Political Ruminations

OFA Video: The 100th Day of the Romney Administration

Frightening to contemplate. Vote accordingly.

Obama’s Second Term Agenda

“ It’s time for a new economic patriotism. ”

Watch:

Just in Time

The economy is showing more signs of improving, no doubt also proving that the world has a Liberal bias. At least that’s what Republicans are likely to claim. Via Reuters, emphasis mine:

The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average was up 217.11 points, or 1.66 percent, at 13,264.59 late afternoon in New York. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 26.43 points, or 1.88 percent, at 1,429.87, its highest level in four years.

The rise in U.S. stocks was helped by reports showing American companies added staff in August at the fastest clip in five months and an improvement in service sector employment. A third report showed new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level in a month.

U.S. private employers added a stronger-than-expected 201,000 jobs in August, according to payrolls processor ADP, while the government said new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level in a month.

The data was the latest to hint U.S. economic growth may be recovering, and it raised chances the government's more comprehensive monthly jobs report on Friday could be stronger than economists expect.

"Today's U.S. reports all beat expectations to put a positive spin on the risks as we approach Friday's U.S. jobs data," said Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics in Boulder, Colorado.

So, better than expected job growth, a surge in the stock market, claims for jobless benefits fell………….Mitt Romney is likely to be crying into his cheerios tonight (or drinking on his boat).

Fact Check: Democrats Have Created Most Private Sector Jobs Over 52 Year Period

Last night at the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton made a startling assertion about jobs during his speech:

“…since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats, 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs.

So what’s the job score? Republicans, 24 million; Democrats, 42 [million].”

According to Bloomberg News and federal employment statistics, it is true.

Also, you may not know that investors actually earn more when the presidency is held by a Democrat.

Mitt Romney's Bain Capital Still Outsourcing Our Jobs to China

Mitt Romney’s idea of Labor Day as opposed to yours and mine, is obviously very different. Mr. Romney’s lack of concern for ordinary people is no less than stunning, and that callousness must become common knowledge before we get stuck with Romney-Ryan for four or eight years. That said, I pulled this short excerpt from PoliticusUSA , and I hope that you’ll go read the rest of it (emphasis mine):

Bain Capital is the majority owner in Sensata Technologies in Freeport Illinois that manufactures sensors and controls used in automobiles and aircraft, and for the past 8 months has been dismantled and shipped in pieces to its new location in China. The company required American workers to personally train their Chinese replacements before their jobs are eliminated, and it prompted 170 workers to sign an open letter to Willard Romney petitioning him to prevent their jobs from being outsourced to China. The workers were especially disturbed that a month before the Chinese replacements arrived for training, the company physically removed the American Flag that flew outside the plant because Sensata was afraid of offending the Chinese, and put it back when the foreign workers left. The workers appealed to Romney and Bain Capital to keep their jobs in America, but they were chastised, locked out of buildings, and at one Romney campaign headquarters near Madison Wisconsin, were forcibly removed from the property.

The workers went to Tampa to entreaty Romney personally, and were met by protestors calling them communists and shouting the familiar Republican chant of, “U.S.A., U.S.A.” in an attempt to “make it sound like we were not patriotic” because we wanted to keep good-paying jobs in America. One of the workers said, “it offends 170 people who are having their jobs moved to China to increase the bottom line, because although these products have always been profitable, it’s just not enough,” and that “we need to stop this practice and keep the good paying jobs here; not the lower-paying jobs.” One of the organizers said that while they were in Tampa, they met a lot of people dealing with the same issue of outsourced jobs, or Bain Capital firing workers and hiring them back at very low wages without pensions or healthcare. It is the Bain Capital business model perfected by presidential hopeful Willard Romney, and it has been his standard practice of destroying the American Dream to increase profits.

So, I don’t know about you, but the idea of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in charge of the future of this country gives me nightmares.

Paul Ryan is a Big Fat Liar

Paul Ryan in one of many, many lies, tells people at a campaign stop in Ohio that President Obama made the mess he inherited from former Republican President George W. Bush, worse. Seriously.

“Now, let’s be candid, President Obama clearly inherited a very difficult situation. There are no two ways about that. Problem is, he made things much worse.”

Um, no, President Obama most assuredly did not make things worse.

In fact, President Obama brought this country back from the edge with little help from Republicans who sought to obstruct almost everything with the intention of costing President Obama a second term.

