he likes - it does not mean that he is listening.
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The GOP are absolutely hideous.
That being said, Barack is completely hopeless. Why can't he stop spending money??? He might as well just write people a check directly if he wants to help out rather than continuing to throw money at high-risk ventures. Then again, there's a debt crisis!!!
He's got things backwards - what part of spend only what you can afford does he not understand??? Recalibrating trade is the key to revitalizing the global economy - if he was the wonk he pretended to be when he campaigned, he'd know why that is. Instead he thought he could just claim to be one, and then hire advisors to be wonks for him - too bad he can't tell the difference between a nerd and a wonk and wound up with Austan Goolsbie who didn't have a lick of common sense.
If he wants to go down in the history books as one of the greats, he needs to do something about trade. It's the ONLY way ...
Al Gore, Harvard educated man and ex-VP said America could import all her food.
What a slap in the face to the American farmer. When the farm dies nect is the ma and pa store in the rural town and then goes the economy in the large towns and cities because they can't generate enough tax revenues to support their lucrative budgets they've voted for themselves.
I'd rather feed the hogs any day than support the pigs in towns and cities who think money grows on trees.
What is your solution for this country?
I have absolutely no confidence in President Obama's impractical ideas. Prior to accepting the highest Executive position in the world (the Presidency of the United States) he had ZERO executive experience in state or local government (or even in a small business). Prior to being responsible for creating strong economic conditions for the largest economy in the world, this President had ZERO experience in handling a budget of any kind.
His arrogance, mixed with no experience, makes for a bad combination. He is the one who should be listening to those who have succeeded in government and in business (like Governor Perry and Mitt Romney). He has no knowledge to offer.
your against obamacare yet Mass. has romneycare same thing, you doubted obama's birth certificate but you support a man that wants to seceed from the union. Hypocrit.
Reaganomics did not work.
Reagan increased "employment" by tens of thousands by increasing military personal (federal workers). If Obama tried this people would cry socialism. Before Reagan, such statistics did not include military personal and government employees, but Reagan needed a way to boost his figures so they were included.