Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama has set off another round of accusations and denials this week with an interview he gave on Sunday about who should be blamed for the slow economy.

During a discussion about whether he had fulfilled his campaign promises to jumpstart the economy from its Bush-era doldrums, an NBC Today show interviewer asked him whether he should be re-elected based on his job performance.

“I deserve a second term but we’re not done,” Obama said.

His supporters mention that unemployment has dropped from the previous 9.1 percent rate in September to 8.3 percent in January.

Obama greeted the January jobs report by saying, “In January, American businesses added another 257,000 jobs. The unemployment rate came down, because more people found work. And altogether, we have added 3.7-million jobs over the last 23 months.”

In addition, the gross domestic product is increasingly moderately, compared with a decline in production during the worst of the recession.

The improvements can be found in the stock market, which has been making steady gains for nearly a year.

Major polling firms report that Obama’s approval rating is going up along with improvements in the economy.

However, his Republican opponents in the upcoming presidential election say he is overburdening taxpayers and businesses with new regulations and social programs. They also say he has failed to meet the goals he set early in his administration.

Among his goals was keeping the unemployment rate below 8 percent.

“This week he has been trying to take a bow for 8.3-percent unemployment,” said Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. “Not so fast, Mr. President. This is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” program, “Unemployment has dropped. Well, it has dropped. You know why? Because over 4 percent of the people who would be unemployed have quit looking for work. If we had the same participation rate we had a couple years ago, we would be at 12- or 13-percent unemployment.”

The criticisms continued this week by business leaders and top members of Congress during an economic forum sponsored by YG Network, a free enterprise advocacy group, at a Washington, D.C. hotel.

“We ought to take a thorough look at the things that are standing in the way,” said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

He said he would introduce a bill to reduce the small business tax by 20 percent as an incentive for more people to start their own businesses.

“It is about sales growth, it is about growth and innovation,” Cantor said.

He accused Obama of trying to remove risk from the economy by imposing more financial and safety regulations on businesses that are driving up their costs. In addition, tough new banking regulations intended to prevent another recession are making it hard for businesses to get the credit they need for loans.

“Through risk comes innovation,” Cantor said.

Other concerns about government regulation came from Tom Stemberg, former chief executive officer of the office supply company Staples.

He said that if he was trying to start a company like Staples now, he could not get the credit he needed for a business loan.

“There’s no chance in the world it would meet the standards of today’s banks,” Stemberg said.

He said many of the bank regulations are unnecessary and duplicative, creating what he called “a $300 million bureaucracy” to regulate banks.

Steve Case, founder of America Online and now the chief executive officer of an investment firm, said he was concerned that government regulations made it difficult for businesses to hire more people.

“If you want to focus on the economy, you focus on jobs,” Case said.

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Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama made just one explicit mention of the 2010 health law. Here is a transcript of the few parts of his speech that mentioned health care issues:

Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking place in our federally-financed labs and universities could lead to new treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched. …

I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny your coverage, or charge women differently than men. …

Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else – like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we’re serious about paying down our debt, we can’t do both.

The American people know what the right choice is. So do I. As I told the Speaker this summer, I’m prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors. …

I recognize that people watching tonight have differing views about taxes and debt; energy and health care. But no matter what party they belong to, I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right about now: Nothing will get done this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken. …

I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. That’s … That’s why we’re getting rid of regulations that don’t work. That’s why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program. …

Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they served us. That includes giving them the care and benefits they have earned – which is why we’ve increased annual VA spending every year I’ve been president.

————————————————————–

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels delivered the Republican response. Here are excerpts of his remarks:

[We] must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and Social Security have served us well, and that must continue. But after half and three quarters of a century respectively, it’s not surprising that they need some repairs. We can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those now in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new, affordable safety net so future Americans are protected, too.

Decades ago, for instance, we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us. Now, we can’t, so the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.

The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing. Listening to them much longer will mean that these proud programs implode, and take the American economy with them. …

It’s not fair and it’s not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down time and time again by the President and his Democratic Senate allies.

This year, it falls to Republicans to level with our fellow citizens about this reality: if we fail to act to grow the private sector and save the safety net, nothing else will matter much. …

In word and deed, the President and his allies tell us that we just cannot handle ourselves in this complex, perilous world without their benevolent protection. Left to ourselves, we might pick the wrong health insurance, the wrong mortgage, the wrong school for our kids; why, unless they stop us, we might pick the wrong light bulb!

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Friday launched an effort to trim extra fat from governmental machinery with a first list of agencies under the Department of Commerce.

