Congressman Elijah Cummings (Md.) Statement on President Barack Obama’s Farewell Address

Washington, D.C. (Jan. 10, 2017)—Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) issued the following statement on President Barack Obama’s farewell address:

“Tonight, President Obama exhibited the same poise and steady leadership he has exhibited since he was inaugurated in 2009.

“During my entire career in Congress, I have never seen any president face the levels of obstruction that President Obama faced from congressional Republicans. They have stymied, blocked, and tried to torpedo nearly everything he has tried to do. Despite these roadblocks, the President kept his focus on who he was fighting for—not who he was fighting against.

“In the darkest days of the Great Recession, our nation’s economy was in freefall. As a result of failed Republican economic policies, financial institutions were going bankrupt one after another, we were losing more than 700,000 jobs per month, and unemployment reached a high of 10%.

“I remember very well the hearings we had in the Oversight Committee when Alan Greenspan admitted that he made a mistake by trusting our financial institutions to do the right thing. We heard testimony from the head of Lehman Brothers, and we heard from the credit rating agencies about the abuses in which they engaged.

“President Obama turned our nation around. He pressed for a stimulus package that halted the bleeding. Working with a Democratic Congress, he stemmed the losses. He signed the Dodd-Frank bill, he passed the ACA, he enacted student loan reform, and he saved the auto industry. Since that time, the unemployment rate declined from 10% to 4.7%. We have had 75 consecutive months of job growth. And 20 million Americans now have the security of having health insurance.

“President Obama lifted this nation from financial ruins and saved us from another Great Depression. Millions of Americans are better off today than they were eight years ago.

“As President Obama begins his life outside the White House, remaining silent may not be an option when our nation is faced with issues that will affect generations yet unborn. If those moments arise, I urge him to continue speaking boldly. I also urge our new leaders to heed the President’s call to action. We must do all we can to protect our progress so future generations are not fighting the same fights tomorrow that we are today.”