Via Bob Cesca who rightfully claims “President Obama rescued the economy. Period.”.

Flashback Morning Quote: Mitt Romney 2004

During the 2004 election, Mitt Romney made excuses for the jobs slowdown that occurred under George W. Bush during his first term:

“The people of America recognize that the slowdown in jobs that occurred during the early years of the Bush administration were the result of a perfect storm. And an effort by one candidate to somehow say "Oh, this recession and the slowdown in jobs was the result of somehow this president magically being elected..." people in America just dismiss that as being poppycock. And they recognize it as that.”

Quote of the Day

In Iowa today, Joe Biden nailed Mitt Romney as a job creator, referencing Romney’s experience as an outsourcing pioneer:

“You’ve got to give Mitt Romney credit. He’s a job creator. In Singapore. China. India. He’s been very good at creating jobs. Overseas.”

Watch the video:

Via Bob Cesca

Full Text Transcript of Obama Financial Speech in Durham New Hampshire June 25

Full Text Transcript of President Obama’s Speech in Durham, New Hampshire on June 25, 2012

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, New Hampshire! (Applause.) Hello, Durham! (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. It is great to be back in New Hampshire. (Applause.)

A couple of people I want to acknowledge. First of all, wasn't Scott outstanding? Give Scotty a big round of applause for his introduction. (Applause.) I want to thank Todd Allen, who is the principal here at Oyster River High School. (Applause.) And I want to thank our outstanding Senator from New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen. (Applause.) And I want to thank all of you. (Applause.)

I know it's a little warm in here. (Laughter.) That’s okay. That's okay. It is wonderful to be back. And I just have so many good memories here in New Hampshire, and I see some familiar faces and folks who were with me when people were still figuring out how to pronounce my name. (Laughter.)

Morning Quote: President Obama

During his speech at a rally in Tampa yesterday, President Obama referred to the latest revelations about Mitt Romney’s business career, this time calling attention to the fact that Romney’s private equity company, Bain Capital, was an early bird, a pioneer in outsourcing American jobs:

“We do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office, we need a president who will fight for American jobs and fight for American manufacturing!”

Mitt Romney Was an Outsourcing Pioneer

According to a report by the Washington Post, Romney’s company, Bain Capital, was a pioneer in the area of outsourcing:

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […..]

The Post goes into more detail regarding Bain’s role in outsourcing American jobs, noting that Bain was involved with outsourcing early on:

While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment.

Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field.

Over the past two decades, American companies have dramatically expanded their overseas operations and supply networks, especially in Asia, while shrinking their workforces at home. McKinsey Global Institute estimated in 2006 that $18.4 billion in global information technology work and $11.4 billion in business-process services have been moved abroad.

While the export of jobs has been disruptive for many workers and communities in the United States, outsourcing has been a powerful economic force. It has often helped lower the prices that American consumers pay for products and created a global supply chain that has made U.S. companies more nimble and profitable.

And naturally, Romney campaign officials have declined to comment (at least until they can decide how to spin it):

Romney campaign officials repeatedly declined requests to comment on Bain’s record of investing in outsourcing firms during the Romney era.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney had the nerve to tell workers at a factory in Ohio last week  “for me it’s all about good jobs for the American people and a bright and prosperous future”.

Mitt Romney's Chair B-tch

A reader emailed this graphic to me, and I gotta admit, I freaking love it! Don't forget to share!

The source of the graphic is undetermined, so it is posted without credit to the creator.

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney on President Obama’s call for aid to the states, in the interest of preventing layoffs to essential personnel such as police and firefighters (and to avoid, in the process, creating more unemployed people):

“ He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people. ”

There was really only one message from the Wisconsin recall election, and that was that it’s all about the money.

Morning Quote: John Boehner is a Damn Liar

In a private meeting with House Republicans on Thursday morning, Speaker of the House John Boehner had this to say about the 2012 election:

“ "Let's call bulls--- bulls---. This election is about jobs, jobs, jobs. ”

Yes. And House and Senate Republicans have done everything they possibly could to prevent a greater upsurge in the economy by refusing to deal with anything except for far right social issues, and ending Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

In fact, according to Steve Benen , House Republicans went from that meeting to a vote on yet another anti-abortion bill:

Boehner and his caucus will demonstrate their laser-like focus on jobs today with a vote on another anti-abortion bill.

