English subtitles for clip: File:2012-01-07 President Obama's Weekly Address.ogv

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The President:
Happy New Year, everybody.

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This week, I traveled
to Cleveland, Ohio,

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to talk with folks about the
biggest challenge we face as a

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country -- rebuilding our
economy so that, once again,

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hard work pays off,
responsibility is rewarded,

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and anyone, regardless of who
they are or where they come

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from, can make it if they try.

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That's the economy
America deserves.

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That's the economy I'm
fighting every day to build.

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Now, to get there, the most
important thing we need to do is

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to get more Americans
back to work.

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And over the past three years,
we've made steady progress.

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We just learned that our economy
added 212,000 private sector

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jobs in December.

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After losing more than 8
million jobs in the recession,

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we've added more than 3 million
private sector jobs over the

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past 22 months.

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And we're starting 2012 with
manufacturing on the rise and

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the American auto
industry on the mend.

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We're heading in
the right direction.

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And we're not going to let up.

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On Wednesday the White House
will host a forum called

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"Insourcing American Jobs."

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We'll hear from business leaders
who are bringing jobs back home

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and see how we can help other
businesses follow their lead.

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Because this is a make or break
moment for the middle class and

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all those working to get there.

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We've got to keep at it.

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We've got to keep creating jobs.

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And we've got to keep rebuilding
our economy so that everyone

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gets a fair shot, everyone
does their fair share --

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and everyone plays
by the same rules.

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We can't go back to the days
when the financial system was

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stacking the deck against
ordinary Americans.

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To me, that's not an option.

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Not after everything
we've been through.

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That's why I appointed Richard
Cordray as our nation's new

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consumer watchdog this week.

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Richard's job is simple:
to look out for you.

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Every day, his sole mission
is to protect consumers from

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potential abuses by the
financial industry and to make

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sure that you've got all the
transparent information you need

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to make the important financial
decisions in your lives.

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I nominated Richard for
this job last summer.

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And yet, Republicans in the
Senate kept blocking his

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confirmation -- not because
they objected to him,

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but because they wanted
to weaken his agency.

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That made no sense.

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Every day we waited was a day
you and consumers all across the

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country were at
greater financial risk.

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So this year, I'm going to keep
doing whatever it takes to move

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this economy forward and to make
sure that middle class families

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regain the security they've
lost over the past decade.

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That's my New Year's
resolution to all of you.

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Thanks, and have
a great weekend.