Beltway Insider: President Obama Remains Focused on Jobs, Wages, Workers; GOP Rebuttal; Winter Olympics Security

President Obama spoke to the nation this week in his annual State of the Union address, capitalizing on his past successes he announced sweeping changes geared toward keeping the economy moving for stalled demographics.

 

According to Gallup, President Obama’s job approval, over the past week rose one percentage point to 41% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President remained constant at 51%.

President Obama Remains Focused on Jobs, Wages, and Workers in State of the Union

President Barack Obama, although he received low marks for his fifth State of the Union Address, did remain focused on putting Americans back to work, creating new jobs and raising minimum wage to keep pace with the cost of living.

The President, using the nearly 75minute speech to lay out his plans to continue America’s progress, remained dedicated to continued economic growth and has his economists concentrating on areas the Bureau of Labor Statistics deems “little changed.”

With Americans still reeling from the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, and unemployment barely reaching a manageable milestone, it was difficult for the people to rally behind the beleaguered president.

His State of the Union was divided into Executive Power, what he can exact without the need to address Congress, and areas he needs Congressional support or that call for bi-partisan support, compromise or Congressional action.

President Obama made it crystal clear he would not allow the deeply divided congress to stop the forward trajectory of the economy, jeopardize the welfare of the middle class and American people while congress attempt to stronghold negotiations by holding the people hostage.

Long Term Unemployed Receive Executive Action

Announcing his initiatives, the President addressed the Long Term Unemployed demographic. Deemed unchanged by the Bureau of Labor statistics for more than forty months, the president has announced a dedicated task force to target this stalled group of workers.

Obama presented “new steps to expand partnerships that connect the long-term unemployed to good jobs,” not simply employment for the sake of employment, opportunities geared toward lasting and productive partnerships between the highly skilled and often overlooked worker and those companies who have signed onto the president’s plan.

The initiative “The President’s Call to Action to Give the Long-Term Unemployed a Fair shot,” released by the Office of the White House Press Secretary, outlined specific areas including “Partnering with Leading Companies to Give The Long Term Unemployed a Fair Shot and New Best Practices for Hiring and Recruiting the Long-term Unemployed.”

The report revealed, “Research shows that the long-term unemployed are frequently overlooked and sometimes excluded from job opportunities – with one study finding that long-term unemployed workers with otherwise identical resumes were called back for interviews at rates 45 percent lower than the short-term unemployed.”

Obama’s employment initiative has already over 300 companies on board. “More than 80 of the nation’s largest businesses have signed on, including 20 members of the Fortune 50 and over 45 members of the Fortune 200, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. In the coming months, the President will encourage other business leaders to adopt these practices,” the release stated.

Unveiling three additional areas that should offer assistance to middle income workers and those trying to gain some financial traction after the deep loss suffered through the recession, the President announced Executive Orders directed at his “fair shot” initiative.

Executive Orders

President Obama, leading by example, will, through Executive Order, raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for federal contract workers, hoping his decisive action will urge Congress to raise the federal minimum wage across the board. At the least, the president’s move should act as incentive hoping to encourage Democratic governors to follow suit and raise the minimum wage in blue states.

He also announced the creation, through Executive Order, of “myRA” which is described as “a new starter savings account to help millions save for retirement.” “myRA” will create “a simple, safe and affordable “starter” retirement savings account.”

The “myRA” will be “available through employers” and should “help millions of Americans save for retirement. This savings account would be offered through a familiar Roth IRA account and, like savings bonds, would be backed by the U.S. government.”

The final executive action will fall under the umbrella of building a stronger 21st Century workplace by working with the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) in which the white House along with these two agencies will host a workplace summit.

This summit will provide the foundation for new laws, policies and workplace adjustments “in areas such as discrimination, flexibility, and paid leave” which will highly influence “America’s global economic competitiveness in the coming decades.”

Working with Congress

President Obama also remains committed to working with Congress on issues that affect the American worker, protects hard earned gains, and stops any action that will cause the economy to reverse.

He indicated he is steadfastly dedicated to ensuring, the clearly divided Congress enacts the Emergency Unemployment benefit action.

The recent inability to move the legislation, that would aid over 1.6million Americans, who expected government to assist them, due to party politics, was particularly egregious to the American people as it reflected a deep vindictiveness toward the president and his ObamaCare policies.

“By temporarily extending emergency unemployment insurance for three months, this bipartisan bill will provide benefits for over 2 million Americans when they need it most, including the 1.6 million Americans who have already lost access to these benefits since the program expired at the end of last year, “ said Jay Carney White House Press Secretary.

Congress has also stopped any common sense gun control or legislation even after a year of horrifying pictures and graphic testimony of the repeated senseless murder of innocent people from Arapahoe, Colorado to Newtown, Connecticut.

The President made it clear that ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, was here to stay, whether Congress, a divided nation, legislators or other members of government liked it.

Republican’s Offer Rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union

The GOP rebuttal to President Obama State of the Union was delivered by U.S. House Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the highest ranking women in the House and the first Republican women to ever deliver the State of the Union response, which will be televised live following the President’s speech.

Ironically, the rebuttal is not so different from the president’s vision for American. Rebuild one job at a time, allow Americans to keep more money from their paycheck, ensure every Americans who wants a job is working. These universal themes are echoed across the party aisles.

“Republicans believe health care choices should be yours, not the governments,” Representative McMorris Rodgers said.

This single statement became the most damaging to the credibility of the Republican Party. It appears that the GOP decided that it was finally a woman’s right to choose her medical care and treatment and the government had no rights or permission to regulate healthcare options or choices.

This, of course, after ObamaCare gave the right to medical care to every individual.

Congress has voted on The Affordable Care Act forty times and will probably see a continued fight to the law repealed.

Sochi Security Top Priority

Security for the XXII Winter Olympics due to begin February 6, 2014 in Sochi, Russia, has become top priority for the 84 nations who are sending athletes to compete, as Russian President Vladmir Putin as declared the Olympics “will be the safest in history.”

“We strongly believe that Russia believes it is in Russia’s interest to take every measure to ensure a safe and secure Olympic Games” said Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary.

With athletes already arriving in the coastal city, and the Opening Ceremony set for Thursday, security officials, along with the most elite and sophisticated communications and human tracking and monitoring systems, the KGB and Russian military are adding additional teams to oversee all known concerns and double efforts to minimize interruption.

“We are obviously in a situation, not as the host country, but as a visiting participant, not in security lead but we are able to do what we can to take precautions,” Carney said.

The State Department has issued an advisory explaining what precautions should be taken should family, friends, and guests as well as global media, decide to attend. Any persons who plan to attend the Sochi Olympics should register with the State Department and heed the specific warnings and directives issued as precautionary.

President Obama has declared “Sochi is Safe.”

Sources: Whitehouse.org, Wikipedia.com,

For more information on President Obama: www.whitehouse.gov  

For more information on the Affordable Care Act: https://www.healthcare.gov/

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