Top 50 Reasons to Vote For

President Obama

 

 

By Keith Boykin

   
As Americans go to the polls today, it seems a perfect time to take a final look back at what we've been through the past four years. With that in mind, I've created a quick new list of top reasons to re-elect President Obama. Some of the reasons you may not like, and some things you may think I missed, but these are my top 50 reasons to vote for President Obama.
 

1. President Obama inherited the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression (an economy losing 800,000 jobs a month) and led us out of it (now creating 170,000 jobs a month).


2. Under Obama, we've now had 32 consecutive months of private sector job growth.


3. We've added nearly 5 1/2 million new jobs during that time.


4. The president saved or created 3 million new jobs with the American Recovery Act.


5. He saved 1 million auto-related jobs with the auto bailout.


6. He helped boost new car sales with the popular "cash for clunkers" program.


7. He cut taxes for small businesses 18 times.


8. He cut middle class taxes an average of $3600 over 4 years.


9. He cut payroll taxes for working families.


10. Despite what Republicans would have you believe, income taxes are lower today than under most of the Reagan administration (35% today versus 50% then) and the corporate tax rate is lower than it was under Reagan.


11. New financial reform will help reign in Wall Street abuses.


12. Banks have paid back the money loaned to the them from the Bush financial bailout.


13. Obama required CEOs at banks that received bailout money to agree to executive compensation limits until their loans were repaid.


14. He created a new consumer protection bureau to set fair rules for what financial institutions can do with consumer credit cards, mortgages, and student loans.


15. Mortgage interest rates for homebuyers have reached record lows.


16. Corporations earned record profits, which undermines the argument that the president's policies are bad for business.


17. Obama passed comprehensive health care reform (Affordable Care Act) that Presidents Truman, Nixon, Clinton, and others have been trying to do for 70 years.


18. 32 million people will now get health care coverage under the ACA.


19. Young adults can stay on their parents' health care plans until they turn 26.


20. People with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied health coverage.


21. Seniors on Medicare will save thousands of dollars on prescription drugs and other medical costs through the ACA.


22. And the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit by more than $100 billion.


23. President Obama encouraged states to set common academic standards and provided support for the nation's best teachers through his Race to the Top education initiative.


24. He reduced student loan payments for college students and borrowers to 10 percent of their discretionary income.


25. He helped first-time homebuyers purchase a home with an $8,000 tax credit.


26. Home prices are finally coming back after the 2008 market collapse.


27. The president got BP to set up a $20 billion victims' compensation fund to help Gulf residents after the historic 2010 oil spill.


28. America's dependence on foreign oil is declining and U.S. oil imports have fallen to a 20-year low.


29. The war in Iraq has been ended.


30. The war in Afghanistan will end in 2014.


31. And we finally got Osama Bin Laden and took out Al Qaeda's top deputies.


32. The president gave the orders that rescued U.S. commercial ships from Somali pirates.


33. He led the international effort to remove Moammar Gaddafi in Libya.


34. He signed new trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia.


35. The Dow has doubled from 6500 in March 2009 to more than 13,000 today.


36. Women are now entitled to equal pay for equal work under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.


37. Obama appointed two women to the U.S. Supreme Court.


38. He appointed the first Latina to the Supreme Court.


39. And in the words of First Lady Michelle Obama, "he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care."


40. He appointed the first African American Attorney General.


41. He signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduces the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine.


42. He ended "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.


43. The Justice Department stopped enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act, a discriminatory law widely considered unconstitutional.


44. Obama became the first president in U.S. history to announce his support for marriage equality.


45. And he signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.


46. He appointed his former rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.


47. He was endorsed by George Bush's Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Republican Senator Larry Pressler, former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican.


48. He was praised by Republican Governors Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.


49. Of the 500+ promises Obama made when he ran for office, 374 of them (75 percent) have been kept, fully or partly, or are currently in progress.


50. And he did all this in the face of stiff GOP opposition and a Senate Republican Leader who vowed his top political priority was to make Barack Obama a 1-term president.

Follow Keith Boykin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keithboykin     

 
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THIS IS IT !

 

 

The election is MUCH closer than people think which is why it is of VITAL importance that EVERYONE MUST get out to vote today.

