The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 06, 2012

Statement by the President on Easter

This Sunday, Michelle and I will join Christians across the country and around the world to celebrate Easter and give thanks for the all-important gift of grace.  Easter is a time to reflect on both Christ’s suffering and ultimate triumph, as the anguish of the cross continues to give way to the victory of resurrection.  So to all those celebrating with us, we extend our warmest Easter greetings and best wishes in the days ahead.

President Obama Speaks at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy

April 06, 2012 | 22:15 | Public Domain

President Obama speaks about the women who have shaped his life, and explains why his Administration has worked to consider the needs of women in girls in every decision it makes.

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Remarks by the President at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy

South Court Auditorium

10:30 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Everybody, please, please have a seat.  (Applause.)  Everybody, sit down, sit down.  I was going to head over here earlier and they said, no, no, this place is full of women and they’re still settling down.  (Laughter.)  I said, what do you mean settling down?  What are they doing over there?  Just creating havoc. 

Welcome to the White House, everybody.  It is a pleasure to be surrounded by so many talented, accomplished women.  It makes me feel right at home.  Although usually, I’ve got my wingman Bo with me.  (Laughter.)

I want to thank everybody who’s made this Forum on Women and the Economy possible.  I thank Mika for helping moderate today and proving that, on your show every morning, that women really are the better half.  (Laughter and applause.)  Joe is not denying it.  (Laughter.)  He’s not denying it. 

I want to thank the members of my Cabinet and administration who are participating today.  And I want to thank all of you who’ve come today lending your time and your energy to the critical cause of broadening opportunity for America’s women.

Right now, no issue is more important than restoring economic security for all our families in the wake of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.  And that begins with making sure everyone who wants a job has one.  So we welcome today’s news -- (applause) -- we welcome today’s news that our businesses created another 121,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate ticked down.  Our economy has now created more than 4 million private sector jobs over the past two years, and more than 600,000 in the past three months alone.  But it’s clear to every American that there will still be ups and downs along the way, and that we’ve got a lot more work to do.  

And that includes addressing challenges that are unique to women’s economic security -- challenges that have been around since long before the recession hit.  And that’s why one of the first things I did after taking office was to create a White House Council on Women and Girls.  I wanted to make sure that every agency across my administration considers the needs of women and girls in every decision we make.  And today, we’re releasing a report on women and the economy that looks at women’s economic security through all stages of life -- from young women furthering their education and beginning their careers, to working women who create jobs and provide for their families, to seniors in retirement or getting ready for retirement.

There’s been a lot of talk about women and women’s issues lately, as there should be.  But I do think that the conversation has been oversimplified.  Women are not some monolithic bloc.  Women are not an interest group.  You shouldn’t be treated that way.  (Applause.)  Women are over half this country and its workforce -- not to mention 80 percent of my household, if you count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter.)  And I always count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter.) 

Every decision made by those of us in public life impacts women just as much as men.  And this report you all have explains some of what we’ve done to try to lift up the lives of women and girls in this country.  But I’d like to spend some time talking about why we’ve done what we’ve done.

For me, at least, it begins with the women who’ve shaped my life.  I grew up the son of a single mom who struggled to put herself through school and make ends meet; had to rely on food stamps at one point to get us by.  But she earned her education, she made it through with scholarships and hard work, and my sister and I earned our degrees because of her motivation and her support and her impact.  I've told this story before -- she used to wake me up before dawn when I was living overseas, making sure that I was keeping up with my American education, and when I'd complain, she’d let loose with "this is no picnic for me either, buster."  (Laughter.)  And that’s part of the reason why my sister chose to become a teacher.

When my mom needed help with us, my grandmother stepped up.  My grandmother had a high school education.  My grandfather got to go to college on the G.I. Bill; my grandmother wasn't afforded those same opportunities even though she had worked on an assembly line, a bomber assembly line in World War II.  Nevertheless, she got a job at a local bank, and she was smart and tough and disciplined, and she worked hard.  And eventually she rose from being a secretary to being vice president at this bank, and I’m convinced she would have been the best president that bank had ever seen, if she had gotten the chance.  But at some point she hit the glass ceiling, and for a big chunk of her career, she watched other men that she had trained -- younger men that she had trained -- pass her up that ladder.

And then there is the woman who once advised me at the law firm in Chicago where we met.  (Laughter.)  Once -- (laughter) -- she gave me very good advice.  That's why I decided to marry her.  (Laughter.)  And once Michelle and I had our girls, she gave it her all to balance raising a family and pursuing a career -- and something that could be very difficult on her, because I was gone a lot. 

Once I was in the state legislature, I was teaching, I was practicing law, I'd be traveling -- and we didn't have the luxury for her not to work.  And I know when she was with the girls, she’d feel guilty that she wasn’t giving enough time to her work.  And when she was at work, she was feeling guilty she wasn’t giving enough time to the girls.  And like many of you, we both wished that there were a machine that could let us be in two places at once.  And so she had to constantly juggle it, and carried an extraordinary burden for a long period of time.

And then finally, as a father, one of my highlights of every day is asking my daughters about their day, their hopes and their futures.  That's what drives me every day when I step into the Oval Office -- thinking about them.  Every decision I make is all about making sure they and all our daughters and all our sons grow up in a country that gives them the chance to be anything they set their minds to; a country where more doors are open to them than were open to us.

So when I think about these efforts, when we put together this Council on Women and Girls, this is personal.  That’s what is at the heart of all our efforts.  These are the experiences, the prism through which I view these efforts.  And that’s what we mean when we say that these issues are more than just a matter of policy.  And when we talk about these issues that primarily impact women, we’ve got to realize they are not just women’s issues.  They are family issues, they are economic issues, they are growth issues, they are issues about American competitiveness.  They’re issues that impact all of us.

Now, think about it.  When women make less than men for the same work, that hurts families who have to get by with less and businesses who have fewer customers with less to spend.  When a job doesn’t offer family leave to care for a new baby or sick leave to care for an ailing parent, that burdens men as well.  When an insurance plan denies women coverage because of preexisting conditions, that puts a strain on emergency rooms and drives up costs of care for everybody.  When any of our citizens can’t fulfill the potential that they have because of factors that have nothing to do with talent, or character, or work ethic, that diminishes us all.  It holds all of us back.  And it says something about who we are as Americans.

