President Obama Urges Congress to Pass His Jobs Bill

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President Obama will be speaking about the economy from the White House briefing room around 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time. You can watch a live stream of the event below and we'll have a full recap when he's done talking. Stay tuned for more.

Update (11:00): The President has finished speaking, but we've summarized some of his remarks below.

During his opening remarks, Obama began by discussing Europe. He said that Greece needs to stay in eurozone, because as difficult as their situation is now, it will get worse for them if they leave. He says that Europe's problems are not simply a debt crisis, but "There are solutions"

He then turned to the U.S. economy, saying that despite the disappointing jobs news of the last week, we had a lot of growth over the last 27th month. He then turned to the main theme of his speech, which that Congress needs to pass his jobs bill, saying unemployment would be lower now and the economy would be strong if they had passed his whole bill last September. 

The President says the two biggest problems in our economy are layoffs in state and local governments, which have cut 450,000 jobs — "Congress should pass a bill to put them back to work right now" — and slowdowns in construction, both things that "we've directly addressed with our jobs plan. Congress needs to pass it." He mentions the state and local government hiring several more times while taking questions, usually adding that Congress needs to take action.

Obama reiterated once again that Europe problems have an impact on our economy, but that actions taken to shore up our banking system in 2009 and 2010 have allowed us to absorb shocks overseas. But that there is a lot of work to be done over there: "Imagine dealing with 17 Congresses instead of just one. That makes things more challenging."

The President did get one final question that was not about the economy when he was asked about recent  news stories about his "kill list" and cyber attacks on Iran, and the suggestion that the White House leaked information about those programs to win political points. Obama said that he finds the suggestion that the White House would release classified information to the public "offensive" and his office will seek out anyone who leaks information.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.