 

(Iowa-Nov. 5, 2012)
President Obama sheds tear at last political speech of his life in Iowa where it all started

 YES WE WILL !.....

AGAIN !!!! ...and remember....once in line....

STAY IN LINE to Vote !!!!

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1 day to go !

Click below to confirm your polling place.
 
LET'S DO IT AGAIN !...

 

 

to Literally SAVE AMERICA !

 

President Obama is counting on your vote—

confirm your polling place:

http://OFA.BO/yPLb4J

 

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Watch:

 
Republican Lawrence Wilkerson
(former Colin Powell aide):

" MY PARTY IS 
FULL OF RACISTS ! "
 

My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them, but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable.

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Colin Powell (a Republican)

Endorses Obama....(again !)

 

 

(HuffPo) Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term Thursday.

"You know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I'll be voting for he and

Vice President Joe Biden next month," he said on CBS' "This Morning."
Asked whether it was an endorsement, he said, "Yes."
Powell praised the president's handling of the economy and ending of the Iraq War.
"I think we ought to keep on the track we are on," he said.
Powell said he had the "utmost respect" for Mitt Romney, but criticized his tax plan.
He said Romney's foreign policy was a "moving target." "One day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan, but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal. Same thing in Iraq. On every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Gov. Romney agreed with the president with some nuances. But this is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign."

Powell, a Republican who served in President George W. Bush's first term, backed Obama in 2008. He was frequently mentioned as a potential Republican challenger against Bill Clinton in 1996, but decided against it.

UPDATE: 12:27 p.m. -- President Barack Obama called Powell on Thursday morning to thank him for the endorsement, according to Obama campaign traveling press secretary Jen Psaki. They did not discuss joint appearances. She said they were "very excited" about it and said they “think it sends a strong signal about why [Obama] should be sent back for another four years to be commander in chief.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted Powell on Fox News Radio's "Kilmeade & Friends" Thursday morning.

"Well, I’m just saddened because, you know, I used to be a great admirer of Colin Powell. We were friends. I think one of the sad aspects of his career is going to the United Nations Security Council and telling them things about Iraq that were absolutely false," he said.

"Obviously, my view of the situation in Iraq is we’re losing," he continued. "We’re losing what we won thanks to the surge. Al Qaeda is doubled. There’s training camps in Western Iraq. In Afghanistan, all we do is say we’re leaving. Al Qaeda is on the comeback all over northern Africa. They’ve taken over parts of Mali. All I can say is that Gen. Powell, you disappoint us and you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what has clearly been the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime."

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Click links to Read/Share:

President Obama's Plan

for the next 4 years...

 

( Compared to Romney's )

 

 

Click following links for Obama Plan

vs. Romney's scary plans per category

• JOBS & THE ECONOMY
• Taxes & the Budget
• Energy
• Education
• Foreign Policy
• Health care
• Women's health
• Seniors
• IMMIGRATION

 

This election is a choice between two fundamentally different visions for America: President Obama is fighting to grow the economy from the middle out, not the top down. Mitt Romney wants to go back to the exact same policies that caused the recession and hurt the middle class.Read the President’s plan.

• FORWARD
• President Obama has a long-term economic plan to invest in education, small businesses, clean energy, infrastructure, and tax cuts for companies that bring jobs back to the U.S.
• Under President Obama, we've seen 31 straight months of job growth, adding 5.2 million private sector jobs, including nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs – the most growth since 1997
• Cut taxes by $3,600 for the typical middle class family making $50,000 a year over his first term - find out how his plan impacts your taxes
• "All of the above" strategy to develop every available source of American made energy—including oil, gas, clean coal, wind, solar, biofuels, nuclear - and taking steps to protect our climate
• Set a goal to cut tuition growth in half over the next decade with a plan to double campus based student aid and incentives for schools that are successful at keeping tuition growth down
• Responsibly ended the war in Iraq , is bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, and will use half the savings to reduce the deficit and the rest to engage in nation-building here at home
• 100 million Americans saw lifetime caps on coverage lifted, so that families have the security of knowing that their insurance will cover them when they need it most
• Believes a woman’s health care choices are personal decisions, best made with her doctor—without interference from politicians
• Improved Medicare by adding free preventive care, closing the “doughnut hole” saving seniors an average of $600 last year, and extended the life of Medicare by 8 years by eliminating $716 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse
• Is lifting the shadow of deportation from young, hardworking immigrants who were brought here as children, and is committed to comprehensive immigration reform

