As all of us are aware of by now, President Obama presented a proposal to the U.S. Congress on September 8 called the American Jobs Act. This act, among other things, is ultimately designed to hopefully get millions of unemployed Americans back to work. I have included a link to an article written by The Wall Street Journal containing key points of the speech.
Wall Street Journal Article
After reading this article, please post your overall thoughts. Do you think this was an effective speech for the president? What are the chances lawmakers pass this proposal? Is it too late for President Obama to propose such an ambitious plan? What might your suggestions be for getting Americans back to work?
16 comments:
I think that Obama proposes some very good ideas in this speech, but they are not very practical for this time in our economy. He said in the speech that the money made from the tax cuts will be used to finance this plan, therefore it will not be added to the deficit. It is important not to add to the deficit, however that money was supposed to be used to try and reduce the deficit, and by using that money for new programs, he is canceling out any cuts that could be of any help. He also talks about adding tax cuts for those who hire new workers and how payroll tax will be cut in half. This may seem like an incentive but hiring new workers at decent wages will be much more expensive and a burden on small companies, a burden that tax cuts will do little to alleviate. People are not going to hire new workers if their company is in dire straits whether or not they get a tax cut from the government. I propose that instead of the president trying to get private companies to hire, he should focus on the second part of his plan, which is the improvement of infrastructure. This is a federal job, which means it already is included in the federal budget. Why not use a fraction (not all) of the tax cut profits to help expand jobs in this field and other fields such as this. I believe that giving money to private companies is only going to make them dependent on the national government and put an even greater strain on the economy, as we dig ourselves deeper in debt. The government should try to improve the economy through programs that are already in place and leave the private industry alone, as meddling in this sector will ultimately weaken it (through its dependance on the federal government) and do more harm than good.
I believe that Obama may have good intentions, but some of his ideas are not agreeable with me. I like the fact that he is focusing on our current unemployment issue, but I feel that he also needs to put more focus on the increasing defecit, and ways to reduce it. He seems to be pushing it out of the way, and sooner or later it will not be able to be ignored.Tax cuts should go to help decrease the defecit, but at the same time some should go to help create jobs. Although, I did particularly like the idea of taking away the loopholes for large and wealthy businesses, however, I believe someone should have taken care of that a long time ago. I do not understand why that problem was not addressed much earlier, due to the fact that those businesses could unjustly slip by without paying as much as they should be entitled to. I also believe that it will take a lot of hard work for many people to even consider passing this act, due to the large disconnection between democrats and republicans. It will indeed be interesting to see what happens in the near future regarding this matter.
Although I agree that President Obama is usually very well spoken and delivers speeches better than most, I do not agree with all of which he plans on doing. I feel like while giving his speech, he was not very persuasive this time. He kept saying "pass the bill, pass the bill..." and did not make it seem very eye-opening to me. I concur with Katie in the fact that I think it is good that he wants to try and get more jobs for Americans and that he cares about the unemployment rates even if it is also to help get himself re-elected but I think his way of doing so is not very smart. Our country is already in debt so much and increasing this debt is not helping the nation much either. I feel that one way to increase jobs would be as Ronald Ragean called 'trickled down economics' which helped us get out of the recession in 70s. This would make the businesses pay lower taxes which would make it so they could hire more people and therefore decrease the rates of unemployment. Even if there is a dramatic cut between what one used to make and what they can make now, they should be will to still take a job and be happy to be employed. Our country is going through a major transition where they are realizing what some people really deserve to be getting paid for the jobs they are doing which does mean that some people are going out of work but they should realize that the chances of getting a job as highly paid as before is unlikely in today's society. When it comes to the deficit, I think the only true solution is to stop spending. That is why I think it is not a good idea to pass this bill. To get out of debt, America has to stop digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole. I think this act is dealing with a very sticky situation and those who must decide on it are not going to have an easy job. I think it will take a lot of thought and evaluation of every possible solution and situation to make an accurate decision. Due to the conflicting opinions of the republicans and democrats, I think a lot of the decision to be made will be based on persuasion and influence. I think that Obama trying to make such an ambitious plan is very risky to do this late in his presidency. I feel it is his way to try and get the votes of some for an attempt at another term but he may also be losing the votes of many with the decision to try and pass this bill. I think it could easily go either way.