Right now, women are a growing number of breadwinners in the household.  But they’re still earning just 77 cents for every dollar a man does -- even less if you’re an African American or Latina woman.  Overall, a woman with a college degree doing the same work as a man will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less over the course of her career. 

So closing this pay gap -- ending pay discrimination -- is about far more than simple fairness.  When more women are bringing home the bacon, but bringing home less of it than men who are doing the same work, that weakens families, it weakens communities, it’s tough on our kids, it weakens our entire economy.  (Applause.) 

Which is why the first bill I signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act -- Fair Pay Act -- (applause) -- to make it easier for women to demand fairness -- equal pay for equal work.  We’re pushing for legislation to give women more tools to pay -- to fight pay discrimination.  And we’ve encouraged companies to make workplaces more flexible so women don’t have to choose between being a good employee or a good mom.

More women are also choosing to strike out on their own.  Today, nearly 30 percent of small business owners are women.  Their businesses generate $1.2 trillion last year.  But they’re less likely to get the loans that they need to start up, or expand or to hire -- which means they often have to depend on credit cards and the mounting debt that comes with them.  And that’s why, through some outstanding work by Karen Mills and the SBA and other parts of our administration, we’ve extended more than 16,000 new loans worth $4.5 billion to women-owned businesses -- (applause) -- not to mention cut taxes for small businesses 17 times, so that more women have the power to create more jobs and more opportunity.

We’re also focusing on making sure more women are prepared to fill the good jobs of today and tomorrow.  Over the past decade, women have earned well over half of all the higher education degrees awarded in America.  But once they get out of college we still have a lot of ground to cover.  Just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.  Fewer than 20 percent of the seats in Congress are occupied by women.  Is it possible that Congress would get more done if there were more women in Congress?  (Laughter and applause.)  Is that fair to say, Joe?  (Applause.)  I think it’s fair to say.  That is almost guaranteed.  (Laughter.)

And while women account for four in five degrees in areas like education -- which is terrific, because obviously there’s no profession that is more important than teaching -- we also have to recognize that only two in five business degrees go to women; fewer than one in four engineering and computer science degrees go to women.  They make up just 25 percent of the workforce in the science and technical fields.  No unspoken bias or outdated barrier should ever prevent a girl from considering careers in these fields.  When creativity is limited or ingenuity is discouraged, that hurts all of us.  It denies America the game-changing products and world-changing discoveries we need to stay on top.

We’ve got to do more to encourage women to join these fields as well -- make it easier to afford the education that's required to make it.  Send a clear message to our daughters, which I'm doing every night:  Math, science, nothing wrong with it, a lot right with it.  We need you to focus.  That’s why our education reform, Race to the Top, has put a priority on science and technology and engineering and math education.  It has rewarded states that took specific steps to ensure that all students -- especially underrepresented groups like girls -- have the opportunity to get excited about these fields at an early age.  And we’ve helped more than 2.3 million more young women afford to pursue higher education with our increases in the Pell grants.  That's good news.  (Applause.)

Another example -- health reform.  It's been in the news lately.  (Laughter.)  Because of the health reform law that we passed, women finally have more power to make their choices about their health care.  (Applause.)  Last year, more than 20 million women received expanded access to preventive services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings at no additional cost.  (Applause.)  Nearly 2 million women enrolled in Medicare received a 50-percent discount on the medicine that they need.  Over 1 million more young women are insured because they can now stay on their parent’s plan.  And later this year, women will receive new access to recommended preventive care like domestic violence screening and contraception at no additional cost.  (Applause.)  And soon, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions like breast cancer, or charge women more just because they’re women.  (Applause.)

We don't know -- we haven't gotten on the dry cleaning thing yet, though.  I mean, I know that that's still -- (laughter) -- that's still frustrating, I'm sure.  (Laughter.)

So when it comes to our efforts on behalf of women and girls, I’m proud of the accomplishments that we can point to.  Yes, we’ve got a lot more to do.  But there’s no doubt we've made progress.  The policies we’ve put in place over the past three years have started to take hold.  And what we can’t do now is go back to the policies that got us into so many of the problems that we’ve been dealing with in the first place.  That’s what’s at stake.

When people talk about repealing health care reform, they’re not just saying we should stop protecting women with preexisting conditions; they’re also saying we should kick about a million young women off their parent’s health care plans.

When people say we should get rid of Planned Parenthood, they’re not just talking about restricting a woman’s ability to make her own health decision; they’re talking about denying, as a practical matter, the preventive care, like mammograms, that millions of women rely on.

When folks talk about doing away with things like student aid that disproportionately help young women, they’re not thinking about the costs to our future, when millions of young Americans will have trouble affording to go to college.

And when something like the Violence Against Women Act -- a bill Joe Biden authored, a bill that once passed by wide bipartisan margins -- is suddenly called to question, that makes no sense.  (Applause.)  I don't need to -- that's not something we should still be arguing about.  (Applause.)

Now, I don’t need to tell anybody here that progress is hard.  Change can come slow.  Opportunity and equality don’t come without a fight.  And sometimes, you’ve got to keep fighting even after you’ve won some victories.  Things don't always move forward.  Sometimes they move backward if you're not fighting for them.

But we do know these things are possible.  And all of you are proof to that.  This incredible collection of accomplished women -- you're proof of change.  So is the fact that for the first time in history, young girls across the country can see three women sitting on the bench of the highest court in the land.  (Applause.)  Or they can read about the extraordinary leadership of a woman who went by the title “Madam Speaker.”  (Applause.)  Or they can turn on the news and see that one of the most formidable presidential candidates and senators we ever had is now doing as much as anybody to improve America’s standing abroad as one of the best Secretaries of State that we’ve ever known.  (Applause.)  And they can see that every single day, another 500 women, just like yourselves, take the helm of their own company right here in America, and do their part to grab those doors of opportunity that they walked through and open them just a little bit wider for the next generation.

As long as I've got the privilege of being your President, we’re going to keep working every single day to make sure those doors forever stay open, and widen the circle of opportunity for all our kids.