Urging Congress to reinstate “fast track authority,” of the president, Obama said, “We live in a 21st-century economy, but we’ve still got a government organized for the 20th century.”

Addressing an audience of invited business community, Obama blamed the tug of war between the White House and Congress for the failure of successive administrations to limit the ballooning government workforce, saying, “Too often past attempts to streamline government got caught up in beltway politics and power struggles that prevented meaningful consolidation.”

Noting that, “new agencies were added without taking any away,” President Obama said, “Almost every President from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan had reorganization authority.”

Obama was referring to a reorganization authority to President Herbert Hoover, handed during the Great Depression but later Congress took away that authority during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

“Congress needs to reinstate the authority it has given to Democratic and Republican presidents for decades,” said President Obama.

Giving as one his favorite examples of inefficient government apparatus, Obama said, “The Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in saltwater,” adding, “No business or non-profit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations.”

Launching his first plan, Obama proposed combining six agencies from the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, United States Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Trade and Development Authority.

“Over half of the Commerce Department’s budget is actually NOAA, so NOAA would move to the Interior Department,” said Jeff Zients, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget.

Addressing journalists at the White House briefing room, Zients, who is also the President’s chief performance officer, the first ever chief performance officer, said the proposal would club together, “the core business and trade business components of the Department of Commerce — along with SBA — the Small Business Administration — USTR, Ex-Im, OPIC and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. All six of those consolidated and integrated into one.”

“We’d have one department where entrepreneurs can go from the day they come up with an idea and need a patent, to the day they start building a product and need financing for a warehouse, to the day they’re ready to export and need help breaking into new markets overseas,” Obama said.

Moreover, President Obama elevated the Small Business Administration to Cabinet-level status saying, “I’m elevating the Small Business Administration to a cabinet-level agency. Karen Mills, who’s been doing a terrific job leading that agency, will make sure that small business owners have their own seat at the table in my Cabinet meetings.”

With a history of strained relations with Republican-led House of Representatives, President Obama said, “With or without Congress, I’m going to keep at it. I’m hopeful it’s with Congress because this is an area where we can receive bipartisan support, because making our government more responsive, strategic and leaner should not be a partisan issue.” 

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The 2011 curtain on the ongoing political drama in Washington came down on Friday as President Barack Obama signed a bill extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for two months, and urged Congress “to keep working without drama” to extend them through 2012 when it returns in January.

Citing the extension as “some good news, just in the nick of time for the holidays,” President Obama said, “This continues to be a make-or-break moment for the middle class in this country, and we’re going to have to roll up our sleeves together — Democrats and Republicans — to make sure that the economy is growing, and to make sure that more jobs are created.”

President Obama addressed journalists in the Brady press briefing room as helicopter engines could be heard revving on the South Lawn for the president as he left immediately for his holiday break in Hawaii.

Earlier the final chapter of the drama in Washington started when Republicans in the House of Representatives labeled the two-month extension a gimmick, after the Senate including Republicans had voted the bill with a thumping majority of 85 votes.

The Republican-controlled House voted 229-193 with no Democratic support to reject the two-month bipartisan Senate measure and called for a yearlong extension of the tax cut.

The House Republicans were forced to back down on their demands for a longer extension under pressure from the public and within their party when the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky implored House Speaker John Boehner to accept the deal that McConnell had stuck last week with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

The tensions of the drama fizzled out early Friday as first the Senate and then the House of Representatives rapidly approved a compromise to extend the tax cut for two months.

“Thank you, guys. Aloha,” Obama said as he left the briefing room to depart for Hawaii where his wife, Michelle Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sasha have been since last weekend, while he remained in Washington struggling with Congress over extending the payroll-tax cut.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. lawmakers were further pressurized by President Barack Obama on Monday not to let the middle class Americans down and give their nod to the continuation of tax cuts as economy limps back into recovery zone.

Addressing journalists at the Brady press room in the White House, the president asked Congress not to “raise taxes on” the American people, saying “Now is the time to keep growing the economy, to keep creating jobs, to keep giving working Americans the boost that they need.”

With a middle class crusader attitude, President Obama upped the pressure on Congress calling it “a terrible mistake for Congress to go home for the holidays without extending unemployment insurance.”

“If that happens, then in January they’ll be leaving 1.3 million Americans out in the cold. For a lot of families, this emergency insurance is the last line of defense between hardship and catastrophe,” said Obama, cautioning, “Taking that money out of the economy now would do extraordinary harm to the economy.”

