President Obama Makes a Personnel Annoucement

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Please have a seat.  As President and Commander-in-Chief, my most solemn obligation is the security of the American people.  Over the past four years, we’ve met that responsibility by ending the war in Iraq, and beginning a transition in Afghanistan; by decimating the al Qaeda core and taking out Osama bin Laden; by disrupting terrorist plots and saving countless American lives.

Among an outstanding national security team, I am especially grateful to Leon Panetta, who has led the CIA and our military with incredible skill.  Leon, after nearly five decades of service, you have more than earned the right to return to civilian life.  I’ll have much more to say about Leon’s distinguished service in the days ahead.  Today, I simply want to convey both to you and to Sylvia the eternal gratitude of the entire nation.  Thank you so much, Leon.

I also want to thank Michael Morell, who has earned the admiration of all of us who’ve worked with him across government and here in the White House.  In moments of transition, he’s guided the CIA with a steady hand as Acting Director -- not once, but twice.  And he is a consummate professional.  As I said, everybody in the White House who works with him, everybody across agencies who works with him considers him truly to be one of our most outstanding national security team members.  And so, Michael, on behalf of all of us, thank you and Mary Beth for your continued service.

As these leaders know, the work of protecting our nation is never done, and we’ve still got much to do:  Ending the war in Afghanistan and caring for those who have borne the battle; preparing for the full range of threats, from the unconventional to the conventional, including things like cyber security; and within our military, continuing to ensure that our men and women in uniform can serve the country they love, no matter who they love.

To help meet the challenges of our time, I’m proud to announce my choice for two key members of my national security team -- Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense and John Brennan for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Chuck Hagel is the leader that our troops deserve.  He is an American patriot.  He enlisted in the Army and volunteered for Vietnam.  As a young private, and then a sergeant, he served with honor, alongside his own brother.  When Chuck was hit by shrapnel, his brother saved him.  When his brother was injured by a mine, Chuck risked his life to pull him to safety.  To this day, Chuck bears the scars -- and the shrapnel -- from the battles he fought in our name.
Chuck Hagel’s leadership of our military would be historic.  He’d be the first person of enlisted rank to serve as Secretary of Defense, one of the few secretaries who have been wounded in war, and the first Vietnam veteran to lead the department.  As I saw during our visits together to Afghanistan and Iraq, in Chuck Hagel our troops see a decorated combat veteran of character and strength.  They see one of their own.

Chuck is a champion of our troops and our veterans and our military families.  As a leader at the VA, he fought to give our veterans the benefits they deserved.  As head of the USO, he devoted himself to caring for our troops.  Having studied under the GI Bill himself, he helped lead the fight for the Post-9/11 GI Bill so today’s returning heroes can get their education, too.  Having co-chaired my Intelligence Advisory Board, he knows that our armed forces collect, analyze, and depend on good intelligence.

And Chuck recognizes that American leadership is indispensable in a dangerous world.  I saw this in our travels together across the Middle East.  He understands that America stands strongest when we stand with allies and with friends.  As a successful businessman, he also knows that even as we make tough fiscal choices, we have to do so wisely, guided by our strategy, and keep our military the strongest fighting force the world has ever known.

Maybe most importantly, Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction.  He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that’s something we only do when it’s absolutely necessary.  “My frame of reference,” he has said, is “geared towards the guy at the bottom who’s doing the fighting and the dying.”  With Chuck, our troops will always know, just like Sergeant Hagel was there for his own brother, Secretary Hagel will be there for you.

And finally, Chuck represents the bipartisan tradition that we need more of in Washington.  For his independence and commitment to consensus, he’s earned the respect of national security and military leaders, Republicans and Democrats -- including me.  In the Senate, I came to admire his courage and his judgment, his willingness to speak his mind -- even if it wasn’t popular, even if it defied the conventional wisdom.

And that’s exactly the spirit I want on my national security team -- a recognition that when it comes to the defense of our country, we are not Democrats or Republicans; we are Americans.  Each of us has a responsibility, Chuck has said, to be guided not by the interest of our party or our President even, but by “the interests of our country.”

So, Chuck, I thank you and Lilibet for agreeing to serve once more in the interests of our country.

Now, when I’m on the subject of patriots, let me say a few words about John Brennan.  In John Brennan, the men and women of the CIA will have the leadership of one of our nation’s most skilled and respected intelligence professionals -- not to mention that unique combination of smarts and strength that he claims comes from growing up in New Jersey.  (Laughter.)