In my opinion, I believe that President Obama's speech wasn't as persuasive as it could've been and it definitely did not sit will with me that his plan involves asking the government for more money to create more infrastructure when our economy is already suffering from severe debt and turmoil. On the other hand, I can see that his intentions are good and that he is eager to help the unemployed find jobs. However, the way he presented his idea kind of came off wrong and to me made it seem like his main objective was to ask Congress to "pass the bill" in order to save himself from the upcoming election by trying to propose this ambitious plan, which may seem great since it aids those who are unemployed, but it will only create more debt and worry for the future. Moreover, it didn't seem like he won over too Republican votes, so there is a very low chance his plan will be passed. As the unemployment rate increases, I believe that he should concentrate more on helping businesses financially in order to be able to hire more people. Also, it is very unnecessary that Obama is asking for $447 billion in order to make this plan "successful," or so he thinks it will be.
I do think it was an effective speech to an extent. If he did not use "pass this bill" 3000 times I would of been more interested in knowing all aspects of why he wants to create this rather than completely tuning him out because he seemed more interested in telling everyone to "pass" it. I do not know whether or not the lawmakers agree with Obama but I feel that there are other ways in creating jobs for people that will not be so costly. With our economy the way it is and the deficit we are in, I am not ok with them spending even more money, when I feel that there could possibly be other alternatives. This late in his presidency, I do feel like it is too late, especially for him, when he has done little to nothing to help our country. I do realize that our country was and still is today in a bind and it is hard for the president to fix that quickly, but he was all about change and change has yet to occur. Like I said in class, although it may not be efficient, buisnesses or factories could have people come back to work and take out the machinary that replaced their jobs in the first place. I guarantee that people would be getting payed less than what buisnesses or factories are paying to keep their machinary up and running properly.
Personally, I do not agree with the speech President Obama gave. With the unemployment rate at 9% percent, don't you think that action should have been taken sooner? I understand that this is not a simple problem to solve, but i do feel like it could have been handled better. I feel like Mr. Obama is only doing this for the sake of being reelected again. I am not saying that he does not care about the issue, I just feel like he should have taken action sooner. Also with our nation in so much debt, why add on another $450 billion! It seems to me that the government has the idea to just throw money wherever there is problems in hopes of solving them. But is money always the answer? It seems as if not much thought was put into this bill, and can't our government come up with a better well to help the people of the United States? I do not have the answer to solve this problem, but I am not the president nor do I hold a position of any sort in government. The men and women of our government are very intelligent people and i am sure that there is another/better way to solve this problem. I am glad that they are seeing the problem and trying to fix it, but I hope for the sake of our nation that it does not get worse. This bill can go either way and I hope the outcome is the right one.
Obama had many good intentions in his speech however, his ideas made it sound like the only way to improve the economy was to spend a lot more money. I agree with President Obama that the economy needs to improve and that finding jobs for the unemployed is important for turning the economy around. The problem is that the United States is already in a lot of debt and adding to the national debt is not going to help anyone. I also disagree in the fact that Obama wants to extend unempolyment insurance benefits. I believe that many people are relying to much on the unemplyment benefits. Many Americans are lazy and are using the governments money to get out of working. Extending the benefits will only allow the unemployed to become lazier. Obama is also trying to help a lot of people at the same time. He wants to allow schools to hire more teacher, along with fix infrastructure, as well as get small businesses to hire more people. In the past Obama has tried to improve the unemployment rate, but only ended up spending more money and increasing the nations debt without any progress. Instead of doing everything at once, i believe that Obama should start with a group of people and see if the act improves anything. Obama gave a good speech about fixing the problems in the United States, but it takes time to fix many of the issues in the economy. I believe that this act would have been a better idea three years ago in the beginning of his term. Now Obama is relying on this act to improve the economy in about a year in order to get himself reelected.
