Obama Says Private Sector Must Lead in Creating Jobs
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said theprivate sector must take the lead in creating jobs as the U.S.economy recovers and that persistently high unemployment “cutsdeep” for the millions out of work.
The president spoke at the opening of a White House forumon creating jobs that assembled a group of economists, unionleaders and business executives such as Eric Schmidt, chiefexecutive officer of Mountain View, California-based GoogleInc., and Fred Smith of Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx Corp.
“We cannot hang back and hope for the best when we’ve seenthe kinds of job losses that we’ve seen over the last year,”Obama said. “What I’m interested in is taking action right nowto help businesses create jobs right now, in the near term.”
With the nation’s unemployment rate at a 26-year high of10.2 percent in October, the president is pivoting back topocketbook issues two days after announcing a new Afghanistanwar strategy. He is scheduled to follow up with a talk about theeconomy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, tomorrow, the same day theLabor Department will report the jobless rate for November.
The people Obama brought together today will split into sixworking groups led by administration officials includingTreasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, National Economic CouncilDirector Lawrence Summers and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Strategy Discussions
The subjects for the smaller sessions include creating jobsthrough developing of alternative energy sources, rebuildingU.S. infrastructure and boosting exports.
The companies represented include Dallas-based AT&T Inc.,Chicago-based Boeing Co. and New York-based Pfizer Inc., andprovide a snapshot of the nation’s employment woes, having cutmore than 36,000 jobs this year, according to data compiled byBloomberg.
Outside the White House gate, about 30 protesters gatheredas the attendees arrived. Signs carried by the demonstratorsincluded calls for more money to be spent on jobs rather thanthe military campaign in Afghanistan and slogans such as, “Ajob is a right.”
Obama earlier this year pushed through Congress a $787billion economic stimulus package that his administrationprojected would hold unemployment below 8 percent.
Stimulus Jobs
An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Officesaid the stimulus generated between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobsand, as unemployment rose, kept the rate between 0.3 and 0.9percentage points lower than it would have been without thestimulus package.
Republicans lawmakers held their own economic roundtable atthe Capitol today, where House Minority Leader John Boehner ofOhio said “all the job-killing policies that are being offeredby this administration and this Congress” are creatinguncertainty for business. As a result, he said, companies aren’thiring.
Republicans invited to the forum include Larry Lindsey, ahead of the Council of Economic Advisers under former PresidentGeorge W. Bush, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director ofthe Congressional Budget Office and chief economic adviser tothe 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Arizona Senator JohnMcCain.
Boehner and other Republicans say the stimulus hasn’tcreated jobs while adding to a deficit that reached a record$1.4 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and isprojected to be $1.4 trillion again this year.
Obama conceded that the government’s “resources arelimited” due to the budget deficit.
“We can’t make any ill-considered decisions right now,”he said. “We’re going to have to be surgical and we’re going tohave to be creative.”
At a session on infrastructure spending, TransportationSecretary Ray LaHood said 75 percent of the $48.1 billion theTransportation Department received from the stimulus package is“out the door” for road, bridge and airport projects that arecreating thousands of jobs..
“We think our part of it is working,” LaHood said.
To contact the reporters on this story:Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net;Edwin Chen in Washington at echen@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 3, 2009 14:57 ESTSource: Bloomberg
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