The White House Blog

Last November, more than 30 organizations, including businesses, government agencies, think tanks and veteran advocates, joined forces in New York City for a “best practices” summit on veteran employment. Keynote speakers included Richard D. Parsons, now former chairman of the board of Citigroup, and Mrs. Patricia Shinseki - two of the Joining Forces three-member advisory board.

Just last week, the results of the summit came to fruition with the release the Guide to Leading Practices and Resources Supporting the Employment of Veterans and Military Families. The guide was published by Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and reflects a collaborative contribution of major private-sector employers and others who agreed to share their own lessons learned and innovations with regard to effective recruitment, assimilation, retention, and development of veterans in the civilian workforce - all in an effort to advance employment opportunities for the nation’s veterans and military family members.

With American troops out of Iraq and our responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan now well underway, more than 1,000,000 veterans are expected to transition out of the military in the coming years. This guide is timely - and an imporant resource for every company in America looking to recruit, employ and retain our nation’s veterans.

We know that veterans are valuable additions to any company and are good for the bottom line. The White House Business Council has generated a “Guide to Hiring Veterans” and significant efforts are underway to address veteran and military spouse employment. More than 1,600 companies have hired 70,000 veterans and military spouses in the past year through Joining Forces. And in just the last 2 weeks, the President has announced a new measure to help veterans secure meaningful work in the manufacturing sector.

President Obama urges Congress to take action now to put our teachers back to work in classrooms, because the best predictor of individual and American success in this economy is a good education.

Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

President Barack Obama welcomes the four-time Super Bowl Champion New York Giants to the South Lawn of the White House, June 8, 2012 to honor the team for their Super Bowl XLVI victory. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama congratulated the NY Giants on their XLVI Super Bowl win in a ceremony on the South Lawn this afternoon. The President praised the team for its triumphant end to a difficult season, and their come from behind win of the championship game. He also made a point to note that the team, the coaches, and the owners have all been unwavering in their support of our men and women in uniform: 

These guys have made it clear that no matter who you root for on Sundays, if you’re a veteran, the New York Giants are on your team. Whether it’s setting up tickets to games, or inviting folks to practices, the Giants never forget the men and women who risk everything to protect our freedom. And I especially want to thank and congratulate Coach Coughlin on receiving the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Award. That's a great honor. 

 You can read the President's full remarks here

Today we got more good news showing the difference the health care law is making in people’s lives. A new report from the Commonwealth Fund found that 6.6 million young adults are getting health coverage on their parents’ plans. And according to new data from Gallup, the percentage of young adults who are uninsured continues to decline, indicating that the law is helping families across the country get better access to health care and more peace of mind. 

These and other issues came up when I had the privilege to be part of a town hall meeting to discuss the very important topic of women’s health and how the health care law is making the system fair for women and their families across the country. 

Joining me were: senior members of the Administration including Valerie Jarrett, Tina Tchen,  and Cecilia Muñoz, fellow health experts from HHS including Mayra Alvarez and Caya Lewis,  Judy Waxman from the National Women’s Law Center, and a few members of the media including Margarita Bertsos from REDBOOK and Kelly Wallace at iVillage. 

This week, the President traveled to Honeywell International in Minnesota to highlight efforts to help veterans find good paying jobs and urged Congress to support the Paycheck Fairness Act and to not let interest rates double on student loans on July 1.  

Yesterday, we told you about President Obama’s proposal to cut through the red tape that is preventing many homeowners from refinancing their mortgages and saving hundreds of dollars each month and then asked you to answer a few questions and tell us what you think about this issue. 

Your response was overwhelming.  Nearly 20,000 of you responded in a little over 24 hours, telling us about whether you would benefit from this proposal, what you thought was most compelling about the plan, and sharing any additional questions you may have.  One thing we learned?  Nearly 50% of you hadn’t heard about the plan before, so we need to keep getting the word out. 

Haven’t told us what you think yet?  Visit Whitehouse.gov/why-refi.

We’re still pouring over the responses, and in the days ahead we look forward to sharing what we’ve read and answering many of the questions you’ve asked.  In the meantime, while we at the White House know why we think this is an important proposal, we wanted to hear from you about how this would make a difference.   Here’s what you said: 

“Listen, people like me aren't looking for a handout.  I've got decent credit and if weren't for the value of my home being significantly less than I owe, I would refinance now.  If I could refinance at the historically low rates, I could do two things 1) Pay off some other debt and 2) buy things I and my family need.  I would hope from a policy level both of these benefits would resonate because reducing personal debt and spurring consumer spending are both very good for this or any other economy.” 

“If I had an extra few hundred dollars each month I'd definitely be spending more and putting that money back into the economy. “

“Finally I feel like there is a program that will benefit people like my husband and myself - people who pay our bills on time, try to skimp and save rather than run up credit card debt, and have never missed a single mortgage payment in 19 years, but because of lowered home values have been unable to take advantage of lower interest rates - until now. This program should save us almost $600 per month and will have more of an impact on our monthly budget than any previous tax rebate programs combined.”

