Obama Jobs Speech! Obama jobs speech is one of the hottest items today as President Obama today offered some hint of his planned remarks on the economy tomorrow, saying it’ll focus on the need to ensure job growth “matches up with economic growth.”
“What we’ve seen is, is that companies shed jobs very quickly, partly induced by the panic of what was happening on Wall Street, and they are still tentative about hiring back all those people who were laid off,” Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Turkey’s prime minister.
President Obama also said companies may have become more efficient after doing more with less for so long “that they may feel that they can produce the same amount of goods or services without as many employees.”
Press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the president also intends to send a message to Main Street that “help is on the way.” To that end, Obama is expected to call for using some funds originally allocated for the TARP program for new stimulus measures.
“It sends the message that your economic vitality is just as important as anybody that lives or works or breathes on Wall Street. That’s the message the President has hoped and wanted to send for his entire administration, and that’s what he’s done in the recovery plan; that’s what he’ll continue to do tomorrow in his speech,” Gibbs said.
Don’t expect to hear any grand cure-all for the nation’s persistent unemployment problem, however.
“The President is not going to unveil the silver bullet idea … [where] all the jobs that will be made up by the loss in the economic downturn and then some,” Gibbs said. “If there was one idea to do this, I assume it would have been done sometime in the intervening 22 months.”
Gibbs also declined to call any new programs announced tomorrow a “second stimulus.” Meanwhile, some have questioned whether Obama can and should use funds originally allocated for the TARP program for any new initiatives. Gibbs said that the White House “is looking at” that possibility, especially given the unexpected $200 billion coming back to the Treasury coffers as financial institutions repay their federal bailout.
“The president again, and the team, as well as members of Capitol Hill are looking at these questions to see what are the important and necessary next steps, some of which, but not all of which, the president will discuss tomorrow.”
