Politics. On Point.

After more than four years working for the Administration, Gene Sperling , Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, will be departing the White House on January 1, 2014 .  The President announced today that he will appoint Jeffrey Zients, former Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to serve as Director of the National Economic Council.     President Obama said, “Over the past four and a half years, Gene has been one of my closest advisors and a close friend.  Gene understands better than anybody that our top priority as a nation is making sure that our economy once again works for working Americans.  Gene’s impact in this Administration began at Treasury, where he helped us avoid a second Great Depression and led efforts to pass a Small Business Jobs Act to help entrepreneurs grow. He has been a tireless proponent of efforts to strengthen the recovery and make our tax code more fair,...

The White House is reporting that today President Obama announced that Secretary John Bryson would join National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling as co-chair of the White House Office of Manufacturing Policy.  The Office of Manufacturing Policy is part of the National Economic Council in the White House and works across federal government agencies to coordinate the execution of manufacturing programs and the development of manufacturing policy. “At this make or break time for the middle class and our economy, we need a strong manufacturing sector that will put Americans back to work making products stamped with three proud words: Made in America,” said President Obama.  “I am grateful that Secretary Bryson and Gene Sperling will head up this office to continue our efforts to revitalize this great American industry and fight for American workers and jobs.” “John Bryson brings to this role decades of business leadership, a passion for manufacturing, and a strong unders...

Friday morning the President was at Thompson Creek Manufacturing in Landover, Maryland to see an example of a company that is beginning to thrive, and to hear what role his Administration's actions have had.  For Thompson Creek, it wasn't just the 16 tax cuts for small business, as it turned out they manufacture energy-saving windows that help other businesses cut costs; and so the President's incentives for that have given them a huge boost. According to a statement by David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, roughly 113,000 new private sector jobs were created by America’s businesses in December, the twelfth consecutive month of positive job growth in this country. In 2010, 1.3 million private sector jobs were added, the strongest job growth since 2006. During the fourth quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate dropped .4 percentage points to 9.4%.  (Although higher in some individual states). Even with those encouraging figures, there are still too m...