Weekly Address: President Obama – Ensuring Our Free Market Works for Everyone

April 16, 2016 JanF Editors' Choice, From the White House 4

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President discussed important steps the Administration has taken to encourage competition – the most essential ingredient in a healthy free market. Right now, too many companies are engaging in behaviors that stifle competition, stacking the deck against consumers, workers, and small businesses. The President emphasized that this isn’t fair – and that’s why he is doing everything he can to reverse this trend and to promote more competition. The President said that’s also why his Administration is encouraging the FCC to open up set-top cable boxes to competition, which will allow for companies to create new, innovative, higher-quality, lower-cost products – because it’s good for workers, businesses, and our economy.

Transcript: WEEKLY ADDRESS: Ensuring Our Free Market Works for Everyone

Remarks of President Barack Obama as Delivered
Weekly Address, The White House, April 16, 2016

Hello, everybody. One of America’s greatest strengths is our free market. A thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy – it’s how we create jobs, expand opportunities, and give everybody a shot at success. It’s what has made America the strongest country on Earth.

The most essential ingredient in a healthy free market is competition. But right now, too many companies are engaging in behaviors that stifle competition – like blocking new competitors from entering the market or limiting the information and options that give consumers real choice. As a consequence, the rest of us pay higher prices for lower quality products and services. Workers receive lower wages than they otherwise would. Small businesses and entrepreneurs can get squeezed out of the market. And none of that is fair – or good for our economy.

The deck should not be stacked in favor of the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations, against working Americans. That’s why my administration is doing everything we can to reverse this trend and promote more competition in the marketplace. In addition to enforcing the rules on the books, I’ve directed federal agencies to identify anti-competitive behavior in different industries, and find new and specific ways to promote competition.

One industry that’s ripe for change is cable TV. Right now, 99 percent of cable and satellite TV customers rent set-top boxes from their providers. According to one survey, this costs households an average of more than $230 per year. We spend some $20 billion to rent these devices. While we have almost unlimited choice in what we watch on television, from traditional programming to online content, there’s next to no competition to build a better, user-friendly product that allows you to easily access all this content in one place. So most consumers just rent whatever the cable company offers. Because we have to. That means companies have little incentive to innovate. As a consequence, we need multiple devices and controllers to access content from different sources. That makes no sense.

So my administration has encouraged the FCC to remove the barriers to competition that prevent new players from offering innovative cable box options to consumers.

We know this works. For years, Americans had to rent our telephones from the phone company. This was a while ago, but when the FCC finally unlocked competition for home phones, the marketplace was flooded with all kinds of phone options with new features, and at different price points. Consumers suddenly had many options. And the whole industry moved forward as a result. The same can happen with cable boxes, and in dozens of areas of our economy – all of which can make a difference in your everyday life.

The bottom line is, competition is good for consumers, workers, businesses, and our economy. So I’m going to keep doing everything I can to make sure that our free market works for everyone. Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Bolding added.

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4 Comments

  1. The presidential proclamation on National Park Week 2016:

    NATIONAL PARK WEEK, 2016

    – – – – – – –

    BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    A PROCLAMATION

    Our National Parks have allowed generations to discover history, nature, and wildlife in irreplaceable ways. From the highest peaks of Denali to the lowest dips of the Grand Canyon, families around our country enjoy the splendor of the outdoors. Throughout National Park Week, as we celebrate the ways in which our treasured outdoor spaces enrich our lives and uplift our spirits, the National Park Service will again offer free admission to America’s National Parks so more people can explore our country’s vast natural beauty.

    National Parks provide unique opportunities to connect with one another and the world around us, and my Administration has encouraged more Americans to take advantage of these wonders. Through the “Find Your Park” campaign, we are helping more people visit public lands and landmarks — from State and local parks that capture our Nation’s natural beauty to historical sites that offer unparalleled perspectives into our past. Whether breathtaking sceneries or rushing bodies of water, our National Parks have something for everyone — young and old — and I am committed to helping all Americans discover the outdoors and interact with our unique and magical landscapes.

    Exposure to the outdoors can stimulate thought and inspiration, and my Administration has been working to provide more of our young people with the opportunity to grow to learn and love our National Parks. We launched the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative, giving all fourth grade students and their families free admission to our parks and other Federal lands and waters. Our parks are beloved parts of America, and ensuring their survival for generations to come is imperative, which is why I have acted to protect more public land and water than any President in history — more than 265 million acres — and I have called on the Congress to boost maintenance and modernization of our National Parks so our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy their magnificence. And because we must protect the one and only planet we have, my Administration will continue working to combat climate change.

    This week, in honor of the upcoming National Park Service (NPS) centennial and the rich heritage the NPS has helped protect, let us embrace the opportunity to participate in a variety of scientific, artistic, and athletic activities in our National Parks. And together, let us recommit to promoting environmental stewardship and conserving our public lands so all our daughters and sons can experience the grandeur of our outdoor spaces for years to come.

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 16 through April 24, 2016, as National Park Week. I encourage all Americans to visit their National Parks and be reminded of these unique blessings we share as a Nation.

    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.

    BARACK OBAMA

  2. The president toured the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument this past week:

    “I want young girls and boys to come here, 10, 20, 100 years from now, to know that women fought for equality, it was not just given to them.”
    —President Obama designating the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument on #EqualPayDay A National Monument for Women’s Equality

  3. The president issued a statement on Wednesday about our country’s fight against the forces of Daesh:

    Transcript: Statement by the President on Progress in the Fight Against ISIL

    The ISIL core in Syria and Iraq continues to shrink. Their ranks of fighters are estimated to be at the lowest levels in about two years, and more and more of them are realizing that their cause is lost. Our cyber operations are disrupting their command-and-control and communications. We continue to target ISIL’s financial infrastructure, including its oil wells, refineries and supply lines. We’ve reduced their oil production and their oil revenue. And every dollar we deny them means one less dollar to pay their fighters and to fund their terror.

  4. In the News: Rules Limiting Mercury Pollution Could Be Back On Track After EPA Cost-Benefit Analysis

    Costs of regulating toxic emissions from oil- and coal-fired power plants are economically reasonable given their myriad public health benefits, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday. This statement could lead courts to confirm limits to heavy metal pollution from power plants.

    Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled in a narrow decision that when the EPA developed its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards commonly called MATS, it failed to properly consider how much the new standards would cost power plants. The Supreme Court didn’t invalidate the rule — it instead said a cost-benefit analysis should have happened before the rule, and sent it back to a D.C. Circuit court for further review. Since then, some states and the industry have unsuccessfully tried to temporarily halt MATS via appeals as the EPA finished the mandated cost-benefit analysis.

    The D.C. Circuit will now review the analysis and make a decision on MATS. At an estimated price tag of $9.6 billion per year, MATS is one of the most effective, and expensive, EPA regulations in history. Some of the dirtiest, least-efficient coal plants have chosen to shut down rather than comply by installing widely available like filters and scrubbers. The EPA has said however, that most power plants are already acting to limit toxic emissions. Moreover, Sanjay Narayan, Managing Attorney at the Sierra Club said in past interviews that, in general, the power industry is set to fulfill the rules by next year’s final deadline.[…]

    For every dollar spent to make emission cuts, the public is receiving up to $9 in health benefits, according to the EPA. MATS also prevents up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks every year.

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