Restitutor Orbis

President Obama's weekly address:


1/31/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

This was an interesting development, reported by Yahoo News:

NEW YORK – Most Republican governors have broken with their GOP colleagues in Congress and are pushing for passage of President Barack Obama's economic aid plan that would send billions to states for education, public works and health care.

Their state treasuries drained by the financial crisis, governors would welcome the money from Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are more skeptical of Obama's spending priorities.

The most interesting aspect of this story is that Sarah Palin was among those pressing for release of her state's share of the recovery package.

From the White House blog dated January 30th, a last bit of news from yesterday:

America's middle class is the economic engine of this nation. Our road to economic recovery begins with restoring the prosperity of working families and small business owners. That is why today, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum creating a task force dedicated to raising the living standards of middle class families – and he put the nation’s number two guy in charge, Vice President Joe Biden:

"America’s middle class is hurting. Trillions of dollars in home equity and retirement savings and college savings are gone. And every day, more and more Americans are losing their jobs. President Obama and I are determined to change this. Quite simply, a strong middle class equals a strong America. We can’t have one without the other. This Task Force will be an important vehicle to assess new and existing policies across the board and determine if they are helping or hurting the middle class. It is our charge to get the middle class – the backbone of this country – up and running again."

President Obama went on to say the following:

I'm going to be signing three executive orders designed to ensure that federal contracts serve taxpayers efficiently and effectively. One of these orders is going to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to reimburse federal contractors who spend money trying to influence the formation of unions. We will also require that federal contractors inform their employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Federal labor laws encourage collective bargaining, and employees should know their rights to avoid disruption of federal contracts.

And I'm issuing an order so that qualified employees will be able to keep their jobs even when a contract changes hands. We shouldn't deprive the government of these workers who have so much experience in making government work.

Vice President Joe Biden made a few remarks as well:

And our first task force meeting will be held in -- on February 27th in Philadelphia. The focus of that meeting will be green jobs -- those jobs that pay well, can't be outsourced, and will help us move toward a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future. Each month to follow, we will focus on a different concern in a different part of the country: how to make retirement more secure; child and elder care, how to make it affordable; improving workplace safety; getting the cost of college within reach of the vast majority of the American people; help weary parents juggle family and work; and create the jobs for the future.

All in all, very exciting news. I was hoping President Obama would find useful and meaningful employment for Biden and I know that's what Biden wanted.

A last bit of news from CNN:

After initially vowing to unveil a new financial rescue package this coming week, senior Obama administration officials are now pushing the rollout date back an extra week in a sign of just how difficult it may be to craft such a massive plan — especially while the White House is simultaneously trying to sell a separate $819 economic stimulus plan.

Two senior administration officials told CNN that the full rescue plan, which is being put together by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic advisers, is now expected to be unveiled the second week of February. But the officials held out the possibility that Geithner could start teasing out some aspects of the rescue plan this coming week.

Officials said the rescue plan will include a crackdown on bonuses and other compensation for companies that receive federal bailout money.