White House talks jobs -- of tomorrow

President Obama, seeking to regain the upper hand on the economy, issued a new report this morning on the "jobs of tomorrow" -- even as the jobs of today keep disappearing.

His Council of Economic Advisers released the report, titled "Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow," that is an overview of how the US labor market is expected to develop over the next few years. The report (read it here) discusses the skills and training that will likely be needed for the growing occupation categories, and the education and training system needed to prepare people for those jobs.

As the unemployment rate heads north of 10 percent nationally, Obama is defending the $787 billion economic stimulus plan he championed, asking Americans for patience. He made that case in his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday and in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post on Sunday, and is expected to make it again during a public event in Warren, Mich., on Tuesday.

In an unusual move, the White House today sent out an official release citing news reports challenging the facts used by Republican critics of the stimulus.

Such counterattacks are typically left to Democratic Party groups or friendly advocacy organizations. (The full release is below.)

UPDATE: Obama also huddled this afternoon with labor leaders, some of his most loyal and important allies.

"Today's meeting with President Obama and leaders in the union movement was a critical opportunity to share and discuss issues impacting working people, including jobs, health care, and the Employee Free Choice Act," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement afterwards. "President Obama has always been a friend to the union movement, and the meeting emphasized his continued support on issues important to working people. We look forward to continuing to work with the president to build an economy that works for everyone.

As Seen on CNN…Republican Recovery Act Claims Disputed
Politifact.org: “There Are Just a Lot of Claims That Are Being Made without A Lot of Attention to the Facts”

Last week, CNN ran a piece challenging John Boehner's comments that no federally funded economic recovery projects have started in his state of Ohio. The segment also included a Republican sheriff from Boehner's own district who two months ago received nearly $1 million in economic recovery funds and is using the money to keep correctional officers on staff. According to Sheriff Richard Jones, "The stimulus is working for me here in Butler County because I am keeping my deputies and I am not having to lay them off."

Watch CNN’s Fact Check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej9IUfsKApo

This morning, CNN ran a piece fact checking the claim in an ad from John Boehner claiming he was still looking for jobs created by the Recovery Act.

Read the transcript of the piece below:

Kiran Chetry: Republicans and Democrats taking aim at each other in a new round of ads online and on TV. And under attack, the President's stimulus plan and also the record of Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell. So who is telling the truth here? Bill Adair is the founder and editor of the Pulitzer Prize winning website politifact.com. That's where we go to get the truth about a lot of this. And he's checking the facts, breaking out his truth-o-meter from our Washington Bureau. Good to see you this morning Bill.

Bill Adair: Good morning, Kiran.

Chetry: Let's start with this ad. It was sort of a tongue and cheek ad from top republican in the house John Boehner where he was releasing the proverbial blood hounds to search and sniff out the stimulus money. Let's take a look.

Voiceover Ad: In North Carolina, they used stimulus money to hire one new state worker. His job? Apply for more stimulus funds from the taxpayers by the way of the federal government.

Chetry: All right. There you have it. So they used the money to hire one new state worker. And his job was to apply for more stimulus money. you ran that through the truth-o-meter. What did you find out?

Adair: We did. we gave this one a false on the truth-o-meter. it's not true. it's a great catchy phrase but it's just not backed up by the facts. there is, indeed, a city worker who was funded by stimulus money, but that worker is not applying for more stimulus money. That worker is overseeing the grant applications for a new police station and doing some other tasks. But it's not the way it's portrayed in the ad. So that one gets a false on our truth-o-meter.

Chetry: And Boehner has really been hitting this, where's the stimulus money message pretty hard. He also said last Sunday there hadn't even been one contract that was signed on a stimulus project in his home state of Ohio. That turned out to not really be true either?

Adair: Apparently the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" looked into this and found that it's not true that there was some $50 million, $52 million in contracts under way. And this is why it's really important to check these things out. There are just a lot of claims that are being made without a lot of attention to the facts.