Reminding the Republicans of their efforts a year ago in a bipartisan way with the Democrats, Obama said, “A year ago at this time, both parties came together to cut payroll taxes for the typical American family by about $1,000.”

“If Congress fails to renew this tax cut before then (the year end), that same family will see a tax hike of about $1,000 a year,” cautioned the president, challenging the Republicans, “Keep your word to the American people … Don’t raise taxes on them right now.”

According to fiscal pundits the current payroll tax of 4.2 percent is climb up to 6.2 percent at the start of 2012 if Congress doesn’t act to extend the reduced rate.

Later post-Obama speech, during the regular press briefing by Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, the administration unveiled a digital clock as a backdrop and also on its website, counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the tax cut will expire if Congress doesn’t act.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – European leaders met with President Barack Obama Monday at the White House to figure out how to avoid another worldwide economic collapse.

Obama is pressuring the 17-nation European Union to resolve its banking and debt crises before they drag down the U.S. economy’s shaky recovery from recession.

“This is something they need to solve and they have the capacity to solve, both financial capacity and political will,” White House press spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.

At the same time, the European Union is trying to show the United States and other countries that it is managing its economic problems appropriately as the Europeans seek foreign investment.

Few details of the meeting were released publicly after U.S. and European officials said they preferred to keep the negotiations private.

However, they gave a glimpse of what would be discussed in statements before the meeting.

“We need also to develop a transatlantic agenda to growth and jobs,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

He hinted that new regulations could be coming on U.S. and European trade when he said, “…we will also be discussing how to increase our international cooperation and build a stronger and fairer rules-based system.”

The meeting Monday was one of several recent discussions between Obama and European economic leaders.

He has telephoned Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Greek Prime Minster Lukas Papademos to talk about strategies for avoiding economic collapse.

First Greece, Ireland and Portugal were facing default on their debt, beginning about two years ago. Now Spain, Italy and France are facing the same kinds of problems.

Obama has called the European debt crisis one of the greatest threats to the U.S. economic recovery.

The European Union’s primary method of handling its debt crisis is through the $440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility, which provided emergency bailout loans to Greece, Italy and Ireland in exchange for concessions on how their budgets are structured.

European economic ministers still are trying to figure out how they will protect government bond markets.

Foreign investment from the United States could be one of the backstop funding sources they seek.

They also are considering allowing the European Central Bank to buy out at-risk national debt as the lender of last resort for member countries and their banks.

However, advocates of the proposal must overcome opposition from Germany, which has Europe’s largest economy.

Among European economic leaders at the meeting Monday with Obama was European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

“We will both need to take action to address the near-term growth concerns as well as fiscal and financial vulnerabilities,” Van Rompuy said. “Together, we will also look for ways to use our very strong economic ties for creating growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The meeting at the White House comes less than two weeks before the European economic leaders are scheduled to discuss tighter controls over budgets of European Union member nations.

At the Dec. 9 meeting, Germany, France and Italy are expected to take the lead in a move to change the treaty that governs the European Union.

Their proposed revisions would force member nations to submit to frequent audits of their economic policies and to ask for agreement from other European nations before seeking outside financial assistance.

The proposals would be the broadest rewrite of Europe’s economic policies since the European Union was formed in 1967.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama in a statement on Thursday expressed his determination to take America ahead on the economic recovery path promising, “to do everything in my power to move this country forward,” after the Senate with unanimous Republican vote blocked a part of his job plan with a $60 billion bill to fund infrastructure projects around the country.

“It makes no sense when you consider that this bill was made up of the same kinds of common-sense proposals that many of these Senators have fought for in the past,” said Obama, highlighting that the bill was “fully paid for.”

Calling “Republicans in Washington” as out of touch with “Americans from all ends of the political spectrum,” Obama asked the Republican Senators to explain to American people saying, “They deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now.”

Mincing no words, President Obama who is in France, attending G20 Summit, said in his statement, “It’s time for Republicans in Congress to put country ahead of party and listen to the people they were elected to serve. It’s time for them to do their job and focus on Americans’ jobs.”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Senate rejected President Barack Obama’s $417-billion jobs bill on Tuesday night.

The senators voted 50 to 48. Although two votes higher, the vote was still short of 60 votes for the jobs bill to move forward. There were 46 Republicans and two Democrats who voted against the jobs bill.

The two Democrats are Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Sen. Jon Testor of Montana, who will likely now face tough reelection campaigns next year because of their vote.