A 25-year veteran of the CIA, John knows what our national security demands -- intelligence that provides policymakers with the facts, strong analytic insights, and a keen understanding of a dynamic world.  Given his extensive experience and travels -- which include, by the way, traveling through the Arabian Peninsula where he camped with tribesmen in the desert -- John has an invaluable perspective on the forces -- the history, the culture, the politics, economics, the desire for human dignity driving so much of the changes in today’s world.

Having held senior management, analytic, and operational positions at the agency, John is committed to investing in the range of intelligence capabilities we need -- technical and human.  He literally built -- and then led -- the National Counterterrorism Center.  And he knows the risks that our intelligence professionals face every day.  John has lost colleagues and friends -- heroes whose stars now grace that memorial wall at Langley.

For the last four years, as my Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, John developed and has overseen our comprehensive counterterrorism strategy -- a collaborative effort across the government, including intelligence and defense and homeland security, and law enforcement agencies.

And so think about the results.  More al Qaeda leaders and commanders have been removed from the battlefield than at any time since 9/11.  Their communications, recruiting, training, finances are all under enormous strain -- all of which makes it harder to plan and carry out large-scale attacks against our homeland.  And our entire team, including our exceptional Director of National Intelligence, Jim Clapper, will remain relentless against al Qaeda and its affiliates.
In all this work, John has been tireless.  People here in the White House work hard.  But John is legendary, even in the White House, for working hard.  (Laughter.)  He is one of the hardest-working public servants I’ve ever seen.  I’m not sure he’s slept in four years.  (Laughter.)  When I was on Martha’s Vineyard, John came and did the press briefing -- this is in summer, it’s August, he’s in full suit and tie.  And one of the reporters asked him, don’t you ever get any down time?  And John said, “I don’t do down time.”  (Laughter.)  He’s not even smiling now.  (Laughter.)

There’s another reason I value John so much, and that is his integrity and his commitment to the values that define us as Americans.  He has worked to embed our efforts in a strong legal framework.  He understands we are a nation of laws.  In moments of debate and decision, he asks the tough question and he insists on high and rigorous standards.  Time and again, he’s spoken to the American people about our counterterrorism policies because he recognizes we have a responsibility to be [as] open and transparent as possible.

And so, John, you’ve been one of my closest advisors.  You’ve been a great friend.  I am deeply grateful for your extraordinary service.  I’m even more grateful for Kathy’s willingness to put up with you.  And I’m grateful to both of you for your willingness to take this assignment.
Today, I can say to the men and women of the CIA:  In Director John Brennan you will have one of your own; a leader who knows you; who cares for you, deeply; and who will fight for you every single day.  And you’ll have a leader who has my complete confidence and my complete trust.

As I said, the work of defending our nation is never done.  My number-one criteria in making these decisions was simple -- who is going to do the best job in securing America.  These two leaders have dedicated their lives to protecting our country.  I’m confident they will do an outstanding job.  I urge the Senate to confirm them as soon as possible so we can keep our nation secure and the American people safe.

And so, Chuck and John -- congratulations.

And with that, I want to invite each of these leaders on stage to say a few words, starting with Mr. Leon Panetta.

SECRETARY PANETTA:  First of all, let me express my deepest gratitude to the President for giving me the honor and the privilege of serving in your administration these last four years as Director of the CIA and now as Secretary of Defense.  I have been extremely proud to be part of your national security team, Mr. President, and to be proud of what it has accomplished in your first term.

Looking ahead to the second term, I want to commend President Obama on his decision to nominate Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of the Defense.  And let me also add, as former Director of the CIA, to commend the President for his choice of John Brennan.  I have had the opportunity to work with John on counterterrorism issues these last four years.  He knows the CIA.  He will be a strong leader of that great intelligence agency.

I've also known Chuck for a long period of time as well, and I had the opportunity to work with him closely -- particularly in his capacity as Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.  I greatly appreciate the work he has done to strengthen our intelligence enterprise.  It has been extremely important to our ability to improve our intelligence capabilities.  And as Secretary of Defense, I also benefited from his work when he served on our Defense Policy Board.

