The White House Blog

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and for the 28 million small employers across the country, healthcare is a major concern. The Affordable Care Act provides benefits and opportunities to small businesses that will help increase access to affordable coverage options.

Here are five key ways the Affordable Care Act can benefit small employers and their workers:

Seventy-eight years ago today, when President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, he sent across a simple but significant message: Americans, no matter their age or physical ability, should be able to live their lives with dignity. Though the times and technologies have changed, that message remains at the core of this Administration.

Currently, Social Security helps provide almost 58 million Americans, including 37 million retired workers and 8 million disabled workers, with economic security. It is the major source of income for most of the elderly, who paid into the system throughout their lives.

Even as we celebrate Social Security’s birthday, we have to work to ensure that future generations have access to that same type of security. That’s why President Obama is committed to protect and strengthen Social Security, finding new ways to improve service delivery while cutting waste and fraud.

Today, the White House released a report detailing the economic benefits of providing a path to earned citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the U.S. shadow economy. As highlighted in the report, a range of economic research has shown that immigrants living and working in the United States without authorization are earning far less than their potential, paying much less in taxes, and contributing significantly less to the U.S. economy than they would if they were given the opportunity to gain legal status and earn U.S. citizenship. According to outside estimates, providing earned citizenship for these workers would increase their wages and, over 10 years, boost U.S. GDP by $1.4 trillion, increase total income for all Americans by $791 billion, generate $184 billion in additional state and federal tax revenue from currently undocumented immigrants, and add about 2 million jobs to the U.S. economy.

This week marks the tenth anniversary of one of the worst power outages in the United States, during which tens of millions of Americans were affected across parts of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Severe weather is the number one cause of power outages on the nation’s electric grid, which serves as the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure that delivers electric power to millions of Americans in homes, schools, offices, and factories across the United States.

A new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the Energy Department evaluates the economic cost of power outages and calls for increased cross-sector investment to make the electric grid more resilient in the face of increasingly severe weather events due to climate change.

On Saturday, the President and First Lady spoke at the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) National Convention in Orlando, FL. Founded in September of 1920, the DAV celebrates 92 years of service to disabled veterans and their families with this three-day event.

The forerunner to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the DAV has empowered disabled veterans and their families serving in every conflict from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Watch the video.

Watch the West Wing Week here.

A Birthday Celebration: President Obama celebrated his 52^nd birthday on Sunday – and we posted 52 of our favorite pictures from the year!

Live from Phoenix: The President left Washington on Tuesday and headed to Phoenix, Arizona, one of the cities hit the hardest when the housing bubble burst in 2009. Speaking from Desert Vista High School, President Obama discussed the progress we’ve made as a country and his commitment to continue helping responsible homeowners and promote the American Dream of homeownership. 

We’ll make owning a home a symbol of responsibility, not speculation -- a source of security for generations to come, just like it was for my grandparents. I want it to be just like that for all the young people who are here today and their children and their grandchildren.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: While on the West Coast, President Obama stopped by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and discussed housing and the economy. The President spoke about the progress we’ve made in the last five years and urged leaders in Washington to work hard to help the Americans who are still being affected by the recession. 

What Washington should be thinking about every single day is how do we make sure we’ve got an economy where if folks work hard, they can find a good job that pays a decent wage; they can send their kids to college; they've got health care they can count on; they can retire even if they don't get rich -- or even if they're not rich; and that we’re creating these ladders of opportunities for people to get into the middle class.

#AskObamaHousing: On Wednesday, President Obama partnered with Zillow, the online real estate market place, and Yahoo!, to answer questions submitted through Twitter, Facebook, Vine and Instagram about the housing market.

We’ve got to give more hardworking Americans the chance to buy their first home. We have to help more responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages,” President Obama said. “And we’ve got to turn the page on this kind of bubble-and-bust mentality that helped to create this mess in the first place.

My immigrant parents taught me that there is no surer pathway to success than a good education. I am grateful that, by coming to the United States, they made this opportunity available to me; it’s a privilege to be working in the White House to make higher education available to every American willing to work for it. And as I am about to have two daughters in college at the same time, it’s clear to me that if a college degree is really going to be available to all families, we must make sure students and their families don’t leave college saddled with a mountain of debt.

This afternoon, President Obama made an important step toward that promise by signing into law the bipartisan student loan interest rate compromise, which advances our nation's commitment to students by cutting rates on nearly all new loans this year – saving a typical undergraduate student $1,500 over the life of his or her loans. This legislation allows borrowers to benefit from the low interest rates currently available in the marketplace, guarantees that borrowers are able to lock in these rates over the life of their loans, and protects future borrowers by capping how high rates can rise.

The signing of this legislation is a key victory for students, one in which Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle came together around the important mission of keeping college affordable for American students and their families.

Ed. note: This is cross-posted from hhs.gov. See the original post here.

More than three years ago, the most important women’s health legislation in my lifetime was passed into law — the Affordable Care Act. This law lowers the costs of health care for women, increases access to quality health care, and pays attention to the distinct health needs of women and families. As women, we often make health care decisions for ourselves and for our families, so it is important that we know how the health care law benefits us.

Women have often been charged more than men for the exact same health coverage. We have paid higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs. We also tend to make less than men and have a harder time paying for health care costs. As a result, women have not always had access to the health care they needed or the freedom to make the best health care choices for themselves and their families.

But that’s all changing. The new health care law already requires most health plans and insurance policies to cover recommended preventive services at no additional cost. This means that, each year, a woman can have a well-woman visit with her doctor at no cost to her. It also means we can get free screenings for breast and cervical cancer; FDA-approved contraception; breastfeeding support and equipment; screening and counseling for domestic violence; smoking cessation medications and services; and more. Furthermore, more low-income women will be eligible for Medicaid in 2014 even if they do not have children.

President Barack Obama joins Jay Leno for a taping of the “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” at the NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., Aug. 6, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama stopped by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday, part of his two-day West Coast trip to discuss housing and the economy.

The President discussed the improvement in the housing market and the shrinking deficit, but acknowledged that Americans all over the country are still struggling and that we still have a lot of work to do. “Wages and salaries haven’t gone up,” President Obama said. “Middle-class families are still struggling to make sure they can pay for their kids’ college education. They're still concerned about whether they can retire.”

And what Washington should be thinking about every single day is how do we make sure we’ve got an economy where if folks work hard, they can find a good job that pays a decent wage; they can send their kids to college; they've got health care they can count on; they can retire even if they don't get rich -- or even if they're not rich; and that we’re creating these ladders of opportunities for people to get into the middle class.

Watch the full interview from The Tonight Show night here. 

Earlier on Tuesday, President Obama was in Phoenix, where he laid out his vision for a housing system that promotes the American dream of homeownership. On Wednesday, the President answered questions from homeowners, renters, and prospective buyers in an interview with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff.