DAILY SNAPSHOT
Saturday, February 21, 2015

Weekly Address: We Should Make Sure the Future Is Written by Us

In this week's address, the President underscored the importance of continuing to grow our economy and support good-paying jobs for our workers by opening up new markets for American goods and services.

While America's businesses, ranchers, and farmers are already exporting goods at record levels, there's more room for growth with 95 percent of the world's customers living outside our borders. In order to pursue new trade agreements, the President called on Congress to pass trade promotion authority so that the U.S. -- not China -- can play a leading role in negotiating 21st century trade deals that protect our workers, support good wages, and help grow the middle class.

Watch the President's Weekly Address here.

11.4 Million

During the latest Open Enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, 11.4 million Americans signed up or re-enrolled for quality, affordable health insurance. As the President said after hearing the news, "It gives you some sense of how hungry people were out there for affordable, accessible health insurance. And that's really the top-line message: The Affordable Care Act is working."

READ MORE

Countering Violent Extremism

This week, the White House hosted the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism -- a gathering of governments, civil society groups, and community leaders from more than 60 nations in Washington, D.C.

When we think of violent extremism, we often imagine the terrorists who kill innocent people -- in America, Europe, the Middle East, and across the world. But as President Obama noted this past week, violent extremism runs deeper than the barbaric acts it breeds. It's the ideologies, the propaganda, the recruitment, the funding -- the entire infrastructure that extremists use to radicalize and recruit people to commit violence.

Free and Fair Trade

Trade has an important role to play in supporting good-paying, middle-class jobs in the United States. In fact, exports supported more than 11 million jobs in 2013. That's why President Obama is working with Congress to secure the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- the most progressive trade agreement that will ensure our workers benefit from trade that is both free and fair.

READ MORE

To see more of the week's highlights, check out the latest edition of West Wing Week.