President Obama has a way with words. He persuades people with his smooth speeches, winning attitude, and knowledge of his topics. Even though he is a great public speaker, I do not believe that the ideas he is presenting are very intelligent or practical. I do agree that the employment rate has reached a very concerning low, but the idea to "create new jobs" is very impractical and nearly impossible. The money being put into new, unnecessary, construction jobs is extremely high and there is no possible way of paying for it with our nation's current deficit. Also he proposed the idea of increasing unemployment benefits, which is not going to help the crisis in any way. Unemployed people will lose the drive to find a job if they are given more benefits, and if they do not get a job if they have the ability to, then they do not deserve the higher benefits. Overall I believe that not much of this exceptionally spoken speech is a good thing for our nation, and I am almost sure that the Republicans will not let it be passed. Obama tried very hard and gained many followers by focusing on a major issue in America, but I do not believe the solution to the problem is presented in this speech.
In my opinion I believe that the president means well for the United States but it is not working out in his favor. His speech brings up good points about bringing jobs back to those who are unemployed however this requires billions of dollars in spending. With our country’s deficit in the trillions we cannot afford to spend anymore money that we do not have. This is also the reason that I don’t believe that this proposal is going to be passed by lawmakers. Many people along with the lawmakers have a negative view of Obama. Most of them do not believe that Obama has helped the United States prosper in any way. This negative view of Obama is one reason that the law most likely will not be passed. Also another reason that I don’t believe that this proposal will be passed is because of the money that is needed to pay for it. At this time most republicans are trying decrease the deficit and they see this proposal as a huge step back. However, on the other hand, I see where Obama and most democrats are coming from. They believe that if you bring back jobs with this proposal employees will start to receive a regular income which might cause then to spend more and slowly boost our economy back up. However I do believe that this proposal was thought of too late. The deficit is already too high and many Americans are wondering how it is possible for us to keep spending this money when we don’t have the money. I also believe that it is to late for Obama to get his positive image back when he has lost the respect of many Americans. In order to for him to help our economy and unemployment I think it would be wise to focus on our country as a whole. It always seems like we are constantly helping other countries when we really need to get back on our feet first. I am not saying to stop helping other countries but to help ourselves more first.
I really think that every speech that President Obama gives is important. Whether the reason for giving the speech is to inform Americans of his goals and actions for the future or trying to gain support before the upcoming election, I think that every speech he gives is effective. As for this new act, I agree with what the president is trying to accomplish and I think that creating new jobs will help us out of debt as a country. But unfortunately it looks like we have to spend more money before this can happen. When I was reading this article and saw how much money all of these new projects were going to cost, I can see why many people disagree with them. I don’t know if I like cutting taxes because we obviously need some more money if we want all of these things to happen. I also don’t agree with extending unemployment benefits because I think that that will help and push them into searching for a job. I do believe in President Obama’s plan to increase infrastructure because I think that this will help with unemployment right now and be beneficial for our country, overall, I think that the chances of this getting passed right now are very low, mainly because a lot of Americans right now are against Obama and against spending anymore money so they would clearly disagree with this. I think the President Obama is doing a nice job in being proactive in decreasing the country’s unemployment rate and I think that his plan will be beneficial to America in the long run.
President Obama’s proposal sounds like he is trying to win friends. He states what he thinks people want to hear. I sense that his proposal was prepared by someone other than himself to win constituents.
Solutions to our economic problems will take long range planning; Obama seems to be throwing “quick fixes” out there. Cut taxes, reduce government spending and reduce unemployment are the key issues, but through what means will those solutions be accomplished without passing on more costs (in the form of taxes) to the public? How are we going to stimulate the economy by increasing taxes, while we are trying to reduce them? It makes no sense! The President needs to take a risk and take a stand! Right now Obama is walking a tightrope, and it is not clear what side he is on. Is he trying to help our disastrous economy or is he campaigning? I do not think lawmakers will pass this proposal. Off the heels of the debt-ceiling debate, America is disappointed. Concrete plans, and ways to achieve them are in order. The old saying, “too little too late,” is what I see in this proposal. We need a concrete directive from someone who is not afraid to give it. We need that “someone!”
