Obama: Congress impeding progress on jobs

President Barack Obama boards his motorcade vehicle after visiting a book store in Vineyard Haven, Mass., Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, during a family vacation. / AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — President Barack Obama says members of Congress should put country before politics, set aside their differences and find ways to get people back to work.

The president is vacationing on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, but he recorded his weekly Saturday radio and Internet address earlier in the week while in Alpha, Ill., during an economy-focused Midwestern bus tour.

He said lawmakers in Washington could learn something from the people in small towns in Illinois and Iowa. Mr. Obama said there are some things they could get done right away, such as passing a road construction bill or extending a reduction in the payroll tax that pays for Social Security.

"These are common-sense ideas — ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans," President Obama said. "The only thing holding them back is politics. The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party. That's the problem right now. That's what's holding this country back. That's what we have to change."

President Obama has promoted those ideas and others for weeks and didn't offer any new proposals or rhetoric Saturday. He's saving that for a jobs package he's to unroll in a post-Labor Day speech once he returns to Washington. Instead, Mr. Obama repeated familiar themes Saturday about working to recover from the recession.

"We're coming through a terrible recession; a lot of folks are still looking for work. A lot of people are getting by with smaller paychecks or less money in the cash register," President Obama said. "So we need folks in Washington — the people whose job it is to deal with the country's problems, the people who you elected to serve — we need them to put aside their differences to get things done."

In the Republican address, Ohio Gov. John Kasich boasted of reducing Ohio's budget shortfall and cutting taxes in that state and said it should be a model for the federal government.

He said the federal government should get out of the way and let states succeed without raising taxes or imposing regulations, but he also called on Republicans to work with Democrats without compromising their principles.

"It's my hope President Obama will listen to the people and partner with Republicans to get our economy back to creating jobs and producing growth," Kasich said. "And it's just as important that Republicans not be stiff-necked about working across the aisle when important work must be done. It's OK to compromise on policy, as long as you don't compromise on your principles."

"The playbook we're following here in Ohio is simple: to grow more, you have to tax less, spend less and regulate less," Kasich said. "If we can do it here in Ohio, Washington can — and should — do it also."

[nomorebama]

Our country is on the verge of bankruptcy and so what does Obama do?

He passed Amnesty so we can start taking care of ALL of mexico as well.

Did anyone know that just a few days ago Obama passed Amnesty for illegals?

I am betting you didn't because the media failed to cover it.

While congress is out and no one was paying attention.....Obama passed Amnesty by executive order. Its called Spirit of the Dream Act.

This guy clearly does not care about our country.

[LibbyGarden]

Well, I'm sick and tired of a government that only remembers I'm here on April 16 when it comes time for mailing my big fat check to them. At any rate, there is a mass exodus from the U.S. - something the U.S. census bureau has tried to keep very hush hush about for considerable time now. As it turns out more than 3 million tax-paying American citizens, mostly in the 25-34 age bracket are leaving this country every year. The trend now is to renounce your American citizenry to keep from paying double-taxes as Uncle Sam now demands everyone living abroad does. We simply can't afford to keep shouldering this burden any longer. Not in the mainland, not abroad. What's going to happen when the U.S. gov has succeeded in driving out all of its highly skilled and highly educated American workers? Who will absorb the cost of caring for the ailing and retiring boomers and poor families left behind? There is going to be a brain drain in this country the likes of which we've never seen, but by the time the U.S. gov admits there's a problem, as always, it will be way too late.

[peter_out]

The President needs to get his fiscal 2012 budget in. Everything grinds to a halt again October 1, 2011.

If the President wants to put some people to work, authorize a few oil wells be drilled by the private sector. With the President's support, it will go through Congress and some people will go to work.

If the President wants unemployed oil workers to remain unemployed just keep on yak yak yakking all the time doing nothing to help.

[noloyalisti]

How is this for a DUH headline. It is pretty clear that the Republicons do not care about workers or the middle class. They only represent themselves and their Top 2% corporate masters.

We are seeing the end result of 30 years of failed Reaganomics. You can't keep spending and borrowing and starting wars and giving welfare and entitlements to the rich.

[demsaredaanswer]

I completely agree. if it weren't for them we would probably be out of the recession by now.

[RobAla]

It is clear that President Obama does not care as much for the unemployed as he does for the expansion of the federal government. How does increasing taxes on business help them have the money to hire more workers?

[hairynews]

These same tea politicians who are against debt are getting plenty of things slipped by in every budget. Former Gov-Palin has 49 airports in Alaska most of which have subsidized flights of thousands of dollars each, plus fuel, paid by tax dollars, Alaska gives yearly big oil checks to EVERY resident even though Alaska is part of USA and that makes it US oil(if someone attacks oil rig does Alaska come to rescue or US military?), where is your check? Gov Perry has 7 Army bases,7 Air Force bases, 4 Navy bases and 2 Coast Guard bases for a total of 19 Military Bases. Texas biggest employer is an Air Force Base! Gov Perry also took 25 billion in federal stimulus money right after he said Texas should leave USA and still has a 27 BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT! Gov Perry has so much pork in Texas he farts bacon gas. Bachman gets farm subsidies and her husband gets Medicare checks. The list of these tea party hypocrites goes on and on and on and on and on..........