The bill proposed payroll tax cuts for workers and businesses, and $175 billion spending on roads, school repairs and infrastructure to create more jobs for Americans. It also plans to extend further unemployment assistance and help local government avoid layoff of teachers, firefighters and police.

Republicans voted against the jobs bill because of its similarity with the stimulus plan that Washington approved in 2009, but apparently failed to improve the country’s laggard economy.

Obama spent several weeks promoting the bill through a campaign tour across the U.S. The White House also sent a letter to 16 Democratic governors to ask their congressional leaders to support the jobs bill, which sought to reduce the country’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

Obama said he plans to break the legislation into pieces, specifically an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. The president said the Senate’s vote does not mean the end of this fight to help create more employment opportunities for U.S. residents.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – There was laughter and goodwill as Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed a select audience of law enforcement officials in Alexandria in Virginia saying, “We need better roads, we need better bridges, we need safer streets.”

Sending a message to Congress to pass the $450-billion American Jobs Act Biden said, “We’ve got to kick start this economy that’s stalled.”

Speaking at the spacious new headquarters of the Alexandria Police Department in Alexandria, Va., Vice President Biden announced that the hosting organization had won funds for the hiring of four new officers with the almost $859,000 it received from the more than $243 million in grant funds.

Keeping the focus on American Jobs Act, Biden said, “We need to be in a position where our kids are in classrooms where there’s enough qualified teachers, where they are in fact in classes where they are safe.”

“Look, we should be doing all of this stuff even if we were growing by 8%, even if there was a 3% unemployment rate in America,” Biden. The recent unemployment rate continue to hover above 9% although it was around 7% when President Barack Obama took office in 2008.

In November 2010 the unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent for the third time since Obama signed the first stimulus bill into law. In August 2011 the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.

Education and jobs for teachers was another major thrust of Biden speech as he talked about getting hundreds of thousands of teachers back to work.

“If anyone is gonna define what the middle class is — which is what we say this is all about — it’s a school teacher, a firefighter, a law enforcement officer. That is the definition of middle class,” Biden stressed.

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook thanked the Vice President for the federal grant of $900,000 but noted that he was still about 30 officers short of where he’d like to be as the department continued under pressure for nearly three years with budget cuts.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The Senate plans to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would eliminate duties on some imports from 129 nations.

The trade preferences bill has been stalled in a dispute over whether free trade means more Americans lose their jobs to overseas competitors.

President Barack Obama has said he will support the trade preferences bill, but only if it includes a program to retrain American workers who lose their jobs to foreigners.

He is holding up action on three free trade agreements until a job retraining program is included in the trade preferences bill. The free trade agreements would be with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Even Republicans who disputed whether to give in to Obama’s demands are saying they can wait no longer.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said at a new conference, “Nothing has been done and the United States is losing its leadership in what we’ve done for 60 years in world trade, leading the rest of the world. The status quo has to end.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the bill, called the Generalized System of Preferences, would prevent the loss of 380,000 jobs.

The free trade agreements, and the duty-free imports bill, are at the heart of disputes over whether preferences for certain foreign imports help or hurt the economy.

Big businesses say the trade preferences give them access to cheaper raw materials and products they sell in the United States, thereby giving their customers a price break.

Labor unions say lowering tariffs for foreign companies with trade preferences results in more American factories and other businesses shutting down.

The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement this week urging quick action in Congress to approve the Generalized System of Preferences.

“The vast majority of U.S. imports using [trade preferences] are raw materials, parts and components or machinery and equipment used by U.S. companies to manufacture goods in the United States for domestic consumption or for export,” the statement said. “The longer we wait to pass the agreements the more market share we lose to our competitors overseas.”

Companies that support the foreign trade preferences include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc.

Since the old trade preferences lapsed Jan. 1, American companies claim to be paying an additional $1.8 million a day in additional tariffs on the goods they import.

The new Generalized System of Preferences bill, HR 2832, would lower tariffs on about 4,800 items, such as radial tires, machinery, silver jewelry and raw materials.

Other support for the bill comes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The foreign trade preferences legislation would “create a path forward for approval of the pending trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, which are among the Chamber’s top legislative priorities this year,” said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs.

Senate leaders working on the bill are hinting they will attach an amendment inserting the job retraining program Obama and other Democrats demand. They hope the amendment will give the bill the votes it needs to pass.

After the amendment is attached, the Senate is expected to send the bill back to the House for another vote. The House already approved its own trade preferences bill two weeks ago.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was optimistic about getting the trade bills passed. He said new agreements among senators have created a “path forward” for the proposed legislation.

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