country are the reason why america s military is the greatest in the history of the world. in the face of great odds and grave danger, they get the job done. they work as a team. they personify the very best that america has to offer. that s true on the battlefront, but we re here today because it s also true on the homefront. after a decade of war, our nation needs to do some building right here in the united states of america. now, this morning we received more good news about our economy. in january american businesses added another 257,000 jobs. the unemployment rate came down because more people found work.
michelle and jill biden have worked with the private sector with businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. and with the support of democrats and republicans, we put in place two new tax credits for companies that hire veterans. so these are all important steps. we ve made progress. but we ve got to do more. there s more we can do. in my state of the union address, i proposed a new initiative calls the veterans jobs corps. to put the veterans back to work protecting and rebuilding america, and today we re laying out the details of this proposal. first, we want to help communities hire more veterans as cops and firefighters. you guys have seen what great job jacob s doing. well, there are a whole bunch of
and all together we ve added 3.7 million new jobs is over the last 23 months. now, these numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there are still far too many americans who need a job or need a job that pays better than the one they have now. but the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up. and we ve got to do everything in our power to keep it going. we can t go back to the policies that led to the recession, and we can t let washington stand in the way of our recovery. we want washington to be helping with the recovery, not making it tougher. the most important thing congress needs do right now is to stop taxes from going up on 160 million americans at the end of this month. they ve got to renew the payroll tax cut that they extended only
for battle and for professional success when they come home. so we should do all that we can to support our troops and our veterans in helping them start a business, in helping them get a foothold in a fiere station lik this one and start moving up the ranks, doing outstanding work the way jacob s been doing. but we also need to follow their lead. we want to help them, but we should also learn from them. we should remember from our veterans that no matter what the circumstances, those men and women in europe form, a lot like the firefighters in this fire station work together. act as a team. finish the job. that s what we ve got to do when it comes to our nation s recovery. you know, these are challenging times for america, but we ve faced challenging times before. on the grounds here, you ve got
folks like that who could be doing the same outstanding work all across the country. but it s not that easy these days to get a job at a firehouse. over the past few years, tight budgets have forced a lot of states, a lot of local communities to lay off a lot of first responders. my administration, when i first came in office, one of the first things we did was through the recovery act was make sure that states governments helped or got the help they needed to prevent some of these layoffs, and thousands of jobs were saved all across the country. harold and i were talking as we came over here. thousands of firefighter jobs were saved because of the actions we took, but budgets are still tight, and that s a problem we need to fix. jobs that affect our families and our communities shouldn t be the first on the chopping block. they should be one of our highest priorities as a neigh. nation. over the past three years my administration s made it