Thank you for what you do.  Keep it up.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END              
10:51 A.M. EDT

Close Transcript

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 06, 2012

Remarks by the President at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy

South Court Auditorium

10:30 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Everybody, please, please have a seat.  (Applause.)  Everybody, sit down, sit down.  I was going to head over here earlier and they said, no, no, this place is full of women and they’re still settling down.  (Laughter.)  I said, what do you mean settling down?  What are they doing over there?  Just creating havoc. 

Welcome to the White House, everybody.  It is a pleasure to be surrounded by so many talented, accomplished women.  It makes me feel right at home.  Although usually, I’ve got my wingman Bo with me.  (Laughter.)

I want to thank everybody who’s made this Forum on Women and the Economy possible.  I thank Mika for helping moderate today and proving that, on your show every morning, that women really are the better half.  (Laughter and applause.)  Joe is not denying it.  (Laughter.)  He’s not denying it. 

I want to thank the members of my Cabinet and administration who are participating today.  And I want to thank all of you who’ve come today lending your time and your energy to the critical cause of broadening opportunity for America’s women.

Right now, no issue is more important than restoring economic security for all our families in the wake of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.  And that begins with making sure everyone who wants a job has one.  So we welcome today’s news -- (applause) -- we welcome today’s news that our businesses created another 121,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate ticked down.  Our economy has now created more than 4 million private sector jobs over the past two years, and more than 600,000 in the past three months alone.  But it’s clear to every American that there will still be ups and downs along the way, and that we’ve got a lot more work to do.  

And that includes addressing challenges that are unique to women’s economic security -- challenges that have been around since long before the recession hit.  And that’s why one of the first things I did after taking office was to create a White House Council on Women and Girls.  I wanted to make sure that every agency across my administration considers the needs of women and girls in every decision we make.  And today, we’re releasing a report on women and the economy that looks at women’s economic security through all stages of life -- from young women furthering their education and beginning their careers, to working women who create jobs and provide for their families, to seniors in retirement or getting ready for retirement.

There’s been a lot of talk about women and women’s issues lately, as there should be.  But I do think that the conversation has been oversimplified.  Women are not some monolithic bloc.  Women are not an interest group.  You shouldn’t be treated that way.  (Applause.)  Women are over half this country and its workforce -- not to mention 80 percent of my household, if you count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter.)  And I always count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter.) 

Every decision made by those of us in public life impacts women just as much as men.  And this report you all have explains some of what we’ve done to try to lift up the lives of women and girls in this country.  But I’d like to spend some time talking about why we’ve done what we’ve done.

For me, at least, it begins with the women who’ve shaped my life.  I grew up the son of a single mom who struggled to put herself through school and make ends meet; had to rely on food stamps at one point to get us by.  But she earned her education, she made it through with scholarships and hard work, and my sister and I earned our degrees because of her motivation and her support and her impact.  I've told this story before -- she used to wake me up before dawn when I was living overseas, making sure that I was keeping up with my American education, and when I'd complain, she’d let loose with "this is no picnic for me either, buster."  (Laughter.)  And that’s part of the reason why my sister chose to become a teacher.

When my mom needed help with us, my grandmother stepped up.  My grandmother had a high school education.  My grandfather got to go to college on the G.I. Bill; my grandmother wasn't afforded those same opportunities even though she had worked on an assembly line, a bomber assembly line in World War II.  Nevertheless, she got a job at a local bank, and she was smart and tough and disciplined, and she worked hard.  And eventually she rose from being a secretary to being vice president at this bank, and I’m convinced she would have been the best president that bank had ever seen, if she had gotten the chance.  But at some point she hit the glass ceiling, and for a big chunk of her career, she watched other men that she had trained -- younger men that she had trained -- pass her up that ladder.

And then there is the woman who once advised me at the law firm in Chicago where we met.  (Laughter.)  Once -- (laughter) -- she gave me very good advice.  That's why I decided to marry her.  (Laughter.)  And once Michelle and I had our girls, she gave it her all to balance raising a family and pursuing a career -- and something that could be very difficult on her, because I was gone a lot. 

Once I was in the state legislature, I was teaching, I was practicing law, I'd be traveling -- and we didn't have the luxury for her not to work.  And I know when she was with the girls, she’d feel guilty that she wasn’t giving enough time to her work.  And when she was at work, she was feeling guilty she wasn’t giving enough time to the girls.  And like many of you, we both wished that there were a machine that could let us be in two places at once.  And so she had to constantly juggle it, and carried an extraordinary burden for a long period of time.

And then finally, as a father, one of my highlights of every day is asking my daughters about their day, their hopes and their futures.  That's what drives me every day when I step into the Oval Office -- thinking about them.  Every decision I make is all about making sure they and all our daughters and all our sons grow up in a country that gives them the chance to be anything they set their minds to; a country where more doors are open to them than were open to us.

So when I think about these efforts, when we put together this Council on Women and Girls, this is personal.  That’s what is at the heart of all our efforts.  These are the experiences, the prism through which I view these efforts.  And that’s what we mean when we say that these issues are more than just a matter of policy.  And when we talk about these issues that primarily impact women, we’ve got to realize they are not just women’s issues.  They are family issues, they are economic issues, they are growth issues, they are issues about American competitiveness.  They’re issues that impact all of us.

Now, think about it.  When women make less than men for the same work, that hurts families who have to get by with less and businesses who have fewer customers with less to spend.  When a job doesn’t offer family leave to care for a new baby or sick leave to care for an ailing parent, that burdens men as well.  When an insurance plan denies women coverage because of preexisting conditions, that puts a strain on emergency rooms and drives up costs of care for everybody.  When any of our citizens can’t fulfill the potential that they have because of factors that have nothing to do with talent, or character, or work ethic, that diminishes us all.  It holds all of us back.  And it says something about who we are as Americans.

Right now, women are a growing number of breadwinners in the household.  But they’re still earning just 77 cents for every dollar a man does -- even less if you’re an African American or Latina woman.  Overall, a woman with a college degree doing the same work as a man will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less over the course of her career. 

So closing this pay gap -- ending pay discrimination -- is about far more than simple fairness.  When more women are bringing home the bacon, but bringing home less of it than men who are doing the same work, that weakens families, it weakens communities, it’s tough on our kids, it weakens our entire economy.  (Applause.) 

