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Today, the President spoke at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, reflecting on the great strides America has made in the past six years in economic reform. With over 64 months of private sector job growth and the lowest uninsured rate ever, the United States had made great progress in helping middle class families, but our work isn't done.
Here are our top three moments from the speech:
This week, the President signed a bipartisan trade deal, welcomed the President of Brazil to the White House–and showed her one of our national treasures–hosted 50 girls in green on the South Lawn for a campout to celebrate the great outdoors, answered questions about healthcare in Tennessee and online, and traveled to Wisconsin to announce new overtime protections for hard-working Americans. That's June 26th to July 2nd or, "Amazing Grace."
— President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon signing the Civil Rights Act
On June 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal.
Congress expanded the act in subsequent years, passing additional legislation in order to move toward more equality for African-Americans, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
It's a simple premise: A hard day's work ought to lead to a fair day's pay.
The problem is, our current legal code doesn't reflect that simple truth. We're doing something to change that.
Earlier this week, President Obama announced that the Department of Labor will propose extending overtime pay to nearly 5 million workers. That would mean that most salaried workers making less than an estimated $50,440 next year would now be guaranteed overtime pay.
Nick may be one of them.
This is the latest post in our "Asked and Answered" series, in which we periodically feature an exchange between the President — or a Senior Administration Official — and an American who wrote him. If you'd like to write the President yourself, you can do so here.
Meet Hannah, a rising 9th grader at Indian River High School in the North Country region of New York, home to many families from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum. As the daughter of Lt. Col. Todd E. Bajakian, former commander of Fort Drum’s Warriors in Transition Battalion, Hannah knows first-hand how important it is that we give our military families the support they need.
The economy added 223,000 jobs in June as the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent. Our economy has now added 5.6 million jobs over the past two years, the strongest two-year job growth since 2000. But despite this progress, there is more work to do. We must continue to build on the positive trends underlying our economy by ensuring that Americans working overtime receive a fair day’s pay, opening new markets for U.S. goods and services through expanded trade, increasing investments in infrastructure, providing relief from the sequester, and raising the minimum wage.
FIVE KEY POINTS ON THE LABOR MARKET IN JUNE 2015
1. The private sector has added 12.8 million jobs over 64 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that total nonfarm employment rose by 223,000 in June—and all those jobs came from the private sector. Although total job growth was revised down somewhat in April and May, much of the revision is attributable to lower government employment than previously estimated. On the whole, our economy has added 2.9 million new jobs over the past twelve months, near the fifteen-year high achieved in February.
Every day, the White House receives thousands of letters and emails from across the country. Our job in the Office of Presidential Correspondence is to sort and read each message and make sure that President Obama hears directly from Americans about what matters to them.
Today, the President is speaking in Nashville, Tennessee to talk about the ways health care reform is continuing to help millions of Americans. On his way over, he picked up Kelly Bryant to thank her for the letter she wrote him about the Affordable Care Act and to hear directly from her about how it changed her life.
In 2011, Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer and would later rely on insurance coverage made possible by the Affordable Care Act. She wrote in her letter, “Because of healthcare reform, I am not scared of losing everything. I can start thinking about my new life and how the path is paved with opportunities instead of despair.”
Together, Kelly and President Obama are at a local elementary school, where they've been joined by Natoma Canfield. They’re having a conversation with others from the Nashville area who have written to the President about the Affordable Care Act, as well as doctors, nurses, other healthcare providers and leaders, and volunteers to talk about the ways this law is making a difference in Nashville and across our country.
Kelly has long supported health care reform, because she knew many Americans lacked quality, affordable health coverage. And today, she will have the chance to discuss the impact of this law with her neighbors and the President.
Read her letter here:
The President's down in Nashville today, where he's talking with Americans whose lives health reform has made better. (He even gave one of them a ride in his motorcade this morning.)
He wants to open that conversation up to Americans across the country, too.
Participate using the hashtag #AskPOTUS, and follow along here.
"The progress that we mark today is yet another demonstration that we don't have to be imprisoned by the past. When something isn't working, we can and will change."
— President Obama
Under President Obama, America is charting a new course in our relationship with Cuba. Today, he announced the next step on this path: Re-opening a U.S. Embassy in Havana.
The last time we had an embassy in Cuba was in January of 1961, when we severed diplomatic relations at the height of the Cold War. Reopening the doors is more than a symbolic step. "With this change, we will be able to substantially increase our contacts with the Cuban people," the President said.
Watch his remarks:
