[转载]【总统演讲】奥巴马呼吁延长紧急失业保险法案 给中产阶级创造机会

Weekly Address: Time to Pass Bipartisan Legislation to Extend Emergency Unemployment Insurance

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama said Congress should act to extend emergency unemployment insurance for more than one million Americans who have lost this vital economic lifeline while looking for a job.  Letting emergency unemployment insurance expire not only harms American families, but it is also a drag on the overall economy. The President urges both parties to pass the bipartisan three-month extension under consideration in the Senate so that we can once again focus on expanding opportunities for the middle class and creating jobs for all hardworking Americans.

奥巴马总统在讲话中称国会应该延长《紧急失业保险法案》，因为有超过100万还在寻找工作的人们已经失去了基本的生活保障。任由《紧急失业保险法案》过期不仅会伤害美国的众多家庭，还会拖累整个国家的经济发展。望两党共同努力，联合推进这一正在参议院审议的延期提案，这样我们才能为中产阶级提供更多机会，为勤劳的人民提供更多就业岗位。

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address
The White House
January  4, 2013

Weekly Address

Hi, everybody, and Happy New Year.

This is a time when we look ahead to all the possibilities and opportunities of the year to come – when we resolve to better ourselves, and to better our relationships with one another.  And today, I want to talk about one place that Washington should start – a place where we can make a real and powerful difference in the lives of many of our fellow Americans right now.

Just a few days after Christmas, more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline – the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a job.  Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire.  And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.

We make this promise to one another because it makes a difference to a mother who needs help feeding her kids while she’s looking for work; to a father who needs help paying the rent while learning the skills to get a new and better job.  And denying families that security is just plain cruel.  We’re a better country than that.  We don’t abandon our fellow Americans when times get tough – we keep the faith with them until they start that new job.

What’s more, it actually slows down the economy for all of us.  If folks can’t pay their bills or buy the basics, like food and clothes, local businesses take a hit and hire fewer workers.  That’s why the independent Congressional Budget Office says that unless Congress restores this insurance, we’ll feel a drag on our economic growth this year.  And after our businesses created more than two million new jobs last year, that’s a self-inflicted wound we don’t need.

So when Congress comes back to work this week, their first order of business should be making this right.  Right now, a bipartisan group in Congress is working on a three-month extension of unemployment insurance – and if they pass it, I will sign it.  For decades, Republicans and Democrats put partisanship and ideology aside to offer some security for job-seekers, even when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today.  Instead of punishing families who can least afford it, Republicans should make it their New Year’s resolution to do the right thing, and restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now.

After all, our focus as a country this year shouldn’t be shrinking our economy, but growing it; not narrowing opportunity, but expanding it; not fewer jobs, but doing everything we can to help our businesses create more of the good jobs that a growing middle class requires.

That’s my New Year’s resolution – to do everything I can, every single day, to help make 2014 a year in which more of our citizens can earn their own piece of the American Dream.

After five years of working and sacrificing to recover and rebuild from crisis, we have it within our power, right now, to move this country forward.  It’s entirely up to us.  And I’m optimistic for the year that lies ahead.

Thank you, and have a great weekend.

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