The President spoke in North Carolina at the Opportunity Now Summit to discuss the success of opportunity zones. These are some data points and highlights plucked from his speech:
- 225k new jobs last month
- unemployment claims in NC down 30% since election
- got rid of Johnson Amendment
- spoke with Xi about virus
- signed USMCA
- Japan deal - $40B
- re-negotiated South Korea deal (a failed Hillary deal)
- 7mm new jobs since election
- 220k new jobs in NC
- new biz applications in NC surged 30%
- most new hires are minorities and women
- unemployment lowest in 50 years
- black poverty lowest ever recorded
- unemployment for workers without a high school diploma lowest in history
- 16% wage increase for low income workers since election
- net worth for bottom half of wage earners has increased 47% (3 times the increase of the top 1%)
- median household income reached the highest level ever recorded; Bush in eight years ($450), Obama in eight years ($975) Trump in three years ($10,000)
- tax cuts created nearly 9,000 opportunity zones… 250 in NC
- long term investment taxed at 0%
- first time in 51 years prescription drug prices went down
- criminal justice reform law providing opportunity ex-prisoners
- talked about Superbowl ad decision between military ad vs Alice Johnson
- encourage businesses to expand second-chance hiring practices
- to help inmates find housing and jobs, forming Council on Crime Prevention and Re-Entry
- ...appointing Pastor Tony Louden as Executive Director (powerful speaker… definite future in politics)
- asked Congress to support his plan to offer technical and vocational education at every high school
- talked about benefits of vocational school system
- touched on Ivanka’s jobs training initiative… she lined up training commitments for 15mm jobs (goal was 500k)
- improved on Democrat Iowa fiasco… can’t count votes but want to control health care
- touched on Van Jones working for criminal justice reform bill, thanked everyone but Trump
- long term funding for black colleges (instead of coming back begging every year)
- ...talked about sleazy consultants/lobbyists getting a cut