Chuck Hagel is a patriot, he's a decorated combat veteran, and he is a dedicated public servant.  I believe his experience, his judgment, his deep understanding of the security issues facing this country make him the right choice to be Secretary of Defense.
As for me, after close to 50 years of serving the American people -- began in 1964 when I served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army, and then in both the legislative and executive branch positions in Washington -- the time has come for me to return to my wife Sylvia, our three sons, their families, our six grandchildren, and my walnut farm -- (laughter) -- dealing with a different set of nuts.  (Laughter.)

I want to deeply thank my family for giving me the fullest measure of love and support during my many absences from home throughout my long career in public service.  But I will leave Washington with a very deep sense of pride in what we have accomplished during these last four years being on the President's national security team.
As both Director of the CIA and as Secretary of Defense, I have always believed that our fundamental mission is to keep America safe, to keep America secure.  And because of the outstanding dedication of our intelligence and military professionals, America is safer and more secure than it was four years ago, and we have reached a turning point after more than a decade of war.

And on that, as we’ve reached that turning point, we’ve developed a new defense strategy for the 21st century.  We have, with John’s leadership, decimated al Qaeda’s leadership and weakened their effort to attack this country.  We have brought wars in Iraq and we will bring the war in Afghanistan to an honorable conclusion.  We’ve opened up opportunities for all Americans to serve in our military.  And we continue to strongly support our forces, their families, and our wounded warriors.  These are some of the achievements that I am proud of.
Let me close by expressing my profound gratitude to the outstanding team of military and civilian staff and leaders that I’ve had the honor to serve with at the Department of Defense and at the White House.  In particular, let me deeply thank the outstanding men and women in uniform, who I’ve had the privilege to serve and to lead, those who put their lives on the line every day on distant battlefields for this country.  Their sacrifices teach us that freedom is not free; a strong democracy depends on a strong defense.  But you can also not have a strong and stable defense without a strong and stable democracy.

As we continue to confront strategic challenges and fiscal austerity, my hope for the future is that the sense of duty our servicemembers and their families exhibit every day inspires the leaders of this nation to have the courage to do what is right, to achieve the American Dream, to give our children a better life, and to build a more secure future.

SENATOR HAGEL:  Thank you, Mr. President.  I’m honored by your trust and your confidence in me, and not unmindful of the immense responsibilities that go with it.  I want to also acknowledge my wife, Lilibet; my daughter, Allyn; and our son, Ziller, who is in Chicago today, we hope, back attending his first day of classes at DePaul University.  (Laughter.)

And to my friend, Leon Panetta, thank you for your extraordinary service to our country over so many years in so many capacities.  You are one of the premier public servants of our time.  To follow you at the Department of Defense will be a most challenging task, but I will try to live up to the standards that you, Bob Gates and others have set for this job and this nation.
Let me also express my deep appreciation and congratulations to my friend, John Brennan, and to also acknowledge the President's confidence and trust in John Brennan.  Thank you, John, for your service and what you will continue to do for our country.  To Mike Morell -- who I have gotten to know over the years not just serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but also, as the President has noted, the privilege of co-chairing the President's Intelligence Advisory Board with former Senator Dave Boren -- thank you, Mike, for your continued service.

Mr. President, I am grateful for this opportunity to serve our country again and especially its men and women in uniform and their families.  These are people who give so much to this nation every day with such dignity and selflessness.  This is particularly important at a time as we complete our mission in Afghanistan and support the troops and military families who have sacrificed so much over more than a decade of war.

I'm also grateful for an opportunity to help continue to strengthen our country and strengthen our country's alliances, and advance global freedom, decency, and humanity as we help build a better world for all mankind.  I will always do my best.  I will do my best for our country, for those I represent at the Pentagon, and for all our citizens.  And, Mr. President, I will always give you my honest and most informed counsel.  Thank you very much.

ACTING DIRECTOR MORELL:  Mr. President, thank you for your very kind remarks, and thank you for the trust that you placed in me when you asked me to be Acting Director twice.
I have had the honor of knowing and working with John Brennan for the last 20 years.  We have worked particularly closely the last three years.  John Brennan is a intelligence professional with deep experience in our business, a public servant with extraordinary dedication, and a man of deep integrity.  With Senate confirmation, I know that he will be an outstanding Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

As the President noted, John started his career at CIA and spent nearly a quarter century.  So this is a homecoming for John.

John, on behalf of the talented and dedicated men and women of CIA, it is my deep honor to say, welcome home.

