Obama: Jobs Report ‘One More Indication that Facts Are on Our Side’

‘We have recovered from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and the worst in my lifetime’

UNKNOWN FEMALE: “OK. So you were implying yesterday, in a joking way, that you don’t get enough credit —“ [crosstalk]
OBAMA: “Oh, this is when I was talking to the Warriors —“
UNKNOWN FEMALE: “With the Warriors.”
OBAMA: “Right, right.”
UNKNOWN FEMALE: “So were you again referring, as you did just now, to Republicans and their message? Which you could say could be expected during an election. Or were you also referring to the fact that polls — like 57 percent of Americans in polls say they don’t think things are going well in this country. Why do you think that is?”
OBAMA: “Well, at the time, I was making a joke with a basketball team. But there’s no doubt that while we have made significant progress — and I talked about this during the State of the Union — there is still anxiety and concern about the general direction of the economy. If you look at some of the surveys, people feel better about their circumstances, their finances, but they’re not sure about the future. And part of it is, there’s still a pretty big carryover from the devastation that took place in 2007, 2008. If your home value drops in half, or you lose a job that you were thought you were secure in, or your pension suddenly looks vulnerable, you’re going to remember that. And so a lot of people still feel that. And they’re right to recognize that there are some longer-term economic trends that we still have to tackle — that the economy is more dynamic and it churns faster; and the pressure on companies to maximize short-term returns, oftentimes at the expense of long-term investment; the lack of loyalty sometimes to workers who have built those companies and are threatened to be laid off; the fact that wages and incomes up until the last six months haven’t gone up as fast as corporate profits have or benefits at the very top — all those things people feel and they experience. And so even though they know things are better, they’re worried where are we going. [crosstalk] And I think — so I think that the argument I’m making here and will continue to make during the course of this year is we should be proud of the progress we’ve made. We have recovered from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the worst in my lifetime and the lifetime of most of the people in this room. And we’ve done it faster, stronger, better, more durably than just about any other advanced economy. Had we adopted some of the policies that were advocated by Republicans over the last four, five, six years, we know that we probably would have done worse. And we know that because a lot of European countries adopted those policies, and they haven’t yet gotten to the same place they were before the crisis. So, evidence, facts are on our side. And this jobs report gives you one more indication that the facts are on our side.”

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