Obama Embraces Populist Themes in Ohio

By Michael Collins

When you take the right side, style trumps substance every time in politics. President Obama was on fire Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, hammering home populist themes that will define his campaign. This was his campaign kick-off. He couldn't have done a better job of stating his case as the candidate of the people, while painting Romney as the darling of The Money Party (Wall Street, big banks).

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The problem with our economy isn’t that the American people aren’t productive enough -- you’ve been working harder than ever. The challenge we face right now -- the challenge we faced for over a decade is that harder work hasn’t led to higher incomes. It’s that bigger profits haven’t led to better jobs. President Obama (Full text of Obama's remarks, Columbus, Ohio, May 5, 2012)

It's not your fault the president tells us, which happens to be absolutely correct. Then he nailed Romney:

Koch Brothers - Big Oil Behind Another Americans for Prosperity Anti-Obama Ad

This is the second recent multi-million dollar ad that Americans for Prosperity (the Tea Party Koch Brothers group) has run against President Obama in the service of Big Oil, and Mitt Romney.

Why? Because Big Oil knows that President Obama will again try to end taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil. Romney will let them keep their subsidies.

From The Washington Post, emphasis mine:

Two well-funded Republican groups began running hard-hitting ads against President Obama last week, aiming to spend an estimated $8 million in key battleground states. The spots hit similar themes, attacking Obama on green-energy investments, and even cite similar sources.

Watching these ads is a depressing duty for The Fact Checker, because many of their claims — regarding “billions” of stimulus dollars going overseas — had been debunked two years ago by our colleagues at PolitiFact and Factcheck.org. Yet here the erroneous assertions emerge yet again, without any shame, labeled as “the truth” or “fact.”

The ads are airing in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia, and in fact, even though I rarely watch television, I happened to catch the latest despicable piece of crap ad over the weekend. I termed the ad "despicable", because of course, the ad is nothing but lies. In fact, they just damn well made stuff up.

Fortunately, the Obama Campaign came out with a response fairly rapidly, and now we need to do our part and get this video seen by everyone we/you/I know! But first, please watch the video, and make a note of the talking points:

Damn our conservative Supreme Court and the Citizens United ruling that allowed our elections to become a mockery of democracy.

Chart of the Day: Trajectory of Unemployment Claims 2007-2012

Steven Benen explains:

In fact, the new figures are the best since April 2008, and even exceeded positive expectations.

The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits fell by 6,000 last week to 357,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had projected claims would total 360,000, seasonally adjusted, in the week ended March 31. Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to

Despite last week's annual revisions, the same metrics still apply: wh363,000 from 359,000. The average of new-benefit applications over the past four weeks, meanwhile, dropped by 4,250 to 361,750.en jobless claims fall below the 400,000 threshold, it's considered evidence of an improving jobs landscape, and when the number drops below 370,000, it suggests jobs are actually being created rather quickly.

And with that, here's the chart -- which reflects the revised, seasonably-adjusted data -- showing weekly, initial unemployment claims going back to the beginning of 2007. (Remember, unlike the monthly jobs chart, a lower number is good news.) For context, I've added an arrow to show the point at which President Obama's Recovery Act began spending money.

UPDATE

More good news on the economic front from The Washington Post:

Add Mark Zandi to the growing chorus of economists who believe that the U.S. is finally headed for a real turnaround. The chief economist for Moody’s Analytics just revised his outlook for 2012, and the biggest change to his forecast involves the unemployment rate. Back in January, Zandi predicted that the rate, which is currently at 8.3 percent, would stay above 8 percent through the end of the year. Now he says it “appears set to fall below 8 percent by year’s end” and believes it will fall below 7 percent by the end of 2013, as he explains in his latest note.

Morning Quote: President Obama on Insourcing Jobs

“First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you have that right, but you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home. Give them the tax break.

Second of all, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. So we've said, from now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay and hire here in the United States of America. Give them a bigger tax break.

Third, if you’re an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you’re a high-tech manufacturer, creating new products, new services, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here in America. If you want to relocate in a community like this one that’s been hard hit when factories left town, you should get help financing a new plant, financing new equipment, training new workers.”

- President Obama talks about tax reform and  insourcing jobs at Master Lock in Wisconsin yesterday.

