Canceled.LTroll.8
Banned
Well, first of all, even though economists may say that the recession officially ended last year, obviously for the millions of people who are still out of work, people who have seen their home values decline, people who are struggling to pay the bills day to day, it’s still very real for them.
And I think we have to go back to what was happening when I was first sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
We went through the worst recession since the Great Depression. Nothing has come close.
In fact, if you look at the consequences of the recession in the ‘80s, the recession in the ‘90s, and the recession in 2001, and you combine all three of those, it still wasn’t as bad as this recession that we went through.
So the month I was sworn in we lost 750,000 jobs; the month after that 600,000; the month after that 600,000. This is before any of our plans had a chance to take effect.
The financial markets were on the verge of meltdown and the economy was contracting about 6 percent.
By far, the largest contraction we've seen since the ‘30s.
You combine all that and what that meant was that we had to take some steps very quickly just to make sure that the financial system was not collapsing, that people could get auto loans, could get student loans, that businesses large and small could get some financing to keep their doors open and to keep their payrolls on track, and in addition, we had to make sure that we didn’t slip into a Great Depression.
Now, we've done that.
Those programs that we put in place worked.
S,o now you’ve got a financial system that is stable.
It’s still not as strong as it was back in 2006, 2007, but it is stabilized.
You’ve got now eight consecutive months of private sector job growth.
Businesses are able to borrow again.
They’re investing again.
They’re making profits again.
That's all the good news.
The challenge is, is that the hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting, and probably some folks are still having a tough time, and so the question then becomes what can we now put in place to make sure that the trend lines continue in a positive direction, as opposed to going back in the negative direction.
Last week, we got some good news.
After fighting for several months, we finally got a small business tax cut bill in place so that we’re eliminating capital gains for small businesses and startups, making sure that they can get loans, because small businesses are the ones that have been hardest hit in terms of not being able to get capital.
We have put forward proposals, for example, to accelerate investment here in the United States instead of overseas in research and development and plants and equipment that could put people back to work.
So, there are a lot of plans in place that can make improvement, but it’s slow and steady, as opposed to the kind of quick fix that I think a lot of people would like to see.
But, the thing I’ve just got to remind people of is the fact that it took us a decade to get into the problem that we’re in right now.
The Wall Street Journal came out with a report based on Census information that the years from 2001 to 2009, the middle class actually saw their wages decline by 5 percent.
This was before the financial crisis.
So, these have been some long-term trends of the middle class having a lot of problems out there, and what we’ve got to do now it to reverse it, but something that took 10 years to create is going to take a little more time to solve.
The whole reason I ran was because my life is a testimony to the American dream, and everything that we’ve been doing since I came into office is designed to make sure that that American dream continues for future generations.
I think the challenge right now is that I’m thinking about the next generation and there are a lot of folks out there who are thinking about the next election.
If I were making decisions based on November, then I wouldn’t have done some of the things that I did because I knew they weren’t popular.
But, they were the right thing to do, and that's got to be my top priority.
And I think we have to go back to what was happening when I was first sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
We went through the worst recession since the Great Depression. Nothing has come close.
In fact, if you look at the consequences of the recession in the ‘80s, the recession in the ‘90s, and the recession in 2001, and you combine all three of those, it still wasn’t as bad as this recession that we went through.
So the month I was sworn in we lost 750,000 jobs; the month after that 600,000; the month after that 600,000. This is before any of our plans had a chance to take effect.
The financial markets were on the verge of meltdown and the economy was contracting about 6 percent.
By far, the largest contraction we've seen since the ‘30s.
You combine all that and what that meant was that we had to take some steps very quickly just to make sure that the financial system was not collapsing, that people could get auto loans, could get student loans, that businesses large and small could get some financing to keep their doors open and to keep their payrolls on track, and in addition, we had to make sure that we didn’t slip into a Great Depression.
Now, we've done that.
Those programs that we put in place worked.
S,o now you’ve got a financial system that is stable.
It’s still not as strong as it was back in 2006, 2007, but it is stabilized.
You’ve got now eight consecutive months of private sector job growth.
Businesses are able to borrow again.
They’re investing again.
They’re making profits again.
That's all the good news.
The challenge is, is that the hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting, and probably some folks are still having a tough time, and so the question then becomes what can we now put in place to make sure that the trend lines continue in a positive direction, as opposed to going back in the negative direction.
Last week, we got some good news.
After fighting for several months, we finally got a small business tax cut bill in place so that we’re eliminating capital gains for small businesses and startups, making sure that they can get loans, because small businesses are the ones that have been hardest hit in terms of not being able to get capital.
We have put forward proposals, for example, to accelerate investment here in the United States instead of overseas in research and development and plants and equipment that could put people back to work.
So, there are a lot of plans in place that can make improvement, but it’s slow and steady, as opposed to the kind of quick fix that I think a lot of people would like to see.
But, the thing I’ve just got to remind people of is the fact that it took us a decade to get into the problem that we’re in right now.
The Wall Street Journal came out with a report based on Census information that the years from 2001 to 2009, the middle class actually saw their wages decline by 5 percent.
This was before the financial crisis.
So, these have been some long-term trends of the middle class having a lot of problems out there, and what we’ve got to do now it to reverse it, but something that took 10 years to create is going to take a little more time to solve.
The whole reason I ran was because my life is a testimony to the American dream, and everything that we’ve been doing since I came into office is designed to make sure that that American dream continues for future generations.
I think the challenge right now is that I’m thinking about the next generation and there are a lot of folks out there who are thinking about the next election.
If I were making decisions based on November, then I wouldn’t have done some of the things that I did because I knew they weren’t popular.
But, they were the right thing to do, and that's got to be my top priority.