MR. BRENNAN:  Mr. President, it is indeed a tremendous honor to be nominated to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  The women and men of the CIA are among the most dedicated, courageous, selfless and hardworking individuals who have ever served this country.  At great personal risk and sacrifice, they have made countless invaluable contributions to our national security and to the safety and security of all Americans.  Most times, their successes will never be known outside the hallowed halls of Langley and the Oval Office.

Leading the agency in which I served for 25 years would be the greatest privilege as well as the greatest responsibility of my professional life.  Mr. President, I want to thank you for your confidence in me, but even more for your confidence and constant support to the CIA and to those who serve in the intelligence community.  They need and deserve the support of all of their fellow Americans, especially at a time of such tremendous national security challenges.
If confirmed as Director, I will make it my mission to ensure that the CIA has the tools it needs to keep our nation safe, and that its work always reflects the liberties, the freedoms and the values that we hold so dear.

I’m especially proud to stand here today with such patriots as Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Michael Morell.  It was a tremendous honor to serve with Leon over the past four years, and I very much look forward to the opportunity and privilege to serve with another of America’s great patriots, Chuck Hagel.

And I am especially proud and touched to be able to stand here today with my close friend and colleague, Michael Morell, who epitomizes what it means to be an intelligence professional.  Michael’s leadership at the CIA, as well as his 32-year career, has been nothing short of exemplary.  Michael, I very much look forward to working with you in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

And I also look forward to working with Congress, as our national security rests on the ability of the executive and legislative branches of our government to work as a team.  While the intelligence profession oftentimes demands secrecy, it is critically important that there be a full and open discourse on intelligence matters with the appropriate elected representatives of the American people.  Although I consider myself neither a Republican nor a Democrat, I very much look forward to working closely with those on both sides of the aisle.

Finally, and most importantly, to my wife Kathy; to my children Kyle, Jaclyn, Kelly; to my parents in New Jersey, a shout-out -- (laughter) -- Owen, who is 92 and my mom, Dorothy, who is 91; my brother Tom and my sister Kathleen and my Jersey roots:  I could not be where I am today without their love, their patience, their understanding and their support.  And there is no way that I can ever repay that, except to say I think I’m going to need it for a little bit longer.  (Laughter.)

So again, Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for this opportunity.  It will be bittersweet to leave all of my close colleagues and friends here at the White House and at the national security staff, who I have come to work with and respect so deeply over the last four years.
But if confirmed by the Senate, I will consider it to be the honor of my life to serve as the 21st Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, these are four outstanding individuals.  We are grateful to all of them.  I want, in particular, to thank Mike Morell and Leon Panetta for their extraordinary service.  And I just want to repeat, I hope that the Senate will act on these confirmations promptly.  When it comes to national security, we don’t like to leave a lot of gaps between the time that one set of leaders transitions out and another transitions in.  So we need to get moving quickly on this.

The final point I will make:  One of the reasons that I am so confident that Chuck Hagel is going to be an outstanding Secretary of Defense and John Brennan is going to be an outstanding Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is they understand that we are only successful because of the folks up and down the line in these respective institutions -- the folks on the ground who are oftentimes putting their lives at risk for us, and are oftentimes at great remove from Washington and its politics.

To have those who have been in the field, who have been in the heat of battle, who understand the consequences of decisions that we make in this town and how it has an impact and ramifications for everybody who actually has to execute our national security strategies, that’s something invaluable.  It will provide me the kinds of insights that I need in making very difficult decisions, but it will also mean that these folks are going to be looking out for the people who work for them.  And that’s something that, I think, in these leadership positions is absolutely critical.

So I’m looking forward to working with these two gentlemen.  They are going to be outstanding.
Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)

President Barack Obama Weekly Address January 4, 2013 (Video/Transcript)

Hi, everybody.  Over the past year, as I traveled across the country campaigning for this office, I told you that if I was fortunate enough to be re-elected, I’d work to change a tax code that too often benefited the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

This week, we did that.  For the first time in two decades, we raised taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans in a bipartisan way, while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have thrown our economy back into recession. 

Under this law, more than 98% of Americans and 97% of small business will not see their income taxes go up one dime.  We also made sure that millions of families will continue to receive tax credits to help raise their children and send them to college.  Companies will continue to receive tax credits for the research they do, the investments they make, and the clean energy jobs they create.  And two million Americans who are out of work will continue to receive unemployment benefits so long as they are actively looking for a job.