• NOT BACKWARD
• Mitt Romney’s plan would add $5 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the rich, either increasing the deficit or requiring tax increases on the middle-class
• Mitt Romney wants to return to the failed top-down policies that crashed the economy
• Could require raising taxes on middle class families with kids by $2000 to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy
• Let Big Oil advisers and donors write a drilling-centered energy policy for America, that will never reach energy independence, excluding any plan for energy efficiency and stripping funding for clean energy
• As governor, Romney made deep cuts to higher education - by the end of his term, college costs had skyrocketed, with fees at state colleges and universities increasing 63%
• Mitt Romney criticized the end of the Iraq war as "tragic," and has offered no plan withdraw our troops from Afghanistan
• Go back to the days when more than half of all insurance plans included lifetime limits on the care they would cover
• Give employers and government the authority to limit women’s access to common forms of birth control
• Would end Medicare as we know it, eliminating guaranteed benefits and turning Medicare into a voucher program — which could increase costs for seniors more than $6,000 each year by shifting costs to seniors
• Pledged to veto the DREAM Act, and refuse help for many immigrants who came here as children.(Read Complete List: Obama Plans vs. Romney's)

 

The Difference is HUGE !!!

 

Which is why we MUST VOTE

in record numbers Nov. 6th...

to LITERALLY SAVE AMERICA !!!

 

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Time to

GET FIRED UP !!! 

 

 

We MUST STRESS to ALL the vital importance of voting Nov. 6th in record numbers to block Romney from stealing the election...particularly in Ohio. Low voter turn-out will result in DISASTER for America's future !

 

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B4B Photo of the Week

 

 

Exuberant Big Apple Pizza owner Scott Van Nuzer bear-hugged and hoisted

President Obama off the ground during their brief meeting in Fort Pierce, Florida.

 

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Watch:

President Obama's DNC

Acceptance Speech (full)
 

 

Yes We Will...AGAIN !!!

 

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Watch:

1st Lady Michelle Obama's

Powerful DNC Speech

 

So Proud of Our 1st Lady !
 

 President and 1st Daughters watching.

 

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As the rally (RNC Convention) begins today for the haves to literally squash the have-nots....

The Time is NOW to UNITE....

for the Future of America.

 

GET FIRED UP !

 

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Pathetic!

Board of Elections' Doug Priesse:

Ohio Early Voting Process Should

NOT Accomodate Black Voters !

(HuffPo) An Ohio GOP election official who voted against the weekend voting rules that enabled thousands to cast ballots in the 2008 election said Sunday that he did not think that the state's early voting procedures should accommodate African-Americans.

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban -- read African-American -- voter-turnout machine," Doug Priesse said in an email to the Columbus Dispatch Sunday. "Let's be fair and reasonable."

Priesse is a member of the board of elections for Franklin County, which includes Columbus, and chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, on Wednesday ordered all 88 counties in Ohio to allow early voting Monday through Friday, until 7 p.m., during the final two weeks before the election. Weekend voting, however, will not be allowed.

Weekend voting helped 93,000 Ohioans cast ballots in the final three days before the 2008 election. Black churches promoted taking "your souls to the polls" events on the Sunday preceding the election, an option that will be unavailable if Husted's ruling stands. (The Obama administration has sued Husted to restore the final three days of early voting.)

Early voters in 2008 in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties were disproportionately African-American. A study by Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates found blacks accounted for 56 percent of all in-person early votes in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, while they accounted for 26 percent of votes overall. In Franklin County, African-Americans cast 31 percent of early votes and 21 percent of votes overall.

UPDATE: Priesse expressed regret for his comments Monday. "My comments in the Sunday, August 19th Columbus Dispatch have been misconstrued, and in some cases misquoted entirely," Priesse told HuffPost in a statement. "However, if my comments, either in their original form, or as repeated in other ways, have caused anyone discomfort, I regret that."

