{"id":12618,"date":"2015-11-14T11:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T19:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=12618"},"modified":"2015-11-14T11:56:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T19:56:37","slug":"president-obamas-weekly-address-giving-veterans-their-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=12618","title":{"rendered":"President Obama&#8217;s Weekly Address: Giving Veterans their Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi, everybody.  This week, America came together to salute our veterans \u2013 to express our appreciation to all who served so that we might live free.  But our gratitude should extend beyond what our veterans have done for us in the past.  It should remind us of our responsibility to serve them as well as they have served us.  It should compel us to keep our veterans central to the ongoing work of this nation. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VWc_aHqaPeE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In recent years, we\u2019ve made historic investments to boost the VA budget, expand veterans\u2019 benefits, and improve care for our wounded warriors.  We\u2019ve now slashed the disability claims backlog by nearly 90 percent from its peak.  We\u2019re reducing the outrage of veterans\u2019 homelessness and we\u2019ve helped tens of thousands of veterans get off the streets.  The veterans\u2019 unemployment rate is down to 3.9 percent \u2013 even lower than the national average. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, we\u2019re not satisfied.  We\u2019ve still got more work to do \u2013 and I\u2019ve directed my Administration to keep doing everything it can to fulfill our promise to our veterans.  But this isn\u2019t just a job for government alone.  We all have a role to play.  Less than one percent of Americans are serving in uniform.  So it\u2019s true most Americans don\u2019t always see and appreciate the incredible skills and assets that our veterans can offer.  But every American should know that our veterans are some of the most talented, capable people in the world.  They\u2019ve mastered skills and technologies and leadership roles that are impossible to teach off the battlefield.  They know how to get stuff done.<\/p>\n<p>And as our veterans will tell you themselves, they\u2019re not finished serving their country.  They\u2019re teachers and doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, social workers and community leaders.  They serve in statehouses across the country and in Congress.  As I tell small business owners and CEOs on a regular basis, if you want to get the job done, hire a vet.  Every sector, every industry, every community in this country can benefit from the incredible talents of our veterans. <\/p>\n<p>Our troops and veterans give us their very best.  That\u2019s what a soldier named Captain Florent Groberg proved.  Three years ago, on patrol in Afghanistan, Flo saw a suicide bomber coming toward his unit.  Without hesitating, Flo grabbed him by his vest and helped push him to the ground.  When the bomb went off, Flo was badly injured, and four of his comrades were killed.  But many more were saved because of Flo\u2019s sacrifice.  Flo represents the very best of America \u2013 and this week, I was proud to present him with the Medal of Honor for his actions. <\/p>\n<p>Veterans like Flo, they deserve our undying gratitude.  They deserve the chance to keep serving the country they risked everything to defend.  And so we must come together to keep giving them that chance, not just on Veterans Day, but on every single day of the year.  May God bless all those who serve and all who have given their lives for our country.  And may God bless the United States of America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi, everybody. This week, America came together to salute our veterans \u2013 to express our appreciation to all who served so that we might live free. But our gratitude should extend beyond what our veterans have done for us in the past. It should remind us of our responsibility to serve them as well [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Fullscreen-capture-11142015-114139-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}