Which is why the first bill I signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act -- Fair Pay Act -- (applause) -- to make it easier for women to demand fairness -- equal pay for equal work.  We’re pushing for legislation to give women more tools to pay -- to fight pay discrimination.  And we’ve encouraged companies to make workplaces more flexible so women don’t have to choose between being a good employee or a good mom.

More women are also choosing to strike out on their own.  Today, nearly 30 percent of small business owners are women.  Their businesses generate $1.2 trillion last year.  But they’re less likely to get the loans that they need to start up, or expand or to hire -- which means they often have to depend on credit cards and the mounting debt that comes with them.  And that’s why, through some outstanding work by Karen Mills and the SBA and other parts of our administration, we’ve extended more than 16,000 new loans worth $4.5 billion to women-owned businesses -- (applause) -- not to mention cut taxes for small businesses 17 times, so that more women have the power to create more jobs and more opportunity.

We’re also focusing on making sure more women are prepared to fill the good jobs of today and tomorrow.  Over the past decade, women have earned well over half of all the higher education degrees awarded in America.  But once they get out of college we still have a lot of ground to cover.  Just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.  Fewer than 20 percent of the seats in Congress are occupied by women.  Is it possible that Congress would get more done if there were more women in Congress?  (Laughter and applause.)  Is that fair to say, Joe?  (Applause.)  I think it’s fair to say.  That is almost guaranteed.  (Laughter.)

And while women account for four in five degrees in areas like education -- which is terrific, because obviously there’s no profession that is more important than teaching -- we also have to recognize that only two in five business degrees go to women; fewer than one in four engineering and computer science degrees go to women.  They make up just 25 percent of the workforce in the science and technical fields.  No unspoken bias or outdated barrier should ever prevent a girl from considering careers in these fields.  When creativity is limited or ingenuity is discouraged, that hurts all of us.  It denies America the game-changing products and world-changing discoveries we need to stay on top.

We’ve got to do more to encourage women to join these fields as well -- make it easier to afford the education that's required to make it.  Send a clear message to our daughters, which I'm doing every night:  Math, science, nothing wrong with it, a lot right with it.  We need you to focus.  That’s why our education reform, Race to the Top, has put a priority on science and technology and engineering and math education.  It has rewarded states that took specific steps to ensure that all students -- especially underrepresented groups like girls -- have the opportunity to get excited about these fields at an early age.  And we’ve helped more than 2.3 million more young women afford to pursue higher education with our increases in the Pell grants.  That's good news.  (Applause.)

Another example -- health reform.  It's been in the news lately.  (Laughter.)  Because of the health reform law that we passed, women finally have more power to make their choices about their health care.  (Applause.)  Last year, more than 20 million women received expanded access to preventive services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings at no additional cost.  (Applause.)  Nearly 2 million women enrolled in Medicare received a 50-percent discount on the medicine that they need.  Over 1 million more young women are insured because they can now stay on their parent’s plan.  And later this year, women will receive new access to recommended preventive care like domestic violence screening and contraception at no additional cost.  (Applause.)  And soon, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions like breast cancer, or charge women more just because they’re women.  (Applause.)

We don't know -- we haven't gotten on the dry cleaning thing yet, though.  I mean, I know that that's still -- (laughter) -- that's still frustrating, I'm sure.  (Laughter.)

So when it comes to our efforts on behalf of women and girls, I’m proud of the accomplishments that we can point to.  Yes, we’ve got a lot more to do.  But there’s no doubt we've made progress.  The policies we’ve put in place over the past three years have started to take hold.  And what we can’t do now is go back to the policies that got us into so many of the problems that we’ve been dealing with in the first place.  That’s what’s at stake.

When people talk about repealing health care reform, they’re not just saying we should stop protecting women with preexisting conditions; they’re also saying we should kick about a million young women off their parent’s health care plans.

When people say we should get rid of Planned Parenthood, they’re not just talking about restricting a woman’s ability to make her own health decision; they’re talking about denying, as a practical matter, the preventive care, like mammograms, that millions of women rely on.

When folks talk about doing away with things like student aid that disproportionately help young women, they’re not thinking about the costs to our future, when millions of young Americans will have trouble affording to go to college.

And when something like the Violence Against Women Act -- a bill Joe Biden authored, a bill that once passed by wide bipartisan margins -- is suddenly called to question, that makes no sense.  (Applause.)  I don't need to -- that's not something we should still be arguing about.  (Applause.)

Now, I don’t need to tell anybody here that progress is hard.  Change can come slow.  Opportunity and equality don’t come without a fight.  And sometimes, you’ve got to keep fighting even after you’ve won some victories.  Things don't always move forward.  Sometimes they move backward if you're not fighting for them.

But we do know these things are possible.  And all of you are proof to that.  This incredible collection of accomplished women -- you're proof of change.  So is the fact that for the first time in history, young girls across the country can see three women sitting on the bench of the highest court in the land.  (Applause.)  Or they can read about the extraordinary leadership of a woman who went by the title “Madam Speaker.”  (Applause.)  Or they can turn on the news and see that one of the most formidable presidential candidates and senators we ever had is now doing as much as anybody to improve America’s standing abroad as one of the best Secretaries of State that we’ve ever known.  (Applause.)  And they can see that every single day, another 500 women, just like yourselves, take the helm of their own company right here in America, and do their part to grab those doors of opportunity that they walked through and open them just a little bit wider for the next generation.

As long as I've got the privilege of being your President, we’re going to keep working every single day to make sure those doors forever stay open, and widen the circle of opportunity for all our kids.

Thank you for what you do.  Keep it up.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END              
10:51 A.M. EDT

President Obama Wants You to Know How Your Tax Dollars Are Spent

Megan Slack
Megan Slack
April 06, 2012
10:58 AM EDT

On Wednesday, we released the updated Federal Taxpayer Receipt, which lets you enter a few pieces of information about the taxes you paid last year and calculates how much of your money went toward different national priorities like education, defense, and health care.

President Obama spoke about the receipt earlier this week as a “terrific way for people to be able to get information about where their tax dollars are actually going.”

Related Topics: Economy

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 06, 2012

Statement on the Employment Situation in March

WASHINGTON, DC – Alan B. Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, issued the following statement today on the employment situation in March. You can view the statement HERE.
 