****************
B4B Note: This simply exemplifies the concerted effort/desire of the GOP to disenfranchise/squash the Minority vote, particularly in key states. It is for this reason that we MUST UNITE...work diligently to Get Out The Vote....and turn out in record numbers come November.

The Time is NOW...

To Unite and FIGHT !

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This Video MIGHT Stop Romney

From Becoming President

From MoveOn.org

In 4 minutes, you’ll know what you need to.

Then we just ask that you please SHARE so others will, too.

Watch: Revealed-GOP Strategy Broken Down


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12 Things You Should Know About Paul Ryan

(From Think Progress)

By Igor Volsky

Mitt Romney has picked as his running mate 42 year-old Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget, which the New York Times has described as “the most extreme budget plan passed by a house of Congress in modern times.” Below are 12 things you should know about Ryan and his policies:

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. Ryan heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue.” Rand described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages. Though he publicly rejected “her philosophy” in 2012, Ryan had professed himself a strong devotee. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he said at a D.C. gathering honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.” Learn more about Ryan’s muse:

2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. Paul Ryan’s infamous budget — which Romney embraced — replaces “the current tax structure with two brackets — 25 percent and 10 percent — and cut the top rate from 35 percent.” Federal tax collections would fall “by about $4.5 trillion over the next decade” as a result and to avoid increasing the national debt, the budget proposes massive cuts in social programs and “special-interest loopholes and tax shelters that litter the code.” But 62 percent of the savings would come from programs that benefit the lower- and middle-classes, who would also experience a tax increase. That’s because while Ryan “would extend the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year, he would not extend President Obama’s tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes, which will expire at the same time.” Households “earning more than $1 million a year, meanwhile, could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually.”

Audiences have booed Ryan for the unfair distribution:

3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. Ryan’s latest budget transforms the existing version of Medicare, in which government provides seniors with a guaranteed benefit, into a “premium support” system. All future retirees would receive a government contribution to purchase insurance from an exchange of private plans or traditional fee-for-service Medicare. But since the premium support voucher does not keep up with increasing health care costs, the Congressional Budget Offices estimates that new beneficiaries could pay up to $1,200 more by 2030 and more than $5,900 more by 2050. A recent study also found that had the plan been implemented in 2009, 24 million beneficiares enrolled in the program would have paid higher premiums to maintain their choice of plan and doctors. Ryan would also raise Medicare’s age of eligibility to 67.

4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.” In September of 2011, Ryan agreed with Rick Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” and since 2005 has advocated for privatizing the retirement benefit and investing it in stocks and bonds. Conservatives claim that this would “outperform the current formula based on wages earned and overall wage appreciation,” but the economic crisis of 2008 should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers who seek to hinge Americans’ retirement on the stock market. In fact, “a person with a private Social Security account similar to what President George W. Bush proposed in 2005″ would have lost much of their retirement savings.

5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. Ryan’s budget calls for massive reductions in government spending. He has proposed cutting discretionary programs by about $120 billion over the next two years and mandatory programs by $284 billion, which, the Economic Policy Institute estimates, would suck demand out of the economy and “reduce employment by 1.3 million jobs in fiscal 2013 and 2.8 million jobs in fiscal 2014, relative to current budget policies.”

6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students. Ryan’s budget claims both that rising financial aid is driving college tuition costs upward, and that Pell Grants, which help cover tuition costs for low-income Americans, don’t go to the “truly needy.” So he cuts the Pell Grant program by $200 billion, which could “ultimately knock more than one million students off” the program over the next 10 years.

7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. In 2011, Ryan joined all House Republicans and 13 Democrats in his vote to keep Big Oil tax loopholes as part of the FY 2011 spending bill. His budget would retain a decade’s worth of oil tax breaks worth $40 billion, while cutting “billions of dollars from investments to develop alternative fuels and clean energy technologies that would serve as substitutes for oil.” For instance, it “calls for a $3 billion cut in energy programs in FY 2013 alone” and would spend only $150 million over five years — or 20 percent of what was invested in 2012 — on energy programs.

8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies . Ryan “and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan,” the Daily Beast reported in June of 2011. “Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil.”