Watch:

Morning Quote: Andrew Sullivan on President Obama’s Job Performance

“On the economy, the facts are these. When Obama took office, the United States was losing around 750,000 jobs a month. The last quarter of 2008 saw an annualized drop in growth approaching 9 percent. This was the most serious downturn since the 1930s, there was a real chance of a systemic collapse of the entire global financial system, and unemployment and debt—lagging indicators—were about to soar even further. No fair person can blame Obama for the wreckage of the next 12 months, as the financial crisis cut a swath through employment. Economies take time to shift course.

But Obama did several things at once: he continued the bank bailout begun by George W. Bush, he initiated a bailout of the auto industry, and he worked to pass a huge stimulus package of $787 billion.

 

All these decisions deserve scrutiny. And in retrospect, they were far more successful than anyone has yet fully given Obama the credit for. The job collapse bottomed out at the beginning of 2010, as the stimulus took effect. Since then, the U.S. has added 2.4 million jobs. That’s not enough, but it’s far better than what Romney would have you believe, and more than the net jobs created under the entire Bush administration. In 2011 alone, 1.9 million private-sector jobs were created, while a net 280,000 government jobs were lost. Overall government employment has declined 2.6 percent over the past 3 years. (That compares with a drop of 2.2 percent during the early years of the Reagan administration.) To listen to current Republican rhetoric about Obama’s big-government socialist ways, you would imagine that the reverse was true. It isn’t.

 

The right claims the stimulus failed because it didn’t bring unemployment down to 8 percent in its first year, as predicted by Obama’s transition economic team. Instead, it peaked at 10.2 percent. But the 8 percent prediction was made before Obama took office and was wrong solely because it relied on statistics that guessed the economy was only shrinking by around 4 percent, not 9. Remove that statistical miscalculation (made by government and private-sector economists alike) and the stimulus did exactly what it was supposed to do. It put a bottom under the free fall. It is not an exaggeration to say it prevented a spiral downward that could have led to the Second Great Depression.

You’d think, listening to the Republican debates, that Obama has raised taxes. Again, this is not true. Not only did he agree not to sunset the Bush tax cuts for his entire first term, he has aggressively lowered taxes on most Americans. A third of the stimulus was tax cuts, affecting 95 percent of taxpayers; he has cut the payroll tax, and recently had to fight to keep it cut against Republican opposition. His spending record is also far better than his predecessor’s. Under Bush, new policies on taxes and spending cost the taxpayer a total of $5.07 trillion. Under Obama’s budgets both past and projected, he will have added $1.4 trillion in two terms. Under Bush and the GOP, nondefense discretionary spending grew by twice as much as under Obama. Again: imagine Bush had been a Democrat and Obama a Republican. You could easily make the case that Obama has been far more fiscally conservative than his predecessor—except, of course, that Obama has had to govern under the worst recession since the 1930s, and Bush, after the 2001 downturn, governed in a period of moderate growth. It takes work to increase the debt in times of growth, as Bush did. It takes much more work to constrain the debt in the deep recession Bush bequeathed Obama.”

- Conservative-Independent, Andrew Sullivan, excerpted from a Newsweek cover story. The quoted portion of the article focuses on President Obama’s job performance in regards to the economy.

Ironworker to Sen. Scott Brown: Where are the jobs?

Via The Rachel Maddow Show:

“The first question [I would have asked Senator Scott Brown is], where's the jobs? He campaigned on his independent platform about job creation, with the brown jacket and pickup truck. You know, the prop comic. And he came into Washington and everything he's voted has been anti-worker, anti-jobs. So where are the jobs that he promised? I didn't vote for him, personally, but he does represent me in the Senate, and I just had one question to ask him, maybe would have taken 30 seconds, and he just couldn't provide that time today...You know, I can't do what my grandfather did. I can't work my job, buy a house, raise a family and send the kids off to college. The American Dream's not attainable in this economic environment. So, it's been frustrating to say the least.”

- Jay Chambers, third generation iron worker from the Boston area and "Take Back the Capitol" protester, on why he spent much of the day Tuesday camped out in Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown's office hoping to get a chance to talk to the senator

Watch (Mr. Chambers speaks with Rachel starting at approximately 4:05):

Morning Quote: Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Biden [substituting for the president re the weekly address - video after the jump]:

“Today we found out we’ve had the 20th month in a row where we’ve increased private sector jobs -- 104,000 this month, 104,000 private sector jobs.  And as all you know, that's not nearly enough.  We have to increase the pace.  We have to act now to do everything in our power to keep this economy moving and to grow jobs.