The Employment Situation in March
 
Posted by Alan B. Krueger on April 6, 2012 at 9:30AM
 
There is more work to be done, but today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue to make smart investments that strengthen our economy and lay a foundation for long-term middle class job growth so we can continue to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began at the end of 2007.
 
Employer payrolls increased by 121,000 jobs in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ establishment survey. The unemployment rate ticked down to 8.2% in March, according to the household survey.  However, employment was virtually unchanged in the household survey. 
 
Both surveys indicate the continuing challenges facing construction workers, as a result of the collapse in homebuilding following the bursting of the housing bubble.  The unemployment rate for construction workers stands at 17.2%, more than double the national average.  Because of weak private sector demand for construction investment and the nation’s continuing need for improved infrastructure, including maintenance of existing highways, bridges, and ports, the President’s Budget proposal to increase and modernize the nation’s infrastructure is well targeted to support the economy today and in the future.
 
Despite adverse shocks that have created headwinds for economic growth, including weak construction investment, the economy has added private sector jobs for 25 straight months, for a total of 4.1 million jobs over that period. 
 
Manufacturing continues to be a bright spot and added 37,000 jobs in March.  After losing millions of good manufacturing jobs in the years before and during the recession, the economy has added 466,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 25 months—the strongest growth for any 25 month period since September 1995.  To continue the revival in manufacturing jobs and output, the President has proposed tax incentives for manufacturers, enhanced training for the workforce, and measures to create manufacturing hubs.
 
Other sectors with net job increases included leisure and hospitality (+39,000), professional and business services (+31,000), and financial activities (+15,000).  Retail trade lost 33,800 jobs, construction lost 7,000 jobs, and government lost 1,000 jobs.  State and local government job losses have moderated in recent months.  Almost three-quarters of the slower job growth in March relative to February was due to slower growth in temporary help services and health care and day care services.
 
As the Administration stresses every month, the monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.
 

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 06, 2012

White House Releases Report on Women and the Economy

Today, at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy, the President will discuss the importance of restoring the economic security for the middle class and creating an economy that’s built to last for America’s women. The President believes we must build an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone pays their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. As part of today’s Forum the White House released a new report entitled Keeping America’s Women Moving Forward, The Key to an Economy Built to Last, which examines the ways in which the Administration has worked to ensure women’s economic security through all stages of life – from young women furthering their education and beginning their careers, to working women who create jobs and provide for their families, to seniors in retirement or getting ready for retirement. View the report HERE.

“As a father, one of the highlights of my day is asking my daughters about theirs.  Their hopes and their futures are what drive me every day I step into the Oval Office,” said President Obama.  “Every decision I make is all about making sure they and all our daughters and all our sons grow up in a country that gives them the chance to be anything they set their minds to; a country where more doors are open to them than were ever open to us.”

Today, more than ever, women are essential breadwinners in most American families. Yet women in our economy and our work force still aren’t getting a fair shake, earning just 77 cents on every dollar paid to men.  Women now make up nearly 50% of our workforce, are a growing number of breadwinners in their families, and are the majority of students in our colleges and graduate schools. The President believes that expanding economic opportunities for women and ending discriminatory practices is critical to building an economy that restores security for middle class families, where hard work and responsibility are rewarded, and everyone who wants one can find a good job.  

Highlights from the Keeping America’s Women Moving Forward report include an overview of how Administration policies impact women at every stage of their lives:

Yong Women Obtaining Higher Education and Beginning their Careers

 Of the additional 3.4 million students who have received Pell grants since the President took office, approximately 2.3 million are women.

 9.4 million students and families have benefitted from the American Opportunity Tax Credit to help pay for college.

 1.1 million women between the ages of 19 and 25 who would have been uninsured currently receive health coverage under a parent’s health insurance plan or through an individually purchased health insurance plan.

 Women and girls across America are benefiting from efforts to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, (STEM) degrees and careers because women who hold STEM degrees and jobs earn 30% more, on average, than women in non-STEM jobs.

Working Women Providing for their Families and Contributing to Economic Growth

 More than 16,000 Small Business Administration Loans totaling more than $4.5 billion were granted to women-owned small businesses.

 $62.5 million in monetary relief has been obtained for victims of sex-based wage discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since January 2010.

 The Payroll tax cut provided an average of $1,000 of tax relief for nearly 75 million women.

 An estimated 4.9 million women were kept out of poverty in 2010 because of expansions in refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

 An estimated 20.4 million women are benefiting from expanded access to preventive services such as mammograms, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and prenatal care at no additional cost.

Senior Women in Retirement and Preparing for Retirement

 24.7 million women enrolled in Medicare received preventive services at no additional cost in 2011, including an annual wellness visit, a personalized prevention plan, mammograms, and bone mass measurement for women at risk of osteoporosis.

 More than 2 million women enrolled in Medicare who hit the donut hole saved $1.2 billion in 2011 due to improvements in prescription drug coverage.

 More than $13.6 billion in payments of $250 each were provided to seniors and veterans as part of the Recovery Act, a substantial percentage of which went to women.

 President Obama has committed to protecting Social Security for an estimated 30 million women beneficiaries.

The White House Women and the Economy Forum will address a wide range of Administration accomplishments while focusing on how critical women are to the nation’s economic success. Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls Valerie Jarrett will deliver opening remarks and introduce a panel, moderated by Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Senior Administration Officials, private sector and academic leaders participating. Following the opening panel, the President will deliver remarks to an audience of entrepreneurs, academics, stakeholders, business leaders.  Following the President’s remarks, Senior Administration Officials including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as the Director of the Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Munoz, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls Tina Tchen and Katharine Abraham, Member of the Council of Economic Advisors,  will lead a series of breakout sessions on a range of topics including: Women at Work, Education, Health, Women’s Entrepreneurship, and Violence Against Women and Girls.

View more about the White House Council on Women and Girls HERE.

West Wing Week: 4/6/2012 or "The Annual Spring Break Edition!"

April 06, 2012 | 3:59

This week, the President hosted a summit with North American leaders, addressed the Associated Press, signed his economic report, the STOCK Act, and the JOBS Act, and held an Easter Prayer Breakfast.

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The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 05, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Washington, D.C.

7:28 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Everybody, please have a seat.  Thank you so much.  Well, nice job, everybody!  (Laughter.) What an extraordinary event.  It is wonderful to be here with so many old friends and new friends as well. 