But all this was just one more step in the broader effort to grow our economy and shrink our deficits.  We still need to do more to put Americans back to work while also putting this country on a path to pay down its debt.  And our economy can’t afford more protracted showdowns or manufactured crises along the way.  Because even as our businesses created 2 million new jobs last year – including 168,000 new jobs last month – the messy brinksmanship in Congress made business owners more uncertain and consumers less confident.

We know there’s a path forward.  Last year, I signed into law $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction.  This week’s action further reduces the deficit by $737 billion, making it one of the largest deficit reduction bills passed by Congress in over a decade.  And I’m willing to do more. 

I believe we can find more places to cut spending without shortchanging things like education, job training, research and technology all which are critical to our prosperity in a 21^st century economy.  But spending cuts must be balanced with more reforms to our tax code.  The wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations shouldn’t be able to take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren’t available to most Americans.

And as I said earlier this week, one thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they’ve already racked up.  If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic.  The last time Congress threatened this course of action, our entire economy suffered for it.  Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again. 

I congratulate the newly sworn-in Members of Congress, and I look forward to working with the new Congress in a bipartisan way.  If we focus on the interests of our country above the interests of party, I’m convinced we can cut spending and raise revenue in a manner that reduces our deficit and protects the middle class.  And we can step up to meet the important business that awaits us this year. Creating jobs and boosting incomes. Fixing our infrastructure and our immigration system.  Promoting our energy independence while protecting our planet from the harmful effects of climate change.  Educating our children and shielding them from the horrors of gun violence. 

These aren’t just things we should do – they’re things we must do.  And in this New Year, I’ll fight as hard as I know how to get them done.  Happy New Year, everybody.

America Is Having the Wrong Fiscal Argument

The question should be whether to cut the deficit right now, not how
By Jeff Madrick
Source: The Harper's Magazine

This week’s agreement on the fiscal cliff is disappointing. Although President Obama can claim victory on such important measures as extending unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, he agreed to raise the income threshold for the tax hikes he sought from $250,000 to $450,000. Most important, he failed to secure an agreement to mitigate future social-spending cuts, meaning Social Security and Medicare will still be on the table in the next few months. This leaves the Republicans in a position to once again employ brinksmanship when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling, which could be as soon as mid-February. At that time, they may well succeed in their demands for serious and unnecessary social-spending cuts.

It’s more than a little unfortunate that the United States was boxed into the fiscal-cliff situation in the first place. That the nation is adopting a contractionary policy with an unemployment rate of nearly 8 percent is absurd. And that there is such a widespread consensus — accepted by the media as simple common sense — that substantial deficit reductions must be made in 2013 to solve a deficit problem that won’t begin seriously until in the 2020s, is a question for future historians and maybe psychologists. Even the current compromise, which rescinds the payroll tax cut and includes significant tax breaks for others, takes significant spending power out of an economy that is too weak withstand the move.
The fiscal cliff, recall, was effectively imposed on America by Republicans who in 2011 threatened to cause an unprecedented default on U.S. debt by not raising the legal debt limit. At the time, an agreement to reduce sharply the budget deficit across ten years was put in place, intensifying the pressure to cut social-program (and military) spending. The central battle now is whether deficit-cutting should be weighted toward higher taxes or sharp cuts in social spending — but it should be about whether deficit reductions of $4 trillion to $5 trillion over ten years are necessary at all, especially if they’re to start now. We have already seen caps placed on valuable social programs, including on the National Institutes of Health, on subsidies for low-income housing, and on college loans, which all told amount to about $1.5 trillion in future spending reductions.

Deficit-cutting under the current circumstances is bad economics, according both to theory and to historical precedent. Austerity economics are palpably and tragically failing in Europe, yet the same types who urge austerity on Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and even France — not to mention the non-Eurozone giant, Britain — are also urging it in broad consensus in America. And they are succeeding. Dedicated to their polite even-handedness, meanwhile, the media have tended to blame both sides and to assume unquestioningly that deficit reduction is required, rather than identifying the clear culprits responsible for sustaining our economic mess. These culprits are not evenly distributed across the political spectrum. In order of importance, they are:

First and foremost, the small-government, tea-party Republicans who have been working for an economic policy driven by ideology and a hatred of most social policies. True, small-government ideologues — there are a few — would also seek to cut the military, but this group’s target is solely what it thinks of as the nanny state.