President Obama is on his way back from France where he just met with the leaders of the 20 largest economies in the world, where he urged our European friends to step up and stabilize their own economies because if they fail, it will affect the whole world.

Too many Americans are still struggling.  Too many college students here at the University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere are worrying about the rising cost of their tuition, and the increasing accumulation of debt.  And too many of their parents are in stagnant jobs or out of work, wondering if they're going to be able to send their child back to college next semester.

Day 2 - House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, Refuses to Hold a Vote on American Jobs - the White House Responds

This is your daily reminder. On October 3, 2011, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) made it clear that he would not allow a vote in the House on the American Jobs Act.

WHERE are the JOBS, Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Cantor?? The Washington Post:

After Cantor said Monday that House Republicans would not bring Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act to the floor for a vote, the White House struck back by releasing excerpts of the prepared remarks Obama was planning to deliver at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite, Texas, on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’d like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what in this jobs bill he doesn’t believe in,” the president is planning to say. “Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help veterans?”

He will also ask Cantor to “at least put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where every Member of Congress stands.

House Majority Leader Says NO to American Jobs Act Vote

Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) responded to President Obama’s entreaty to the House and the Senate, to vote on the American Jobs Act by the end of the month. Cantor’s response was that there will be no vote on this bill in the House. Period.

As you know, all spending bills must originate in the House, consequently, this bill is dead in the water. I intend to point this out daily. If you’re a Liberal blogger, I hope you will do the same, since it’s imperative that Cantor’s refusal to hold a vote on American jobs be common knowledge.

Washington (CNN) - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor flatly rejected President Obama's call for the House and Senate to hold a vote on his jobs bill by the end of the month, saying Monday the full bill, called the "American Jobs Act," won't get a vote in the House of Representatives. [...]

Instead Cantor announced the House will take up several measures this month that he believes House Republicans and the White House agree on, including the three pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama.

The Majority Leader also said the House would vote on a bill to permanently repeal the 3% withholding tax on businesses that hold government contracts and take up other bills that roll back regulatory barriers for businesses. Cantor said the President Obama has made comments supportive of both of these areas.

So, the anti-regulation Republican House will vote on bills that eliminate regulatory barriers for business, along with providing tax cuts for business.

But, American jobs for American workers? Pffft..........

Image courtesy of CNN
Via Bob Cesca

Video: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

Video: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

                               To read the transcript, click here.

Full Text Transcript: Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act in Cincinnati Ohio on September 22, 2011

                               To watch the video, click here.

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT: Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act -- Cincinnati, OH

2:55 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Hello, Cincinnati!  (Applause.)  Well, it is good to see all of you.  It is good to be back in Cincinnati.  (Applause.)  I have to say I drove by the Bengals’ practice -- (laughter.)  And I was scouting out some plays in case they play the Bears -- (laughter.)  Did I hear somebody boo the Bears?

AUDIENCE:  Booo!  (Laughter.) 

Video & Full Text Transcript of President Obama’s Speech on the American Jobs Act

Watch the speech:

Full Text Transcript of President Obama’s Speech on the American Jobs Act

THE PRESIDENT:  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and fellow Americans:

Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country.  We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that’s made things worse. 

This past week, reporters have been asking, “What will this speech mean for the President?  What will it mean for Congress?  How will it affect their polls, and the next election?”

Morning Quote: Sen. David Vitter

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) on the choice he made to watch football tonight, rather than to attend President Obama’s  jobs speech:

“I have a Saints party...and I am absolutely going to be there for the big game, kick-off of the Saints, and the whole NFL.

[...]As a fanatic, I have my priorities.”

H/T Taegan Goddard

Morning Quote: Rick Perry

Republican presidential hopeful, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, snipes at Mitt Romney on job creation:

“There is no one who's gonna be sitting on that stage who has the record of job creation I have. There's one in particular who's created jobs all around the world. While he was the governor of Massachusetts he didn't create many jobs.”

Full Text Transcript & Video President Obama’s Speech on Labor Day (Detroit, MI)

Watch President Obama speak in Detroit on Labor Day:

Read the full text transcript of President Obama’s remarks to auto workers in Detroit on Labor Day:

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Detroit!  (Applause.)  Thank you, Michigan!  (Applause.)  Oh, this is a --

AUDIENCE: Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  It is --

AUDIENCE: Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.