9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.” “I’m not a fan of [Romney's health care reform] system,” Ryan told C-SPAN in 2010. He argued that government is rationing care in the state and claimed that people are “seeing the system bursting by the seams, they’re seeing premium increases, rationing and benefit cuts.” He called the system “a fatal conceit” and “unsustainable.” Watch it:

10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” Though Romney has gone to great lengths to distinguish his Massachusetts health care law from Obamacare, Ryan doesn’t see the difference. “It’s not that dissimilar to Obamacare, and you probably know I’m not a big fan of Obamacare,” Ryan said at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the American Spectator in March of 2011. “I just don’t think the mandates work … all the regulation they’ve put on it…I think it’s beginning to death spiral. They’re beginning to have to look at rationing decisions.”

11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. In March, Ryan couldn’t believe that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey supports Obama’s Pentagon budget, which incorporates $487 billion in cuts over 10 years. “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice,” Ryan said at a policy summit hosted by the National Journal. “We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget.” He later apologized for the implication. Watch it:

12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure. Ryan joined 62 other Republicans in co-sponsoring the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which declares that a fertilized egg “shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” This would outlaw abortion, some forms of contraception and invitro fertilization.

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Share Truth !

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12 Things You Should Know About Ryan videos

Happy 51st Birthday

Mr. President !

You've Come A Long Way

(photos)

Sooooo Proud of Our President

and 1st Family !

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

---

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 3, 2012

Statement on the Employment Situation in July

WASHINGTON, DC – Alan B. Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, issued the following statement today on the employment situation in July. You can view the statement HERE.

  The Employment Situation in July

Posted by Alan B. Krueger on August 3, 2012 at 9:32AM EDT

 While there is more work that remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that build an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007. To build on the progress of the last few years, President Obama has proposed an extension of middle class tax cuts that would prevent the typical middle class family from facing a $2,200 tax increase next year. In addition, to create more jobs in particularly hard-hit sectors, President Obama continues to support the elements of the American Jobs Act that have not yet passed, including further investment in infrastructure to rebuild our Nation’s ports, roads and highways, and assistance to State and local governments to prevent layoffs and rehire hundreds of thousands of teachers and first responders.

 Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector establishments added 172,000 jobs last month, and overall non-farm payroll employment rose by 163,000. The economy has now added private sector jobs for 29 straight months, for a total of 4.5 million jobs during that period.

 The household survey showed that the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3% in July (or, more precisely, the rate rose from 8.217% in June to 8.254% in July). Acting BLS Commissioner John Galvin noted in his statement that the unemployment rate was “essentially unchanged” from June to July.

 The establishment survey indicated that manufacturing employment continues to expand and manufacturers added 25,000 jobs in July. After losing millions of manufacturing jobs in the years before and during the recession, the economy has added 532,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2010 – the strongest growth for any 30-month period since June 1989. Within manufacturing, motor vehicles and parts added 12,800 jobs in July, its strongest monthly growth since January 2011, partly reflecting fewer seasonal layoffs last month. To continue the revival in manufacturing jobs and output, President Obama has proposed tax incentives for manufacturers, enhanced training for the workforce, and measures to create manufacturing hubs and discourage sending jobs overseas.

  Other sectors with net job increases included professional and business services (+49,000), education and health services (+38,000), leisure and hospitality (+27,000), and wholesale trade (+9,200). Within leisure and hospitality, restaurant employment rose by 29,400 jobs. Government lost 9,000 jobs as State government payrolls fell by 6,000. Local governments shed 7,000 education jobs. Since February 2010, State and local governments have lost 485,000 jobs.

 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 informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.

Alan B. Krueger is Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

###

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MUST WATCH....SHARE !

" The Road We've Traveled "

Be Inspired...Be Informed...BE INVOLVED !!!

Watch: " The Road We've Traveled "
 

We MUST SHARE TRUTH

from now until Election Day !

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WATCH:

PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON COLORADO TRAGEDY

  {USA Today} President Obama paid tribute to the victims of today's Colorado shooting tragedy and asked for Americans to pray for the people of the Denver suburb where the movie theater shooting spree happened.
Obama's remarks came in Ft. Myers, Fla., where he was scheduled to speak at a campaign event. But Obama spoke only briefly and centered his comments on the tragedy.

