Good afternoon,

Yesterday, we got some good news about the American economy.

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.  And thanks to strong jobs numbers during the fourth quarter of 2010, our unemployment rate has dropped .4 percentage points to 9.4%.

These numbers are encouraging, but the fact remains there are still too many Americans who are out of work and too many families who are struggling to get by in these tough times.

In his weekly address, President Obama discusses the jobs numbers and the importance of working together to grow our economy:

Growing our economy and creating jobs is President Obama's number one priority.

That's why the President worked so hard to extend tax cuts for the middle class and unemployment insurance for folks who are looking for work. These measures will help provide a vital boost to help spur stronger economic growth and job creation by America’s businesses in 2011 and provide some relief for families who are still struggling.

Now to the bad news. The new Congress seems more interested in re-hashing the political battles of the past two years than in moving our economy forward.

This week, the new Congress has, as its first act, announced their plans to attempt to repeal the law.  While this move isn't surprising, it is disappointing, particularly since repealing the health care law would increase costs for families and businesses, hand control back to insurance companies to deny, drop or limit your coverage, and reduce job growth.

In addition, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that repealing the law would add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit over two decades.

Our focus in the coming months must be on creating jobs and growing the economy.  We simply can't afford the symbolic battles and politics as usual in Washington.

Sincerely,

David Axelrod
Senior Advisor to the President

P.S. Yesterday President Obama discussed this important news and announced new members of his economic team.  You can watch a video of his remarks and  learn more about them here:

http://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTEwMTA4LjQ4NjgyMSZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9TURCLVBSRC1CVUwtMjAxMTAxMDguNDg2ODIxJmRhdGFiYXNlaWQ9MTAwMSZzZXJpYWw9MTI3NjcyMDk4OCZlbWFpbGlkPW1hczU5NDlAeWFob28uY29tJnVzZXJpZD1tYXM1OTQ5QHlhaG9vLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&101&&&http://www.whitehouse.gov/jobsnumbers?utm_source=email91&utm_medium=ps&utm_campaign=jobs