Quote of the Day II

Rachel Maddow on Speaker of the House John Boehner’s (R-OH) reaction to President Obama’s announcement that he has a jobs plan, soon to be released:

“This is what John Boehner is like as speaker of the House. The president announces job creation ideas that the speaker rejects. The president announces he`ll release a whole new big job creation plan, the speaker says plan? Where is this plan? Dude, that`s the point. That`s the announcement. When somebody says here comes this plan, expect it on this date -- you don’t respond with where is the plan? Who even does that?”

Watch (the segment that contains the quote is at approx. 7:11):

VIDEO: President Obama on Cutting the Deficit and Creating Jobs

President Obama’s weekly address: Cutting the Deficit and Creating Jobs.

Watch:

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT: Remarks of President Barack Obama

Full Text Transcript President Obama Press Conference

Watch the full video of the press conference here.

TRANSCRIPT PRESIDENT OBAMA PRESS CONFERENCE JUNE 29, 2011

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Good morning, everybody.  Have a seat, please.  I just want to say a few words about the economy before I take your questions.

There are a lot of folks out there who are still struggling with the effects of the recession.  Many people are still looking for work or looking for a job that pays more.  Families are wondering how they'd deal with a broken refrigerator or a busted transmission, or how they're going to finance their kids' college education, and they're also worrying about the possibility of layoffs.   

The struggles of middle-class families were a big problem long before the recession hit in 2007.  They weren’t created overnight, and the truth is our economic challenges are not going to be solved overnight.  But there are more steps that we can take right now that would help businesses create jobs here in America. 

Quotes From President Obama’s Press Conference on June 29

I’ve worn out my fingers searching, but have not yet found a video of the press conference that’s embeddable. Once I find an embeddable version, along with a transcript, I’ll post them both here, so check back.

The full video of the press conference is available here.

Full Text Transcript President Obama Press Conference

Quotes from President Obama during today’s presser

On Medicare cuts:

“Before we ask our seniors to pay more for Medicare, before we cut our children's schools, we should ask corporate jet owners to pay more. I don't think that's real radical. I think the majority of Americans agree with that.”

And:

“We’re gonna have to look at entitlements. And that’s always difficult politically. But I’ve been willing to say we need to see where we can reduce the cost of health care spending and Medicare and Medicaid in the out years. Not by shifting costs on to seniors, as some have proposed, but rather by actually reducing those costs.”

On job creation:

“There are a number of steps that my administration is taking, but there are a number of steps that Congress could take. Many of these ideas have been tied up in Congress for some time.”

On the outcome of a default on the debt ceiling:

“By August 2, we run out of tools to make sure that all our bills are paid, so that is a hard deadline. If the United States government for the first time cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the consequences for the US economy will be significant and unpredictable. If by the end of this week we have not seen sustainable progress, we're going to start canceling things and making sure they're (Congress) here until its done.

August 2nd, we run out of tools to make sure our bills get paid. There is no reason we can't get this done now.

At a certain point, they (Congressional leaders) need to do their job. They're in one week, they're out one week ... They need to be here.”

On his requirement that tax increases (on the wealthy and corporations) be a part of the debt ceiling deal:

“If you are a wealthy CEO ... your taxes are lower than they've ever been. You can still afford to ride on your private jet, you're just going to have to pay a little more.”

Immediately after the presser, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that House Republicans will "not agree to a debt limit increase that raises taxes."

Adding.........we can always count on Cantor and Boehner to stand for the rich and the corportions.

Bill Clinton on Putting Americans Back to Work

14 million Americans unemployed.

In this week’s Newsweek, former president Bill Clinton on putting Americans back to work.

14 WAYS TO PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK

Next week in Chicago, the Clinton Global Initiative will focus on America for the first time, inviting business and political leaders to make specific commitments in support of the former president’s jobs blueprint, which he details below.

1. SPEED THE APPROVALS

Harry Hopkins had nowhere near the rules and regulations we have now. (In 1933, Hopkins’s Civil Works Administration put 4 million to work in a month.) I don’t blame the people in the White House for problems in getting shovel-ready projects off the ground; sometimes it takes three years or more for the approval process. We should try to change this: keep the full review process when there are real environmental concerns, but when there aren’t, the federal government should be able to give a waiver to the states to speed up start times on construction projects. We gave states waivers to do welfare reform, so by the time I signed the bill, 43 of the 50 states had already implemented their own approaches. We need to look at that. [….]