Second are the self-appointed “common sense” centrists, who agree that the federal deficit is our biggest problem, and thereby lend credibility to the right-wing extremists. These are the seemingly serious and purportedly moralistic practitioners of the anti-Keynesian austerity economics that are failing so badly in Europe. They include the powerful Campaign to Fix the Debt, which has aggressively signed up supporters across political and racial spectrums, and the Concord Coalition, as well as the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, which is financed by investment-banking billionaire Pete Peterson. But it is dominated by CEOs, almost all of whom have massive retirement funds and health-care benefits, yet demand cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Their great public-relations tool is the budget-balancing committee appointed by President Obama and led by Clinton Administration official Erskine Bowles and Republican former senator Alan Simpson. With heavy support from the groups mentioned above, the conservative document this group produced has come to be seen as the common-sense middle ground. Alarmingly, it calls for federal spending to be capped at 21 percent of GDP, the average since the 1970s, in order to control the deficit. Such an average cannot accommodate an aging population, rising health-care costs, and new public investments. It would require sharp cuts in social spending. The press nevertheless seems to trust the document and Simpson and Bowels are paid handsomely by deficit hawks, reportedly led by Peterson, to make speeches around the country in support of their views.

Third is the Congressional Budget Office, which is almost never mentioned as a partisan in the debate because it is legally bipartisan, answerable both to Democrats and Republicans. This distinction is almost meaningless. The CBO’s economics are utterly neoclassical, which means it is conservative, in that it almost always favors less government spending.

Its projections generally assume that high budget deficits will crowd out private investment and slow economic growth. This is simply biased economics. It also presumes that higher taxes reduce the incentive to work — a dubious conjecture at current levels of taxation, to say the least.

Guided by such assumptions, the office frequently arrives at questionable conclusions. For example, its long-term projections have suggested broadly that it would have been better to go over the fiscal cliff than to arrive at the sort of compromise reached this week. In its long-term outlook, the CBO claims that had the drastic spending cuts and tax hikes of the fiscal cliff gone into force, the economy would have bounced back robustly from an ensuing modest recession with 9 percent unemployment. Unemployment would thereafter have fallen to nearly 5 percent, and that federal deficits as a percentage of GDP would have fallen sharply, to 2 percent or so between the late 2010s and 2022. (The CBO’s assumption here is that the recession would lead to lower interest rates and rapid capital investment — that economies are basically self-adjusting, a profoundly conservative notion.)

The fiscal-cliff compromise, by contrast, will in the CBO’s eyes lead to bigger deficits and ultimately higher taxes, therefore robbing the economy of growth. Deficits would rise to 4 or 5 percent, and debt as a percent of GDP will soar. This is austerity economics, pure and simple. If you read the fine print, the CBO provides alternative projections based on milder assumptions about the impact of deficits — assumptions that in my view are much closer to the truth. But the “central’ projections, which are alarmist about the size of the deficit, are the ones the office publishes, and the ones Congress, fiscal hawks, and most of the media take at face value. Economic absurdity, as I say. America badly needs a shadow CBO that publishes more realistic projections, unconstrained by neoclassicism.

President Obama may have been able to make a better deal, but the Republicans are formidable enemies thanks to their numbers and their refusal to compromise. Obama made a mistake when he joined the deficit hawks so enthusiastically back in 2009. It is probably too late to change course — the great social programs inspired by the New Deal are now at stake.

Which stories did the media ignore this year?

 

From climate change to the violation of civil liberties, we look at some of the under-reported stories of 2012.

Source:Al Jazeera 
There are stories that have enormous consequences on the lives of Americans but are regularly under-reported or misrepresented by the mainstream media.

Project Censored, the US media watchdog group, has released their annual report examining the shortcomings of reporting in 2012.

Amongst the key topics: the rising police state and the erosion of civil liberties, climate change and the destruction of oceans, and the rising disparity between the one percent and the 99 percent.

Project Censored argues that the lack of proper reporting on issues like these by the corporate media is leading to an erosion of democracy.

So what were the key stories ignored by the US mainstream media in 2012?

To discuss this, Inside Story Americas, is joined by guests: Mickey Huff, the director of Project Censored, and Greg Mitchell, a media analyst for The Nation magazine and author of the book: Tricks, Lies, and Videotape.

White House White Board - American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012

Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, explains the bi-partisan deal that was recently completed in Washington and outlines what the deal means for the economy and how it met President Obama's key economic priorities.

President Obama Makes a Statement on the Tax Agreement (Video/Transcript)

THE PRESIDENT:  Happy New Year, everybody.

