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Focus Magazine

JOINT CENTER News Room

Statement of Ralph B. Everett, President and CEO Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

January 28, 2010

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

For more information: Betty Anne Williams
202-789-3505 / bawilliams@jointcenter.org

President Obama was elected to office on a platform of addressing key issues of concern to the vast majority of Americans – restoring economic and retirement security, reforming our inequitable and costly health care system, creating a new energy economy and expanding educational opportunity.

To be sure, there has been progress on these fronts during his term in office and, at the same time, new challenges have emerged.

The President, in his first State of the Union address, clearly expressed his determination to see through the key elements of his agenda and the reforms that most Americans – and certainly the majority of people of color in this country – know are necessary to put our nation on the right track toward greater security, prosperity and equality of opportunity.

In particular, the President pledged to advocate for more and better jobs, and that is something that resonates with so many people who are struggling to cope in the current recession. It is time for our political parties to unite for the common good and put America back to work. This should be job number one for our leaders.

We believe most Americans are heartened by the President’s resolve. As we have done before with Presidents of both political parties, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies offers our best effort to assist the administration and Congress in meeting our nation’s present challenges, restoring the strength and vitality of the state of our union, and bringing about a new birth of hope for all Americans.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color. The Joint Center will mark its 40th Anniversary of service in 2010. To learn more, please visit www.jointcenter.org.

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Did You Know?

Did you know that only 29 percent of African American adults surveyed in an October-November 2005 Joint Center poll expected Social Security to be their major source of retirement income? Fewer of them (20 percent) expected an employer-sponsored pension plan to be their major source of income, and more (42 percent) expected that their major source of income would be their own retirement savings and investments.

Source: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth, 2005.