The Economic Report of the President has been prepared annually by the Council of Economic Advisers since 1947. The theme of this year’s Economic Report of the President is “To Recover, Rebalance, and Rebuild.”  In 2011, the Nation continued to recover from the Great Recession and to make progress toward building a stronger foundation for more balanced and sustainable economic growth in the future.

The problems that caused the deep recession that began at the end of 2007 and lasted until mid-2009 were a long time in the making, and will not be solved overnight. But economic progress is being made.  In 2011 the Nation continued to recover, rebalance and rebuild a stronger, more secure future.  The economy has expanded for 10 straight quarters. As a result, by the third quarter of 2011, the real gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States had surpassed its peak level at the start of the 2007–09 recession.

When President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the U.S. economy was contracting at an alarming rate, and employment was falling by more than 700,000 jobs a month. The plunge in economic activity was even deeper than the Bureau of Economic Analysis initially reported: revised estimates show that the economy contracted at an 8.9 percent annualized rate in the last quarter of 2008, from the initial advanced estimate of 3.8 percent.  This was the largest quarterly downward revision ever reported. 

Today, as part of the Administration’s ongoing effort to support and strengthen American businesses, we officially launched BusinessUSA – a new online platform that will make it easier for businesses to access the services and information they need to help them grow, hire and export.

BusinessUSA is specifically designed to help meet the President’s goal of streamlining business-related agencies to better meet the needs of America’s businesses in the 21^st Century global economy.  For too long, entrepreneurs – and especially small business owners – have been forced to navigate a confusing maze of government agencies to get the support and resources they need. The President has made clear that this is unacceptable.  As he said in his State of the Union Address, we need to give U.S. businesses every opportunity and tool to succeed so that they can grow and hire right here in America – and that’s what today’s launch is all about.

BusinessUSA isn’t just another website. It’s a virtual one stop shop that gives businesses access to the full range of resources they need at every stage of their development – providing assistance getting patents, loans to grow and hire, information on contracting opportunities, and help breaking into new markets overseas. The sitetakes a “No Wrong Door” approach that creates a common platform to match businesses with the services relevant to them, regardless of where the information is located or which agency’s website, call center, or office they go to for help. With a simple click of a mouse, BusinessUSA’s search function puts a wealth of valuable and relevant information at users’ fingertips.

This week, the President made a major announcement on preventive care, unveiled next year's budget, pushed Congress to extend the payroll tax cut, awarded the National Medals of Arts & Humanities, met with China's Vice President Xi, and traveled west to Wisconsin and California and the First Lady hit the road to promote her Let’s Move! Initiative.

On Tuesday, President Obama asked Americans to tell him what losing $40 per paycheck would mean to them. Of the thousands that responded, we heard from many families, who sent us photos, tweets, and emails that illustrate just how important decisions made in Washington are to regular people across the country. They told us losing that income would make it more difficult to pay for college, to pay for childcare and even to pay for basic necessities like milk and medication.

At the end of this month, a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut will expire. If Congress doesn't act, taxes will go up on 160 million hardworking Americans. For a family making about $50,000 a year, the payroll tax cut amounts to about $1,000 a year, or about $40 in every paycheck.  It may not seem like a lot of money to some people, but for single moms who wrote to us today, that money can make a big difference. Here are some of their stories:

 $40 to me is the threshold each week as I am a laid-off new father working part-time as a teacher. $40 less would have prevented me from replacing worn out tires for the ice & snow of winter...$40 less would prevent healthier options for feeding my son... $40 less would be a colder house & a baby bundled against the cold...$40 is very real -- Stefan from Massachusetts

Forty dollars a paycheck means everything to my family. It would mean that we could afford to continue to give our twins the basic necessities like food and milk.  We buy 3 gallons of milk a week for them. Not to mention daycare costs -- Jocelyn from Maryland

The $40 a paycheck that my husband and I would lose (I guess that means we would be losing $80 between the two of us) would make the difference in childcare for us.  It is becoming harder and harder for a middle class family to even afford children!  Costs continue to rise, putting a strain on our family budget.  Please don't tax us further  -- Ginny from Kentucky

In December, Brian Deese, the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, created a White Board to explain how President Obama's payroll tax cut helps families, businesses, and the economy.

This week, he sat down to show why it's still a key component to help fuel our recovery -- and why Congress needs to continue moving forward to extend the tax cut.

Ed. Note: This was originally posted on Open for Business, the U.S. Small Business Administration blog.  

Right now, small businesses across America pay an average of 18 percent more to provide health insurance than large businesses.  While the insurance exchanges included in the Affordable Care Act will bring these costs down starting in 2014, we need to make it easier for small business owners to provide insurance to their employees right now. One important part of President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal expands a tax credit that does exactly that.

