Regular visitors are probably familiar with the Photo of the Day, a special pick selected by Pete Souza and the White House Photo Office daily.  But you may not have realized that each one is loaded up as part of a gallery for that month, and as it turns out, looking back through the photos of the day is a pretty interesting way to recap the month.  The gallery for August is below -- President Obama talks with soliders at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas as the combat mission in Iraq comes to a close; tours a new housing development in New Orleans, Louisiana five years after Hurricane Katrina; signs Elena Kagan's commission in the Oval Office before celebrating her confirmation to the Supreme Court; welcomes recipents of the 2010 Presidential Citizen's Medal to the White House; and takes a dip with Sasha at Alligator Point in Panama City Beach, Florida.

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Lindsay Graham has often shown that he’s fully capable of being reasonable and bipartisan. Which made it particularly disappointing to see his misleading use of numbers yesterday.  

On Meet the Press, the Senator, against a wave of evidence to the contrary, argued that the Recovery Act has been “an absolute disaster” and called for cancelling “a lot” of what’s left in the bill (transcript here). 

His evidence for this claim: “...we’ve lost two-and-a-half million jobs since the stimulus passed.”

Take a look at the figure below and you’ll see why this is so misleading. He’s conflating two periods of very different employment trends. In the first, when his team’s policies dominated, employment hemorrhaged at nightmarish rates. In the second, when the Recovery Act was on the scene, job losses in the private sector began to diminish, and this year, turned positive. 

The delegations have departed, the speeches have been delivered, and the talks have begun. Re-launching direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians was of course a first step, but the meetings this week at the White House and the State Department went quite well, and represent a good foundation for progress.

As Senator Mitchell said, the tone was constructive and serious, and the two leaders began to establish a positive relationship. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas met for nearly two hours one-on-one at the State Department on September 2nd. They talked very frankly and openly with each other, and got a sense of each other’s seriousness of purpose.

On Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio, the President will update the American people on the state of the economy, talk about the progress we have made, and discuss some targeted proposals to keep the economy growing including extending tax cuts for the middle class, and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest.

As today’s jobs numbers demonstrate, we are headed in the right direction. We have gained private sector jobs for the last 8 months, but not nearly enough. As the President said today, there’s no quick fix to the worst recession since the Great Depression. It took years to create our economic problems, and it’ll take more time than any of us would like to fully repair the damage. There are no silver bullets and anyone who is promising them is not being straight with the American people. But there are some ideas that will help the economy and help American families that are hurting and those proposals will be a part of the President’s remarks.

Speaking in the city where Minority Leader Boehner recently detailed the Republican economic agenda, the President will lay out the choice between his ideas and the failed policies and failed philosophy that led us into this mess. 

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

With Hurricane Earl moving up the East Coast and expected to arrive in New England by tonight, FEMA is taking aggressive actions to coordinate with Northeastern states as they prepare for possible severe weather.  Initial reports from our teams in North Carolina and Virginia indicate that the storm passed close to them without causing the level of damage that it could have, but we still don’t know what Earl’s impact will be in the Northeast United States.  Earl is still a potentially dangerous storm, and it’s important for residents in the region to continue to take this storm seriously and to get ready.
 
Yesterday, our Deputy Administrator Rich Serino, who has 35 years of emergency management experience in Massachusetts, deployed to Boston to oversee our preparation and response efforts.  FEMA teams have been on the ground since earlier this week along the East Coast, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to work directly with and support state and local officials. We also have teams on standby in New York and New Jersey, ready to help if needed. We have pre-positioned commodities for rapid delivery in Massachusetts, including water, meals, tarps, and generators, and at the direction of President Obama we are bringing together all of our federal partners to ensure a swift and effective response if needed. Our goal throughout all of these efforts is simple – we want to do everything we can to keep our residents and communities safe, and prevent the loss of life and property.

What two countries lead the world in energy consumption, energy production and greenhouse gas emissions? The United States and China. Can our two countries work together to help lead the world in a transition to clean energy? A recent announcement by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is an important step in that direction.

Yesterday, Secretary Chu announced that the University of Michigan and West Virginia University will each lead consortia under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center. The two consortia will receive $25 million in total funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for this work. These amounts will be matched by the grantees, for a total of $50 million in U.S. funding. The Chinese side will contribute an additional $50 million, for a total of $100 million for this innovative project.

Today’s employment report was better than expected. Private sector payrolls increased by 67,000 in August -- the eighth consecutive month of private sector job growth. This growth is consistent with other recent data reports indicating that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than in the early spring. The rate of job growth, however, is not as large as needed to bring the unemployment rate down quickly. Indeed, the unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.6%, as more than half a million people joined the labor force. The President continues to work with his economic team and with Congress to identify measures that could help speed the recovery and put the economy on a path of steadily declining unemployment.

In addition to the rise in August, the estimates of private sector job growth for June and July were revised up by a total of 66,000. Since last December, private sector employment has risen by 763,000. Despite the rise in private sector employment, overall payroll employment fell by 54,000, as 114,000 temporary Census jobs were eliminated.

Private sector payrolls expanded in a number of sectors, including education and health services, construction, and temporary help services. Manufacturing employment fell 27,000 in August; much of this drop likely reflects the fact that manufacturing employment in July was elevated because General Motors chose to forgo its usual two-week shutdown. The manufacturing ISM Report on Business released on Wednesday indicated stronger employment growth in manufacturing in August than in July. State and local government payrolls declined by 10,000 in August, consistent with continuing budget difficulties in many states and localities.

In the household survey, the number of people employed rose by 290,000. But, because the labor force rose by 550,000, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6% (from 9.5% in July). The employment -to-population ratio also rose one-tenth of a percentage point (to 58.5%), indicating that in the household survey employment growth more than kept up with population growth. In addition, the number of workers who have been unemployed 27 weeks or longer declined sharply, from 6.57 million to 6.25 million.

Against the backdrop of some unsettling economic data in the past few weeks, today’s numbers are reassuring that growth and recovery are continuing. At the same time, the fact that the growth of private sector payrolls is below the level needed to keep up with normal growth of the labor force is obviously unacceptable. There are a number of step we could take to help increase private sector job growth and put the economy on a path of steadily declining unemployment. We will be working with Congress on these measures in the coming weeks.

There will likely be bumps in the road ahead. The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and encourage robust job gains.

Christina Romer is the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

President Obama spoke with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate this afternoon and yesterday morning to ensure we are doing everything in our power to keep people safe in advance of Hurricane Earl along the eastern seaboard.  The President will continue to monitor the situation as FEMA tracks the storm's movement in conjunction with the National Hurricane Center.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate about preparations for Hurricane Earl during a call in the Oval Office. Listening at right is Richard A. Reed, Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. September 1, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Under the old health care system, many businesses found it difficult, if not impossible to provide health insurance benefits to their workers. Over the past decade the percentage of small firms offering coverage decreased and many businesses have suffered under the weight of high health care costs.

The Affordable Care Act helps make it easier for employers to provide health benefits. This year, small businesses are eligible for health care tax credits and starting in 2014, small businesses with up to 100 employees will have access to state-based Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchanges, which will expand their purchasing power. Additionally, the Business Roundtable estimated that provisions in the legislation could save $3,000 per person in health costs.