Via Poltical Wire

Romney Goes After Obama on Jobs

Watch Romney’s new ad all about teh jobs:

The problem with Romney’s jobs message is that Romney made his money by downsizing companies and outsourcing jobs. Stephen Colbert via Steve Benen, emphasis mine:

“You see, Romney made a Mittload of cash using what’s known as a leveraged buyout. He’d buy a company with ‘money borrowed against their assets, groomed them to be sold off and in the interim collect huge management fees.’ Once Mitt had control of the company, he’d cut frivolous spending like jobs, workers, employees, and jobs. Just like America’s sweetheart, Gordon Gecko.”

“Because Mitt Romney knows just how to trim the fat. He rescued businesses like Dade Behring, Stage Stories, American Pad and Paper, and GS Industries, then his company sold them for a profit of $578 million after which all of those firms declared bankruptcy. Which sounds bad, but don’t worry, almost no one worked there anymore.”

“Besides, a businessman can’t be weighed down with a bleeding heart, as one former Bain employee put it, ‘It was very clinical…. Like a doctor. When the patient is dead, you just move on to the next patient.’ See? Mitt Romney is like a doctor! [On screen: Dr. Kevorkian]”

Anyone who believes in Romney’s jobs message needs to rethink that scenario, cause Mitt Romney surely does love him some good, old-fashioned American jobs slashing.

Steve Benen on Romney’s jobs record, emphasis mine:

Complicating matters, during Romney’s only service in public office, his state’s record on job creation was “one of the worst in the country.” Adding insult to injury, “By the end of his four years in office, Massachusetts had squeezed out a net gain in payroll jobs of just 1 percent, compared with job growth of 5.3 percent for the nation as a whole.”

How bad is Romney’s record? During his tenure, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in jobs growth.

Adding…….via Nancy Pelosi, the latest depiction of the jobs trend from 2008 of the George W. Bush administration, through April 2011 of the Obama administration.

Win America: Multinational Corporations Clamoring for a Tax Holiday

The multinational corporations behind the Win America campaign want a tax holiday because they chose to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by stashing much of their money in offshore tax havens.

The problem with their tax avoidance arises when they want to bring that money back in to the U.S./repatriate that money, and they consequently have to pay a statutory tax rate of 35%. To avoid paying the 35% statutory rate, they then, as history has it, initiate a concerted effort to convince Congress to give them a “tax holiday”. A tax holiday which would result in a 5.25% tax rate on the repatriated funds rather than the statutory rate of 35%. That’s quite a hefty savings.

Wrapped Up

~ Employment report spurs battle over private versus public jobs

~ If you’re interested in the 2012 GOP primary race, Peter Hamby on Jon Huntsman:

Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman told a room of South Carolina Republicans on Saturday that he could finalize his thinking about the GOP presidential race before the month is out, multiple sources present for the closed-door meeting told CNN.

~ Also. Huntsman wooing GOP governors?

~ Newt Gingrich, the proverbial sidekick to P.T. Barnum aka Donald Trump, will announce his run for the GOP presidential nomination on Wednesday via Facebook and Twitter. Classy guy. This should be fun.

~ Adam Serwer takes on Ross Douhat “No, killing of Bin Laden does not represent `continuity’ with Bush”

April Jobs Report

Ezra Klein:

The economy added 244,000 jobs in April. It also added 50,000 more jobs than we thought during February and March. Aside from a few months in the spring of 2010, when the job numbers were inflated by temporary census hires, this is the single best month of job growth we’ve had since the crash.

Because we’re cutting spending rather than spending more to stimulate the economy, this picture may not portend a rosy jobs future, as Ezra also notes:

Political Cartoon of the Week

I outright stole this one from Ashby. Enjoy!

Cartoonist – Ed Stein

WHAT Job Losses Under the Obama Administration?

Job losses under President Obama? What job losses?

Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), like many Republicans, seems to have both a lack of understanding that everything is documented on the internet, and a deeply stupid lack of awareness about which man was president when.

Well, what we've seen is massive job loss that began in about 2008, and I believe that was under Barack Obama.

Graph via Steve Benen

H/T Bob Cesca