President Barack Obama wishes Vice President Joe Biden an early happy birthday after he was presented with a cake during their lunch in the Private Dining Room, Nov. 17, 2010. The Vice President’s birthday is Saturday. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Gallup: Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, declined to 9.2% during the first half of November — down from 9.4% during the last half of October and 10.0% in mid-October — and one of the lowest levels of the year.
The decline in the unemployment rate along with the slight drop in the percentage of part-time workers wanting full-time work combined to bring underemployment down to 17.7% — its lowest level of 2010. This is an improvement from the 18.6% underemployment of mid-October and mid-September, and is the second consecutive new low.
Gallup’s economic data suggest that the job market continued to improve during the first half of November. As noted previously, if current Gallup unemployment trends continue, the government’s unemployment rate for November is likely to show a decline when reported in early December.
President Barack Obama greets guests during the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation award in the East Room of the White House November 17
“The pictures better be good”
President Barack Obama points at photographers during the reading of the citation for Steven Sasson, for the invention of the digital camera, during presentation for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony November 17 in the East Room of the White House
Text of remarks
WH: Today, Bloomberg News reported that big insurance companies – companies like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Cigna Corp – spent $86.2 million to fight health insurance reform in 2009. Insurance companies and their allies were desperate to preserve their ability to discriminate against you if you had a preexisting condition, drop your care when you got sick and limit the amount of care you could receive in a year or a lifetime.
Thankfully, they didn’t succeed, but some folks still want to take us back to the bad old days when insurance companies had all the power and doctors and patients took a back seat. In fact, the New York Times recently reported that since the law was passed, opponents of reform spent $108 million on negative television advertisements about the law. And these powerful interests may spend millions more opposing reform in the future.
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