A couple of people I just want to say a special thank-you to -- first of all, somebody who is a class act and cares about working families, has been working so hard for so many years, first in the House, now our junior Senator from the great state of Maryland -- Ben Cardin.  (Applause.) Thank you.  I also want to acknowledge somebody who is going to be critical to what's happening this year because he is going to be our host for the Democratic National Convention -- the Mayor of the great city of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx is in the house.  (Applause.) 

Now, it is good to see all of you. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good to see you!

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you.  (Laughter.) 

Obviously I have, every once in a while, a little bit of time to reflect in between a few responsibilities as President -- (laughter) -- and coaching Sasha's basketball team -- (laughter) -- and making sure I'm doing what I'm told by my wife.  And so I think back to the last three years.  And I think back to all the work we did in 2008 and all the people who were involved in this remarkable journey that we've been on.  And I'm reminded that, let's face it, back in 2008, the reason why you guys got involved and supported me was not because it was a sure thing.  (Laughter.)  I was not the odds on favorite.  (Laughter.)  Whenever you support somebody named Barack Hussein Obama to run for President of the United States -- (laughter) -- you're betting on the underdog.

But the reason that so many of you put your heart and soul into the campaign, the reason that I decided to run, despite having a pretty young family and asking enormous sacrifices from them, was because we shared a vision about what America should be.  We shared commitments to each other about who we are as a people and what we want to leave behind for our children and our grandchildren. 

And that's what the campaign was about.  It was about bringing about change not for change's sake, but bringing about change because there were certain values that we cared deeply about and we didn’t see those values reflected in the policies of our government.  And we worried about the future.

Now, this was all before we knew that we were entering into the worst financial crisis and the worst economic crisis that any of us have seen in our lifetimes.  We didn’t understand that we would be losing 4 million jobs in the six months before I took office, and another 4 million just in the few months after I took office -- 800,000 jobs the month I was sworn in.  We didn’t realize the magnitude of the collapse of the housing industry and the possibility that we might dip into a Great Depression.

But we did understand that for too long, for too many people, the basic American compact, the basic idea that if you work hard, if you're responsible, if you're looking after your family, that you should be able to find a job that pays a living wage, and you should be able to have health insurance so that you don't worry about going bankrupt if somebody in your family gets sick, that you should be able to send your kids to college and aspire to higher heights than you ever achieved, that you should be able to retire with some dignity and respect -- we understood that that basic compact for too many people felt like it was slipping away.

And so the vision we shared was an American where everybody gets a fair shot, and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules.  That's what we were fighting for -- that basic American promise.

And as we reflect back over the last three years, as tough a three years as this country has seen in a very long time, we understand that we've still got a lot of work to do.  We're not there yet.  But we can take some pride -- you can take some pride -- in knowing that because of the actions you took in 2008, we've brought about a lot of the change that we believed in. 

Think about it.  Change is the first legislation that I signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Act that has a very simple principle -- (applause) -- women should get paid an equal day's pay for an equal day's work, and our daughters should be treated just like our sons when it comes to the workplace.  (Applause.)  That's what change is.  That happened because of you. 

Because of you we were able to save an auto industry and a million jobs that go with it -- even when there were a whole bunch of people that were arguing that we should let Detroit go bankrupt.  I wasn’t about to let that happen.  You weren’t about to let that happen.  (Applause.)  And now GM is once again the number-one automaker in the world, seeing record profits.  (Applause.)  We've seen hundreds of thousands of folks hired back and the economies that are impacted by the auto industry strengthened all across the Midwest.  That happened because of you. 

And not only did we save the auto industry, but they're now making better cars.  (Laughter.)  And along with it, we decided we weren’t going to wait for Congress -- we went ahead and doubled fuel-efficiency standards on cars, so that by the middle of the next decade every auto is going to be getting 55 miles per gallon, and that's going to save the average family $8,000 in their costs at the pump -- not to mention all the carbon that's being taken out of the atmosphere so that we can potentially preserve this precious planet of ours.  (Applause.)  That happened because of you.

Because of you, you don't have to worry about who you love to serve the country you love, because we ended "don't ask, don't tell," as we committed to.  (Applause.)  That's what change is.  Because of you we took $60 billion that were going to banks in the student loan program, we said, why don't we give that money directly to students.  And so there are millions of young people who are getting more Pell grants or qualify for the first time and are able to finance college.  (Applause.)  That happened because of you. 

Because of you, right now, 2.5 million young people have health insurance that didn’t have it before, and millions of seniors have seen lower prescription drug prices -- because of you.  (Applause.)  And we are going to insure another 30 million people in this country, and we are making sure if you've got health insurance that they can't drop you when you get sick -- the strongest patient protection bill that we’ve ever seen when it comes to health care.  That all happened because of you.  That’s what change is. 

And change is keeping the promise -- one of the promises I made in 2008.  We ended the war in Iraq.  (Applause.)  And we refocused our attention on those who actually attacked us on 9/11.  And al Qaeda is on its last legs, weaker than it’s ever been.  And Osama bin Laden is no longer around.  (Applause.)  And we are transitioning out of Afghanistan.  And we’ve raised America’s respect all around the world.  That happened because of you.  (Applause.) 

So all this shouldn’t make us complacent.  We should not be satisfied.  We didn’t simply work that hard in 2008 just to clean up the mess that had been left.  We got involved and engaged because we understood there were challenges that had been building up over decades that had to be attended to.  And we’ve still got more work to do.  The job is not done. 

There are still way too many people all across this country that are desperately looking for work.  I get letters from them every day, people who are well educated, people who don’t have the education they need but they want to work, and they are sending out resumes, they are pounding the pavement and they are knocking on doors, and they’re worried about their future.

There are folks who have a job but are having trouble paying the bills, and maybe they’ve seen the value of their home drop by $10,000, $20,000, $100,000, and they don’t know if they’re ever going to be able to recover what they thought was their life savings.

We’ve got people who had decided they’ve got to forgo retirement, just completely change their plans, just so they can make sure that their children or their grandchildren can still afford college.  And we’ve got young people who have gone to college and wracked up a whole bunch of debt, and aren’t sure whether they can find a job that allows them to pay it off.  There are still too many folks for whom that American promise is not yet a reality -- good people, responsible people, patriotic people. 

