President Obama: Jobs report shows urgency of creating economic security

[ProSense]

President Obama: Jobs report shows urgency of creating economic security

byJed Lewison

Speaking at the White House earlier this morning, President Obama said that today's jobs report shows that not enough progress has been made on economic growth since the financial crisis and recession of 2008 and 2009. He said the recovery was slower than it should be in part because of natural disasters and because Congress has failed to raise the debt ceiling. In addition to calling on Congress to raise the debt ceiling, he outlined four ideas that he said Congress could enact immediately.

He said Congress could pass legislation that would put construction workers to work investing in infrastructure, although he offered no specifics on what type of legislation he'd support. He also said Congress could support innovation by streamlining the patent process and he called on Congress to extend several free trade agreements. Finally, he urged Congress to extend the payroll tax cut into 2012.

President Obama concluded by saying that for the long-term, it's important to reduce the deficit, and that Congress should move quickly to agree to a deficit reduction package that also supports investments now, and that it should move quickly to provide businesses with confidence that the debt ceiling would be raised.