January 4, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
By Freddie Allen (Managing Editor/
NNPA Newswire)
P
resident Barack Obama used his
last press conference of the year
to reflect on the accomplishments
of his administration over the
past eight years.
“As I was preparing to take office,
the unemployment rate was on its way
to 10 percent. Today, it’s at 4.6 percent
— the lowest in nearly a decade,” said
Obama. “We’ve seen the longest streak
of job growth on record, and wages
have grown faster over the past few
years than at any time in the past 40.”
Even as the economy approaches full
employment, however, the Black un-
employment rate (8.1 percent) is almost
twice the White unemployment rate
(4.2 percent), according to the Labor
Department; a gap that has persisted
since the federal government started
collecting separate jobs’ data for Blacks
nearly 50 years ago and that no presi-
dent has been able to address.
Obama also touted his administra-
tion’s success with insuring people
under the Affordable Care and Pa-
tient Protection Act, also known as
Obamacare.
“When I came into office, 44 million
people were uninsured. Today, we’ve
covered more than 20 million of them,”
said Obama. “For the first time in our
history, more than 90 percent of Amer-
icans are insured.”
Still, disparities in healthcare also
persist. The uninsured rates for Blacks
(12 percent) remains higher than the
uninsured rates for Whites (8 percent),
and according to the Kaiser Family
Foundation (KFF), Blacks, American
Indians and Alaska Natives have a
higher prevalence of asthma, diabetes,
FREDDIE ALLEN/AMG/NNPA
News
With Final Press Briefing of 2016, President Obama Reflects on his Record
See OBAMA on page 11 President Obama speaks during his last press conference of 2016.
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