Now, understanding that we haven’t finished the job yet should invigorate us.  It should inspire us to work that much harder.  But if that’s not sufficient, then it’s important to understand that the last thing that we can afford to do is go back to the same economic policies that got us into this mess in the first place -- (applause) -- the same economic policies that have betrayed that American promise for too long.  And that’s exactly what the other side is proposing. 

I gave a speech on Tuesday about the congressional budget that’s been proposed by the Republicans in the House of Representatives -- a budget that Governor Romney, who is the frontrunner in the Republican side, has embraced.  Said the budget was marvelous, he said.  (Laughter.)  And when you go through this budget, the vision that it portrays is of an America where everybody is fending for themselves, a few are doing very well at the top, and everybody else is struggling to get by. 

And the government is shrunk to the point where things that we take for granted as a society -- as an advanced, responsible society -- are gutted:  education, science and research, early childhood education, caring for our environment, looking after our veterans, keeping up with our infrastructure, rebuilding our roads and our bridges so that they’re safe, food safety laws, our capacity to enforce basic consumer protections.  All of this is shrunk to the point of near invisibility.

And the rationale they provide is, well, the biggest crisis we face is the deficit, so we need to do something about it, we’ve got to make tough choices.  They’re absolutely right about that.  Unfortunately, the vision that they’re presenting adds to the deficit problem because they say they’re going to cut more taxes for the wealthiest Americans after we have seen the tax rates for wealthy Americans go to below anyplace that they’ve been since I’ve been alive.

The contrast between visions in this election could not be more stark, because I believe that America is stronger when we’re looking for one another.  I believe in the free market.  I believe that the private sector is the true generator of job growth.  I believe that there are times where government doesn’t have the answers, but like most previous Presidents, Democrat and Republican, I understand that we have a role in making sure that not just the powerful do well but that everybody has got a shot.

I believe we have to make an investment in education because I know from my own life and from Michelle’s life that we would not be where we were unless somebody had made an investment in us.  (Applause.) 

I believe in investing in basic research and science because I understand that all these extraordinary companies that are these enormous wealth generators -- many of them would have never been there -- Google, Facebook would not exist -- had it not been for investments that we made as a country in basic science and research.  I understand that makes us all better off. 

I believe that it is part of our solemn responsibility to future generations that we look after this planet; that we make sure our air is clean and our water is clean; that we’re not poisoning our kids.  (Applause.) 

I believe our economy does better -- one of the things that has made our economy work so well is its transparency and its rule of law, and that consumers are protected, and we have some confidence, if we go into the store and we buy a product, that it’s going to be safe.  We’ve set standards that allowed us not only to create a national market but help to create an international market.  We set the standard.  That worked for us.  That was good for business.  It didn’t weaken us.

I believe that in a society as wealthy as ours, we should have a commitment to our seniors and to the disabled.  That’s not a sign of weakness.  That’s not socialism.  The idea that you want to care for people in our communities, so our seniors don’t have to plunge into poverty, that they have some modicum of security if they need health care, that a family that has been stricken by an illness doesn’t have to worry if they’re going to lose their home -- that makes us stronger.

I believe in making sure that workers are able to work in a safe environment, that they get paid a decent wage, because I understand the same thing Henry Ford understood when he said, you know what, I want to make sure that my workers can afford to buy my cars -- that broad-based prosperity, bottom-up economic growth is what sustains us.  That’s what I believe and that’s what you believe.  And that’s what animated our campaign in 2008.
 
So we are going to have a big, important debate in this country and I cannot wait -- (applause) -- because we have tried what they are selling.  It’s not like we didn’t try it.  We have tried what they’re peddling and it did not work.  (Laughter.)  And we have been spending the last three years cleaning after some of that mess.  And I don’t want to have to do it again.  (Applause.)
 
So we’re going to keep on in a direction that has created 4 million jobs in the last two years.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to keep on in a direction that has seen manufacturing in America coming back.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to stay on the course that is helping us to double our exports, so that we’re not just known as a society that buys and consumes but a society that creates and innovates and sells all around the world.  (Applause.)
 
And we’re going to continue to double down on education reform, so that every young American knows that they can get the skills they need to succeed in this society.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to produce American-made energy.  And we’re going to take an all-of-the-above strategy. 

And we actually are seeing the highest oil production in this country in eight years.  Our imports have diminished below 50 percent, the lowest they’ve been in 13 years.  So we’re producing more oil.  We’re producing more gas.  But we’re also going to produce more clean energy -- more wind and more solar and more biofuels.  (Applause.)  It’s the smart thing to do.  It’s good for business.  It’s good for our environment.  And I’m not going to cede those industries to other countries.
 
And we’re going to continue on a course in foreign policy that maintains the strongest military on Earth, but also understands that we’ve got to have as powerful a diplomatic strategy, as powerful an economic strategy -- (applause) -- that we are exporting our values and upholding core ideas about how women are treated -- (applause) -- and how the young are treated and how minorities are treated, because that’s part of what makes us special.  That’s part of what makes us exceptional.

So this is going to be a big debate.  And it’s going to be a fun debate -- (laughter) -- because it’s always good to have the truth on your side.  (Applause.)  But it’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be easy.  We’re going to have to work hard.  There are a lot of folks out there still struggling.  And there are a lot of folks who, understandably, seeing what goes on in Washington, sometimes lose heart and they get cynical.  Maybe some of you do sometimes.
 
You say to yourself, you know what, it just doesn’t seem like things are on the level.  It doesn’t seem like people are thinking about me or my community.  And they see the amounts of money that are being spent and the special interests that dominate and the lobbyists that always have access, and they say to themselves, maybe I don’t count.  They get discouraged.  And that makes this tougher in some ways.

Back in 2008, being an Obama supporter, that was fresh and new, and I didn’t have any grey hair.  (Laughter.)  And this time, we’re all a little older.  We’re a little wiser.  Here is the thing I want to communicate to you, though -- that spirit that we’re all in this together, that spirit that Abraham Lincoln understood and Teddy Roosevelt understood and Dwight Eisenhower understood -- it wasn’t just FDR and Johnson and Kennedy, because it’s not a Democratic or a Republican idea, it’s an American idea -- that spirit may not always be evident in Washington, but it’s still out there in the country.
 