AUDIENCE:  Happy New Year, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT:  A central promise of my campaign for President was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy at the expense of working middle-class Americans. Tonight we've done that. Thanks to the votes of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession and obviously had a severe impact on families all across America.

I want to thank all the leaders of the House and Senate. In particular, I want to thank the work that was done by my extraordinary Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, and Mitch McConnell. Everybody worked very hard on this and I appreciate it.  And, Joe, once again, I want to thank you for your great work.

Under this law, more than 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses will not see their income taxes go up. Millions of families will continue to receive tax credits to help raise their kids and send them to college. Companies will continue to receive tax credits for the research that they do, the investments they make, and the clean energy jobs that they create. And 2 million Americans who are out of work but out there looking, pounding the pavement every day, are going to continue to receive unemployment benefits as long as they’re actively looking for a job.

But I think we all recognize this law is just one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody. The fact is the deficit is still too high, and we're still investing too little in the things that we need for the economy to grow as fast as it should.

tiate a larger agreement that would put this country on a path to paying down its debt while also putting Americans back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, and providing investments in areas like education and job training.  Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough support or time for that kind of large agreement in a lame duck session of Congress.  And that failure comes with a cost, as the messy nature of the process over the past several weeks has made business more uncertain and consumers less confident.

But we are continuing to chip away at this problem, step by step. Last year I signed into law $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction. Tonight’s agreement further reduces the deficit by raising $620 billion in revenue from the wealthiest households in America. And there will be more deficit reduction as Congress decides what to do about the automatic spending cuts that we have now delayed for two months.

I want to make this point: As I've demonstrated throughout the past several weeks, I am very open to compromise. I agree with Democrats and Republicans that the aging population and the rising cost of health care makes Medicare the biggest contributor to our deficit.  I believe we've got to find ways to reform that program without hurting seniors who count on it to survive. And I believe that there’s further unnecessary spending in government that we can eliminate.

But we can't simply cut our way to prosperity. Cutting spending has to go hand-in-hand with further reforms to our tax code so that the wealthiest corporations and individuals can't take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans. And we can't keep cutting things like basic research and new technology and still expect to succeed in a 21st century economy. So we're going to have to continue to move forward in deficit reduction, but we have to do it in a balanced way, making sure that we are growing even as we get a handle on our spending.

Now, one last point I want to make -- while I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed. Let me repeat: We can't not pay bills that we've already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic -- far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.

People will remember, back in 2011, the last time this course of action was threatened, our entire recovery was put at risk. Consumer confidence plunged. Business investment plunged. Growth dropped. We can't go down that path again.

And today’s agreement enshrines, I think, a principle into law that will remain in place as long as I am President: The deficit needs to be reduced in a way that's balanced. Everyone pays their fair share. Everyone does their part. That's how our economy works best. That's how we grow.

The sum total of all the budget agreements we've reached so far proves that there is a path forward, that it is possible if we focus not on our politics but on what’s right for the country. And the one thing that I think, hopefully, in the New Year we'll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much.

We can come together as Democrats and Republicans to cut spending and raise revenue in a way that reduces our deficit, protects our middle class, provides ladders into the middle class for everybody who’s willing to work hard. We can find a way to afford the investments that we need to grow and compete. We can settle this debate, or at the very least, not allow it to be so all-consuming all the time that it stops us from meeting a host of other challenges that we face -- creating jobs, boosting incomes, fixing our infrastructure, fixing our immigration system, protecting our planet from the harmful effects of climate change, boosting domestic energy production, protecting our kids from the horrors of gun violence.

It’s not just possible to do these things; it’s an obligation to ourselves and to future generations.  And I look forward to working with every single member of Congress to meet this obligation in the New Year.

And I hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that people can refresh themselves, because we're going to have a lot of work to do in 2013.

Thanks, everybody. Happy New Year.

We need a government for the people again!

We need to hold our representative responsible for whatever they are doing. It’s time to have a government for the people and not for the government.

What is wrong with these politicians?

 As NPR's John Ydstie reported, "Ninety-nine percent of Americans will see little or no change in income tax rates because of this deal. But the top 1 percent will see an increase of almost 5 percentage points on incomes above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples."

This means for the typical household with $50,000 in earnings, which amounts to about $20 per week. It could cost high-income households as much as $85 a week!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this is fair!