Obama: 2015 Brought Success in the Economy, Health Care, Global Warming, Security

“Good afternoon, everybody. Clearly this is not the most important event that’s taking place in the White House today. There is a screening of ‘Star Wars’ for gold star families and children coming up so I’ll try to be relatively succinct. Let me say a few words about the year behind us and the year ahead and then I’ll take a few questions. 

As I look back on this year, one thing I see is that so much of our steady, persistent work over the years is paying off for the American people in big, tangible ways. Early actions to rescue the economy set the stage for the longest streak of private sector job growth on record with 13.7 million new jobs in that time. 

The unemployment rate has been cut in half, down to 5 percent. And most importantly, wages grew faster than at any time since the recovery began. So over the course of this year a lot of decisions we made early on have paid off. 

The steady implementation of the Affordable Care Act helped drive the rate of uninsured in America below 10 percent for the first same since the records were kept on that. Health care prices have grown at their lowest level in five decades. 17 million more Americans are getting  coverage and we now know that six million people have signed up through healthcare.gov for coverage beginning on January 1 — 600,000 on Tuesday alone. 

New customers are up one third over last year and the more who sign up, the stronger the system becomes. That’s good news for every American who no longer has to worry about being just one illness or accident away from financial hardship.

On climate -- our early investment in clean energy ignited a clean energy industry boom. Our actions to help reduce our carbon emissions brought China to the table and last week in Paris, nearly 200 nations forged a historic agreement that was only possible because of American leadership. 

Around the world, from reaching the deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear clear weapon, to re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, to concluding a landmark trade agreement to make sure American workers and American businesses are operating on a level playing field and that we, rather than China or other countries, are setting the rules for global trade, we have shown what is possible when America leads. 

And, after decades of dedicated advocacy, marriage equality became a reality in all 50 states.”