[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3770]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
                   UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 113-2)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cotton) laid before the House the 
following message from the President of the United States; which was 
read and referred to the Joint Economic Committee and ordered to be 
printed:

To the Congress of the United States
  This year's Economic Report of the President describes the progress 
we have made recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great 
Depression. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have 
created over six million new jobs. As a nation, we now buy more 
American cars than we have in 5 years, and less foreign oil than we 
have in 20 years. Our housing market is healing, and consumers, 
patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.
  But there are still millions of Americans whose hard work and 
dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs, but 
too many of our fellow citizens still can't find full-time employment. 
Corporate profits have reached all-time highs, but for more than a 
decade, wages and incomes for working Americans have barely budged.
  Our top priority must be to do everything we can to grow our economy 
and create good, middle-class jobs. That has to be our North Star. That 
has to drive every decision we make in Washington. Every day, we should 
ask ourselves three questions: How do we attract more jobs to our 
shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those 
jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?
  We can begin by making America a magnet for new jobs and 
manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than a decade, our 
manufacturers have added about half a million new jobs over the past 3 
years. We need to accelerate that trend, by launching more 
manufacturing hubs that transform hard-hit regions of the country into 
global centers of high-tech jobs and manufacturing. We need to make our 
tax code more competitive, by ending tax breaks for companies that ship 
jobs overseas, and rewarding companies that create jobs here at home. 
And we need to invest in the research and technology that will allow us 
to harness more of our own energy and put more people back to work 
repairing our crumbling roads and bridges.
  These steps will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand 
and create new jobs. But we also need to provide every American with 
the skills and training they need to fill those jobs. We should start 
in the earliest years by offering high-quality preschool to every child 
in America, because we know kids in programs like these do better 
throughout their academic lives. We should redesign America's high 
schools to better prepare our students with skills that employers are 
looking for right now. And because taxpayers can't continue subsidizing 
the soaring cost of higher education, we should take affordability and 
value into account when determining which colleges receive certain 
types of Federal aid.
  We also need to reward hard work and declare that no one who works 
full-time should have to live in poverty by raising the minimum wage so 
that it's a wage you can live on. And it's time to harness the talents 
and ingenuity of hardworking immigrants by finally passing commonsense 
immigration reform--continuing to strengthen border security, holding 
employers accountable, establishing a responsible path to earned 
citizenship, reuniting families, and attracting the highly-skilled 
entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists that will help create jobs.
  As we continue to grow our economy, we must also take further action 
to shrink our deficits. We don't have to choose between these two 
important priorities--we just have to make smart choices.
  Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce 
the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion, which puts us more than halfway 
towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists 
say we need to stabilize our finances. Now we need to finish the job. 
But we shouldn't do it by making harsh and arbitrary cuts that 
jeopardize our military readiness, devastate priorities like education 
and energy, and cost jobs. That's not how you grow the economy. We 
shouldn't ask senior citizens and working families to pay down the rest 
of our deficit while the wealthiest are asked for nothing more. That 
doesn't grow our middle class.
  Most Americans--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--understand 
that we can't just cut our way to prosperity. That's why I have put 
forward a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes responsible 
reforms to bring down the cost of health care for an aging generation--
the single biggest driver of our long-term debt--and saves hundreds of 
billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for 
the well-off and well-connected. And we should finally pursue 
bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and 
helps bring down the deficit.
  The American people don't expect their government to solve every 
problem. They don't expect those of us in Washington to agree on every 
issue. But they do expect us to put the Nation's interest before party 
interests. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we 
can. Our work will not be easy. But America only moves forward when we 
do so together--when we accept certain obligations to one another and 
to future generations. That's the American story. And that's how we 
will write the next great chapter--together.
                                                        Barack Obama.  
The White House, March 2013.

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