[hairynews]

Democrats only had a supermajority for 35 days. The chronology is as follows: In 2007 - 2008 the balance was 51-49 and a Republican president. After the 2009 election, the Minnesota Senate race was not decided until July 14, 2009 when Al Franken was sworn in. During that time, Norm Coleman was still serving in the Senate. So the balance was 59-41 for the first six months of 2009 until July 14th, when Franken was sworn in. But the Senate was on summer recess, from August 7th to September 8th, so there were only a total 10 working days of super majority during the summer. Six weeks later, on Aug 26, 2009, Kennedy died, putting the balance at 59-40. Kennedy's replacement was sworn in on September 25, 2009, making the majority 60-40 again. However the Senate Adjourned for the year on October 30th, only giving another 25 days of supermajority. Scott Brown was elected in November, so the total Number of days of Super Majority for Democrats was 35 days. During the last 10 years, Republicans controlled all three branches for 6 years, Democrats for 2. Out the last 10 years the Democrats could only overcome a Republican Filibuster for 35 days. And that's counting Lieberman who was not a real Democrat and not a reliable democratic vote as he joined Republican filibusters dozens of times.

[tsigili]

No......Congress is impeding more wasteful.....indeed squanderous, spending by Obama, on worthless programs that will be totally ineffective.

[lynneab]

The unemployment rate nationally is high and Obama is talking about new jobs on the horizon, but no one is talking about the jobs sent to India and Phillipines the last two years. What impact has the missing jobs made on this high rate? Is part of the Obama plan to reduce unemployment to force U.S. companies to bring back the positions sent to India? There are multiple companies that have moved jobs to India and forced U.S. employees on unemployment. The result is a high unemployment rate and state unemployment trust funds are now empty. Those missing jobs now impact the individual states by causing them to borrow funds from the Fed. The states have to payback the interest to the Fed so they create an assessment fee the employers must pay, impacting them financialy. Bring the lost jobs back to the U.S. and reduce unemployment!

[wardove]

that means they would have to pay a fair wage , why will they ? they would make less, cheaper to pay kids cents then a fair wage

[Bojax39]

I used to wonder how these companies made a profit. If you make widgets and you send the job overseas and put a bunch of people out of work, who has money to buy your widgets?

But then I realized that much of our trade goods go overseas anyway. The companies are not too worried about their American customer base since we're only a small percentage of the consumers the company is targeting.

I thought I'd just confine my consumption to American made goods. Then I noticed not only are the cheap foreign goods so mixed in with our own its hard to tell origins anymore, but so many companies are jumping ship that there are precious few American made products left on the market.

Wish there was a database somewhere that we could refer to to help us buy American made goods.

[hairynews]

Congressional Budget Office

Many good things happen on President Obama's watch, e.g., CBO confirms the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (ARRA -- Obama's 1st stimulus) had positive effects on the US economy. In a report "Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from January 2011 Through March 2011" CBO says ARRA had the following effects through Qtr1 of calendar year 2011:
Raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.1 percent and 3.1 percent
Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.6 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points
Increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 3.3 million, and
Increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 1.6 million to 4.6 million compared with what would have occurred otherwise, as shown in Table 1 (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers.)
Quite a reversal from GW Bush & crew's dismal job loss record (700,000+/month & 7.8million+ total) when they slinked out of Washington DC. While subsequent data indicates Bush's 2008 recession & economic mess was worse than originally estimated, things would have been far worse without Obama's 1st stimulus.

The full CBO report is at:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12185/05-25-ARRA.pdf
Quite a reversal from GW Bush & crew's dismal job loss record (700,000+/month & 7.8million+ total) when they slinked out of Washington DC. While subsequent data indicates Bush's 2008 recession & economic mess was worse than originally estimated, things would have been far worse without Obama's 1st stimulus.

[lami987]

I have no doubt republicans in congress are doing all they can to stop Obama's plans, any plan, especially on economy. Indeed since republican took over House of congress stock prices and job creation have stalled. Those two numbers are still better than when Obama took office but they will keep on trying until those numbers become worse. Republicans even oppose the replacement of incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient commpact fluorescent bulbs.

[Bojax39]

The republicans wouldn't be in control now if Obama hadn't arrogantly shoved that damned health care program down America's throat.

Doing so galvanized American voters to dump many of the lawmakers who participated in that travesty and resulted in giving the GOP the power it needed to create huge stumbling blocks for the president.

The GOP is now so sensitized to Obama that it doesn't matter if his ideas are good or bad, they'll try to block them on general principle. It's his, (and our), misfortune that his opposition is willing to screw the country to the wall to do so.

Result is that Obama won the battle but lost the war and it could very well cost him reelection. He has nothing to whine about since much of this debacle is his own doing.

[1pheasant1]

by miamivic2 August 21, 2011 8:45 AM EDT
"My brother...resorted to calling me a racist."

by miamivic2 August 21, 2011 9:09 AM EDT
"I'm hispanic (as in minority) in case you cared to know."

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Now you sound like the black sheep of the whole Hispanic community. Are you trying to gain some sympathy, or something?