“Three houses in my cul-de-sac were foreclosed recently. The owners tried to refinance so they had lower repayments but the banks wouldn't allow it, because of reasons mentioned in this presentation. With this policy in place, our neighbors would still be here and our community would be stronger for it.”

“My husband and I bought our townhouse in August of 2007, right before the bubble burst. We paid top dollar for a house that's now worth more than $100,000 less than what we paid. We pay our mortgage on time every single month, and we feel that we are being penalized for being responsible. We've considered refinancing, but we don't have the extra cash available to pay for all of the costs and fees associated with doing it. If we were able to refinance, we could save a couple hundred dollars every month that we could then use to replenish our savings, and contribute to the economy. We've always tried to do what's right, but it seems that we're on the losing end of this deal.”
 

“Being able to refinance while underwater will keep people in their homes.  This is a huge money saver for entire neighborhoods.  When I was selling a house in Santa Fe my neighbors across the street lost their house.  The bank put it on the market for $140000 instead of the $230000 it was worth.  That dropped my property value by about $10000.  The family moved out and someone broke one of their windows.  That cost me a few thousand more.  Then someone spray painted graffiti on their garage door and there went more value from my home.  There were a couple other houses for sale in the same neighborhood.  We all lost because of that foreclosure.”

“It is so important for me because we have tried to refinance and 5 yrs ago I bought my house for $340,000 and today I still owe 240,000 but they tell me it's only worth 220,000!  The past five years we paid it down $100,000 and now find out it has no equity and the bank wanted us to bring $25,000 to closing and they could do it!  Seriously?  If I had $25,000 I wouldn't have to refinance! With our property taxes increased we are now paying $2400 per month for a mortgage!  It's getting serious for us because we don't have much of  anything left over from our paychecks anymore and hadn't gotten a raise in three years!  I so hope this plan goes through!”

Ed. note: this post originally appeared on Treasury Notes, the official blog of the US Department of the Treasury

Today, President Obama heads to the University of Nevada Las Vegas to discuss student loans. The President believes in creating an economy built to last that gives every hard working student a fair shot at developing the skills they need to find a good job by attending college, university, community college, or job training programs. To help put the cost of higher education within reach for more Americans, the President has taken action to cap monthly payments on student loans for responsible graduates who make their payments on time. Continuing to act, he will issue a Presidential Memorandum to streamline the process and improve information available to responsible borrowers about student loan repayment options. Answering the President’s call, Treasury and IRS will begin working on improving the application process for responsible borrowers.

Heather Zichal speaks at the WINDPOWER 2012 Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia.

Earlier this week, I spoke at the WINDPOWER 2012 Conference and Exhibition – the largest wind industry event in the world. Building on President Obama’s remarks in Newton, Iowa, I highlighted a few key items on the President’s To-Do list for Congress -- including extending the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Credit.

These credits have played an important role in fueling job creation and supporting a manufacturing base in clean energy. As I told the crowd in Atlanta:

This is a priority for the President because he sees the American wind industry as an American success story. Over the past few years – thanks in part to these tax credits – this industry has flourished. Today, we have enough wind capacity to power 10 million homes across the country. In 2011, which was a banner year for the industry, nearly one-third of all new power capacity in the United States came from wind. Five states now produce more than 10 percent of their electricity from wind power. And in places like Iowa and South Dakota, that figure is closer to 20 percent.

So this is an industry with momentum. And it’s an industry that’s putting people back to work. It used to be that we had to import most of the 8,000 component parts that go into a modern wind turbine. But today, with nearly 500 wind-related manufacturing facilities in 43 states, we’re producing more and more of those parts in America.

Recently there’s been renewed debate about whether Republicans will stick by their insistence on holding the middle class tax cuts that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year hostage so that they can continue big tax cuts the wealthiest 2 percent of individuals. The President believes we must end the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans and make them permanent for every family bringing in less than $250,000 a year. 

There’s a simple choice to make. We can either make investments in education, transportation, and new sources of energy – the types of investments that have always been essential to America’s businesses and to creating good middle class jobs.  Or we can cut taxes even more for wealthy Americans who don’t need them and didn’t ask for them. We tried this in 2001 and 2003, and what we got was the slowest job growth in half a century, and the typical American family actually saw its income fall.

Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress this week continued to use tired, false claims about the President’s approach to distract from their insistence on holding the middle class tax cuts hostage so they can give the very wealthiest individuals a tax cut we can’t afford. Just like they continue to push the same failed policies that got us into this mess into the first place, Republicans in Congress continue to push old, proven-false claims that ending these tax cuts for the wealthiest will hurt our nation’s small businesses and hurt the economy. Just today Speaker Boehner said, “We believe it’s time to extend all of the current tax rates because it really will provide certainty for American job creators.” Well, we’ve heard this before, but let’s debunk these claims once again. 

Let’s get at the facts: