What's the President have to say about VA?

If you missed President Obama's speech today, you can read it here: In part he said:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. I am extraordinarily pleased to be here with Virginia's Governor, an exceptional leader and a great friend of mine, Tim Kaine.

Not far from where we're standing, back in Washington, we continue to have a debate about our economic plan -- a plan to create or save more than 3 million jobs in the next few years. And I welcome that conversation. But I am here today because you don't need to travel very far from that debate to see why enacting this plan is both urgent and essential to our recovery -- to see that the time for talk has passed and that now is the time to take bold and swift action.

We've passed a version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan through the House. Yesterday, we passed a version through the Senate. Now we've got to get a final version to my desk -- so that I can sign it and so that here in Virginia and across the country the people can use it.

In Virginia, the unemployment rate has surged to its highest level in more than a decade -- and it might have been a lot worse were it not for the leadership of Governor Tim Kaine and former governor, now Senator Mark Warner. Unemployment claims have doubled in recent months compared to last year. Nationwide, we've lost 3.6 million jobs since this recession began -- nearly 600,000 this past month alone.

Obama plans to "Computerize every American’s health record in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions of dollars in health care costs." That will also lead to privacy violations and will make it easier for insurance companies to deny care or for mistakes and errors to become permanent parts of your health record. Some records - such as treatment for depression or PTSD will prevent people from buying or owning guns for life.....

On the up side, Obama promised:

"As President, I expect to be judged -- and should be judged -- by the results of this program. That's why I refused to allow even a single dollar in this legislation to be spent on earmarks. And that's why we're going to put information about every dollar that's spent, including the money spent on projects like this one, on a new website called recovery.gov -- so that the American people can see where their money is going."

He also did not mention that planned programs here in Danville (more to come later) have been gutted and the money funneled to other "projects."


Obama did not mention that foreclosures in Danville have more than doubled since this time last year, or that the city may be losing merchants such as Home Depot or Target if the economy doesn't pick up.

The Register & Bee laid off yet another employee today and businesses around the city and county are watching to see what happens in the weeks ahead as more layoffs and closures are expected.