"There are going to be other days for politics," Obama said. "This is a day for prayer and reflection."
Obama said after he was briefed about the shooting early Friday morning, he immediately thought of his two daughters, who like most young people enjoy going to the movies.
"If there is any take away from this, it's that life is fragile," Obama said "Our time here is limited and it's precious."

Vice President Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama have also canceled their events today, said Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki. The first lady was scheduled to travel to Virginia for two events and Biden was supposed to appear at a campaign event in Houston.
In a statement, Biden said he knows "what it's like to wait and wonder and the helplessness a parent feels at this moment." Biden lost his first wife, Neilia, and his daughter, Naomi, in a car accident in 1972. His two sons were injured in the crash but survived.

"The reason this is so deeply felt by all Americans is that, but for the grace of God, the victims could have been any one of our children, in any one of our towns," Biden said in a statement. "It is every parent's worst nightmare to receive 'that phone call' and to sit by their child's bedside, praying."
Obama also spoke with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and the mayor of Aurora, the Denver suburb where the shooting occurred.

"We do not believe at this point there was an apparent nexus to terrorism," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Psaki said that Obama campaign officials have asked affiliates in Colorado to pull down "contrast ads" for the time being. The Mitt Romney campaign has also pulled advertising in the Colorado market, said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
"It takes time for stations to be able to do this, but we are making every effort," Psaki said.
The Romney campaign said the likely GOP nominee will also address the Colorado incident today at a previously scheduled campaign event. Both Romney and his wife, Ann, have also canceled scheduled events.

In a statement earlier today, Obama called the shooting "horrific and tragic" and said his administration stands ready to help the people of Aurora, Colo.

"We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded," Obama said. "As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family. All of us must have the people of Aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of family, friends, and neighbors, and we must stand together with them in the challenging hours and days to come."

The President was notified of the shooting by his deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, John Brennan, at 5:26 a.m. EST, Carney said. Obama received a follow-briefing shortly before he spoke from FBI Director Robert Mueller, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and Brennan, Carney said.
Obama was in Florida on the second day of a two-day campaign trip.


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WATCH:

Romney Booed During NAACP Speech 

for Saying He'll Repeal 'ObamaCare' 

Watch:

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WATCH: This is funny !

Jay Leno Shows How President Obama Celebrates 

Supreme Court's Health Care Decision/Victory 

Watch:

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 The Health Care Act FACTS...

Straight from the White House

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

To: Greg Jones' B4B

June 28, 2012

 

FACT SHEET: 

 The Affordable Care Act: Secure Health Coverage for the Middle Class

 

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act ensures hard-working, middle class families will get the security they deserve and protects every American from the worst insurance company abuses.  This law was also specifically designed to give States the resources and flexibility they need to tailor their approach to their unique needs.  With the uncertainty about the Court’s decision behind us, it’s now time to focus on implementing this law in a smart and non-bureaucratic way that works for the middle class. 

 

Benefits and Protections for the Middle Class: The Affordable Care Act includes numerous provisions to keep health care costs low, promote prevention, and hold insurance companies accountable.  If you’re one of the 250 million Americans who already have health care – whether through private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid – the Affordable Care Act is already making your coverage more secure. 

 

·         Insurance companies no longer have unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny your child coverage due to a pre-existing condition, or charge women more than men.

 

·         Over 86 million Americans have gained from coverage of preventive care free of charge, like mammograms for women and wellness visits for seniors.

 

·         Nearly 13 million Americans will receive a rebate this summer because their insurance company spent too much of their premium dollars on administrative costs or CEO bonuses. 

 

·         The law has already helped 5.3 million seniors and people with disabilities save an average of over $600 on prescription drugs in the “donut hole” in Medicare coverage.

 

·         The law’s provisions to strengthen and protect Medicare by fighting fraud will continue.

 

·         The law has helped 6.6 million young adults who have been able to stay on their parents’ plans until the age of 26, including 3.1 million young people who are newly insured.