You still see it in town halls.  You still see it in churches or synagogues.  You still see it in our amazing men and women in uniform.  They still understand that we’re stronger together than we can ever be on our own.  They still understand an America in which everybody has a fair shot, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your last name.
 
And so, if we’re energized, if we’re determined, that core sense of decency and possibility and hope, it’s still out there. But we have to make sure that we are determined.  I used to say in 2008 that this wasn’t going to be easy.  I’m not a perfect man, I’m not going to be a perfect President.  But I used to tell people, I’d always tell you what I thought, I’ll always tell you where I stood, and I wake up every morning thinking about how I could work as hard as I could to make sure that every American had a chance, every American felt that sense of possibility that I’ve lived out in my own life.

And I’ve kept that promise.  I have kept that promise.  And my hope is that you are willing to continue on this journey with me, that you’re willing to work just as hard or harder than you did in 2008 -- not just writing a check.  I need you to get on the phone.  I need you to knock on doors.  I need some of you to do what you did last time -- travel to other states, and talk to your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers, and fight back against the cynicism and answer the lies that may come up. 

I am as determined -- I am more determined than I was in 2008.  I hope you are, too -- (applause) -- because if you are, we will finish what we started, and we’ll remind ourselves just why it is that this is the greatest country on Earth. 

Thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.)

END
7:53 P.M. EDT 

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 05, 2012

Readout from the President’s Film Screening of To Kill A Mockingbird at the White House

This evening, the President hosted a film screening of To Kill a Mockingbird in the Family Theater at The White House to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The President welcomed guests including local students from Washington-Lee High School, Mary Badham Wilt, the actress who played Scout, and Veronique Peck, widow of Gregory Peck who played Atticus Finch. The President also acknowledged the American Film Institute for their commitment to the fine arts and NBC Universal and USA Network for their efforts to commemorate this important film. The President thanked Wilt for “bringing the character of Scout to life” and Veronique Peck and her family for coming to the White House in support of the late Gregory Peck who would have been 96 years old today.  The President described Harper Lee’s novel as a timeless American classic and one of his favorite books.

President Obama Signs the JOBS Act

April 05, 2012 | 7:24 | Public Domain

President Obama signs a bill that will help startups get access to a larger pool of potential investors and make it easier for businesses to become publicly traded companies.

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Remarks by the President at JOBS Act Bill Signing

Rose Garden

2:36 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Hello, everybody.  Please, please have a seat.  Good afternoon.  I want to thank all of you for coming, and in particular, I want to thank the members of Congress who are here today from both parties, whose leadership and hard work made this bill a reality.  

One of the great things about America is that we are a nation of doers -- not just talkers, but doers.  We think big.  We take risks.  And we believe that anyone with a solid plan and a willingness to work hard can turn even the most improbable idea into a successful business.  So ours is a legacy of Edisons and Graham Bells, Fords and Boeings, of Googles and of Twitters.  This is a country that’s always been on the cutting edge.  And the reason is that America has always had the most daring entrepreneurs in the world. 

Some of them are standing with me today.  When their ideas take root, we get inventions that can change the way we live.  And when their businesses take off, more people become employed because, overall, new businesses account for almost every new job that’s created in America.

Now, because we’re still recovering from one of the worst recessions in our history, the last few years have been pretty tough on entrepreneurs.  Credit has been tight.  And no matter how good their ideas are, if an entrepreneur can’t get a loan from a bank or backing from investors, it’s almost impossible to get their businesses off the ground.  And that’s why back in September, and again in my State of the Union, I called on Congress to remove a number of barriers that were preventing aspiring entrepreneurs from getting funding.  And this is one useful and important step along that journey.   

Here’s what’s going to happen because of this bill.  For business owners who want to take their companies to the next level, this bill will make it easier for you to go public.  And that’s a big deal because going public is a major step towards expanding and hiring more workers.  It’s a big deal for investors as well, because public companies operate with greater oversight and greater transparency. 

And for start-ups and small businesses, this bill is a potential game changer.  Right now, you can only turn to a limited group of investors -- including banks and wealthy individuals -- to get funding.  Laws that are nearly eight decades old make it impossible for others to invest.  But a lot has changed in 80 years, and it’s time our laws did as well.  Because of this bill, start-ups and small business will now have access to a big, new pool of potential investors -- namely, the American people.  For the first time, ordinary Americans will be able to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in.

Of course, to make sure Americans don’t get taken advantage of, the websites where folks will go to fund all these start-ups and small businesses will be subject to rigorous oversight.  The SEC is going to play an important role in implementing this bill.  And I’ve directed my administration to keep a close eye as this law goes into effect and to provide me with regular updates. 

It also means that, to all the members of Congress who are here today, I want to say publicly before I sign this bill, it's going to be important that we continue to make sure that the SEC is properly funded, just like all our other regulatory agencies, so that they can do the job and make sure that our investors get adequate protections.

This bill represents exactly the kind of bipartisan action we should be taking in Washington to help our economy.  I’ve always said that the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector, not the government.  Our job is to help our companies grow and hire.  That’s why I pushed for this bill.  That’s why I know that the bipartisan group of legislators here pushed for this bill.  That's why I’ve cut taxes for small businesses over 17 times.  That’s why every day I’m fighting to make sure America is the best place on Earth to do business.

Our economy has begun to turn a corner, but we've still got a long way to go.  We've still got a lot of Americans out there who are looking for a job or looking for a job that pays better than the one that they've got.  And we're going to have to keep working together so that we can keep moving the economy forward. 
              
But I've never been more confident about our future.  And the reason is because of the American people.  Some of the folks beside me here today are a testimony to that.  Day after day, they’re out there pitching investors.  Some meetings go well; some meetings don't go so well.  That's true for me, too.  (Laughter.)  But no matter what, they keep at it.  And who knows, maybe one of them or one of the folks in the audience here today will be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.  And one of them may be the next entrepreneur to turn a big idea into an entire new industry.  That’s the promise of America.  That’s what this country is all about. 

So if these entrepreneurs are willing to keep giving their all, the least Washington can do is to help them succeed.  I plan to do that now by proudly signing this bill. 

Thank you very much, everybody.

(The bill is signed.)  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  All right, everybody.  Enjoy a great day.  (Applause.)

END             
2:44 P.M. EDT

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