I think that President Obama is usually a gifted speaker, but I think that this speech was a desperate pleading for the passage of this bill. This speech included both positive and negative points, but overall, I do not think it will benefit our country’s economic situation. I think that there is little chance that this bill will pass due to the lack of willingness to compromise between both parties. President Obama appears to me to be a procrastinator who now simply wants to be reelected, and I think it is too late for him to propose such an ambitious plan. In my opinion, President Obama has waited too long to deal with the issues of unemployment and our nation’s economy. I think that it is an unreasonable idea for President Obama to ask our country to spend money that we do not have to essentially try to “get more money” or improve our economy and unemployment rates. If our country spends $447 billion that we must borrow, more problems will occur years from now because we will be in so much debt. I do not think that Obama’s spending toward improving schools is necessary because right now the unemployment rate is a more important issue than improving the conditions of America’s schools. Although teachers will be hired through this plan to improve education, I do not think that this will be a significant source of jobs for Americans. In my opinion, a way that Americans could get back to work is if the government reduces restrictions on businesses so that it is easier for people to be hired. I think that if Obama’s plan was modified it would gain approval and more beneficial to our nation. Although Obama waited too long to take action on many issues, it is better late than never.
I feel that the way that President Obama delivered his speech to a joint session of Congress was effective although I do not agree with one hundred percent of what he proposed. His speech aimed to help the economy and the job market while boosting his political image for the up-and-coming election, which he certainly tried to do. His repetition of 'You should pass this bill right away' is an effective way to make a persuasive speech. Contrary to the way he made his speech I think that the timing of this act is terrible and our economy is not ready to support it. With the tremendous debt are nation is already having a very difficult time paying off I think that adding to the debt in order to create more jobs may not be the right thing to do at this time. I think there are alternative ways to create jobs, such as placing workers back in production lines where machines right now are dominating. This will make products more expensive but it also puts more money in people's pockets so they can afford the products they are producing.
I by far agree with his plan to improve the education system, meaning schools and teachers. I think this will help better the education of America's next generation that must one day run our country. Without education our government falls apart and can possible become chaos. Education is not stressed enough, in my opinion, as it should be. Education is the foundation that will get America back on track, although it make take time. Especially getting the best teachers into schools to education kids. I think it is ridiculous that NBA basketball players get paid more than teachers.
Im am not sure on how this proposal will pass. With it's strong and weak points I am not sure which way congress will lean. I probably would not pass this bill.
The only credit I can give to Obama up to this point in his presidency is his talent for speech-making. He is very good speaker and can clearly put his point across. It is one of the main reasons, I believe, that he won the presidential elections in 2008. Anyways, I do not personally find his speech to be convincing. I do not see how spending anymore money could help our country in any way, shape, or form. We cannot afford to be spending money we don't have. It will only hurt us in the long run. However, I disagree with Maggie (shocker I know). I do think cutting taxes could potentially help unemployment. Less taxes could make businesses more willing and able to hire more people. They would have more money to spend on workers and therefore it would reduce unemployment. Another point I partially agree with is infrastructure. FDR did similiar things in the New Deal involving the building/restoration of roads, bridges, etc. This worked great in the time of the Great Depression, but I feel like America is not to that point yet. I think that introducing this plan before reaching rock bottom will just push closer to it instead of taking us further away. Finally, I cannot believe that Obama would try to pass a plan as extensive as this one, so close to the end of his presidency. I think it is too late. I don't think Obama has the time to make any significant changes to the American economy, especially if a Republican wins the presidential election in 2012. I think that the chances of this Act being passed and then actually getting fulfilled is very slim. I don't think it would be a bad thing either. It is not the government's responsibility to find work for the unemployed. It is there own personal responsibility to find jobs and find a way to support their lifestyles. Everyone in life makes choices and some people make the wrong ones which in time lead them to rely on the government (and other citizens) to support. This safety net should not be there because the only way to help with unemployment is to give people the incentive to find jobs.
While I personally don't agree with the American Jobs Act, I believe that Obama gave a pretty effective speech. He is obviously a very good public speaker, but it would have been better if he didn't keep repeating the phrase 'pass the bill.' Obama proposed this plan a year before his term as president will possibly be over. It seems a little late to propose a plan of this kind. I feel as if the plan won't have a huge impact in our economy or in the workforce. I do think it's a good idea to let workers keep receiving unemployment while they are searching for a job, but I otherwise don't agree with Obama's plan, or think it will help our country in any significant way. I think it would be a better idea to improve plans that are already in place to help our economy than to create a new one. I also do not understand how he expects everyone to be okay with spending so much money on this Act. I feel as if the real purpose behind the Act is Obama's hope to get re-elected in 2012.
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