 

If you are one of the 30 million Americans who don’t yet have health insurance, starting in 2014 this law will offer you an array of quality, affordable, private health insurance plans to choose from.  If you need care, you will finally have the same opportunity to get quality, affordable coverage as everyone else.

 

Coverage for Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions: A major impact of the Court's decision is that 129 million people with pre-existing conditions will have the security of affordable health coverage.  Starting in 2014, insurance companies can no longer charge you more, carve out benefits, or deny you coverage altogether because you have cancer or diabetes or simply because you are a woman.  To make these protections affordable, people with and without pre-existing conditions should be insured, since everyone at some time needs health care. 

 

Tax Credits for Middle Class Families and Small Businesses: Millions of Americans will soon be eligible for tax credits to ensure that their health insurance is affordable. Under today’s ruling, having health insurance is and will continue to be a choice.  If you can’t afford insurance or you’re a small business that wants to provide affordable insurance to your employees, you’ll get tax credits that make coverage affordable.  But starting in 2014, if you can afford insurance and you choose not to purchase it, the taxpayers will no longer subsidize your care for free.  The Court’s ruling today allows Congress to hold the projected 1% of Americans who will be able to afford health insurance but will choose not to buy it responsible for that choice.  Many small businesses are already receiving tax credits so they can afford to offer quality health care to their employees.  To date, 360,000 businesses that employ 2 million workers have already benefitted from the small business tax cuts in the law.  And once the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, about 18 million individuals and families will get tax credits for health insurance coverage averaging about $4,000 apiece.

 

Support for State Implementation of Affordable Insurance Exchanges: With the uncertainty of the Court decision behind us, we will step up our work with States to implement Affordable Insurance Exchanges.  Exchanges are new marketplaces, starting in 2014, that will allow individuals and small businesses to compare and choose private health plans.   Each State will take the lead in designing its own menu of options.  Already, 34 States including the District of Columbia have received 100 percent Federally funded grants to build Exchanges.  The use of Exchange grants includes support for activities related to running Exchanges in their start-up year.

 

States can also implement their own brand of reform through Innovation Waivers starting in 2017.  If States can come up with even better ways of covering people at the same quality and low cost, this law allows them to do so.  The Administration supports bipartisan legislation to allow States to start such Waivers in 2014.

 

Moving Forward, Not Back: No political party has a monopoly on good ideas, and the President will work with anyone to provide basic security for middle class families and end the worst insurance company abuses.  But rather than refight old partisan battles by starting over on health care and repealing basic protections that provide security for the middle class, Congress needs to work together to focus on the economy and creating jobs.  Right now, Congress should act on the President’s concrete plans to create an economy built to last by reducing the deficit in a balanced way and investing in education, clean energy, infrastructure, and innovation.

 

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Yes ! 'ObamaCare' Lives On !

Supreme Court Rules Health Care Act Constitutional...
ANOTHER Great Victory for Our President !

WASHINGTON -- The individual health insurance mandate is constitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, upholding the central provision of President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act.
The controlling opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the mandate as a tax, although concluded it was not valid as an exercise of Congress' commerce clause power. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined in the outcome.
The decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius comes as something of a surprise after the generally hostile reception the law received during the six hours of oral arguments held over three days in March. But by siding with the court's four Democratic appointees, Chief Justice Roberts avoided the delegitimizing taint of politics that surrounds a party-line vote while passing Obamacare's fate back to the elected branches. GOP candidates and incumbents will surely spend the rest of the 2012 campaign season running against the Supreme Court and for repeal of the law.
Five justices concluded that the mandate, which requires virtually all Americans to obtain minimum health insurance coverage or pay a penalty, falls within Congress' power under the Constitution to "lay and collect taxes."

"The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause," Roberts wrote. "That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."
Ginsburg, writing separately for the four liberals, said they would have upheld the mandate under the commerce clause too. "Unlike the market for almost any other product or service, the market for medical care is one in which all individuals inevitably participate," she wrote. "Virtually every person residing in the United States, sooner or later, will visit a doctor or other health care professional."
Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined in a dissent. Together, Roberts' controlling opinion, Ginsburg's concurrence, the four-justice dissent and Thomas' own dissent add up to 187 pages. (read rest of article from HuffPo)

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