The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit has benefited hundreds of thousands of small businesses since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.  After listening to business owners around the country, the President is proposing to make the tax credit available to more businesses and easier to claim. The budget increases the maximum size of eligible companies from 25 employees to 50, proposes more generous phase-out provisions and simplifies the credit, making it easier to claim. It is estimated that if the President’s proposal were enacted, the tax credit will benefit about half a million employers who provide healthcare to 4 million workers in 2012 alone. Over the next decade, this proposal would provide an additional $14 billion in tax credits to small employers across the country.

These changes will help small business owners hire more employees and create an economy built to last. Take for example, Mark Hodesh, who owns Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He started offering healthcare about 15 years ago to attract and retain talented employees so that he could compete with bigger stores and to help address skyrocketing healthcare costs his employees were facing. 

In 2010, after qualifying for the small business healthcare tax credit, he got back nearly $9,000, almost 30 percent of his costs, for offering coverage to 11 full-time employees. The money he saved helped him hire a new employee, and now, with 12 employees, his tax credit could be go up to about $10,000 if the President’s proposal to expand the tax credit is adopted by Congress. 

Vice President Joe Biden talks with Chinese Vice President Xi and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during a luncheon at the State Department, in Washington, DC, February 14, 2012. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Yesterday, at the invitation of Vice President Biden, Vice President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China spent the morning at the White House for a series of meetings with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and other Administration officials. Vice President Xi’s visit to the United States this week – which includes stops in Washington, D.C., Iowa and California – is the second of the planned reciprocal visits between the Vice Presidents announced by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao during President Hu’s state visit to Washington last year. 

Welcoming Vice President Xi to the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, Vice President Biden reflected on his four-day visit to China last August. “As we discussed in my visit to China, this bilateral relationship is one of the most important in the world… important not only to both our countries but to the world at large,” he said. 

From the White House, the Vice Presidents continued on to the State Department for a lunch in Vice President Xi’s honor, co-hosted by Secretary Clinton. Over 200 guests enjoyed Asian-inspired dishes prepared by acclaimed Chinese-American chef Ming Tsai. 

“Few other nations in history have come so far, so fast, and it’s a great credit to the talent and industriousness of the Chinese people,” Vice President Biden said in his remarks. 

President Barack Obama tours Master Lock Company with Bob Rice, Senior Vice President for Global Supply Chain/Product Development of Master Lock, in Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 15, 2012. The President highlighted Master Lock in his State of the Union address as an example of a company moving jobs back to the U.S. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In the State of the Union, President Obama took time to highlight Master Lock -- a company that has discovered that it can actually save money by keeping production facilities in the United States and bringing jobs back to America.

Today, he traveled to Wisconsin to visit with Master Lock workers and talk about his plans to boost American manufacturing.

Master Lock's decision to keep jobs in America is part of a growing trend. The President calls it insourcing.

And in Milwaukee, he talked about three ideas to reform corporate taxes, aimed at boosting that trend and rewarding companies that don't move overseas.

President Obama yesterday asked Americans to share their stories, and tell him what losing $40 per paycheck would mean to their family. Of the thousands that responded, many were single moms, who sent us photos, tweets, and emails that illustrate just how important decisions made in Washington are to regular people across the country.

At the end of this month, a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut will expire. If Congress doesn't act, taxes will go up on 160 million hardworking Americans. For a family making about $50,000 a year, the payroll tax cut amounts to about $1,000 a year, or about $40 in every paycheck.  It may not seem like a lot of money to some people, but for single moms who wrote to us today, that money can make a big difference. Here are some of their stories:

I'm a single mom and $40.00 means an inhaler for my little girl! She suffers from asthma and her insurance only covers (with co-payment) one inhaler a month and sometimes I have to purchase 2 - 3 a month. So, $40 may not be much for some but it means I can provide for my kid's well being. -- Kathy from Florida

$40 a month helps me pay for the things my daughter needs to play for her high school softball team. Her sports drinks, her cleats, or gloves or whatever it may be that she needs. I am a single mom trying to give my daughter things my parents couldn't afford. Please don't take those $40 a pay away -- Annette from New Jersey

I am a single mom and I have one son still at home.  He is 14 and injured his knee in October, and $40 a month means I can afford the $30 co-pay for the orthopedic surgeon visits or the out-of-pocket deductible for his physical therapy. But more than that, if he hadn't had this injury, that $40 a paycheck would still mean a lot to both of us. It might mean he and I could go to the movies and get burgers afterwards, or I could buy him a pair of jeans, or a tank of gas for our car. It would mean we could have a little bit more and that has been nice. I have so very much appreciated the tax relief and the extra money this bill has provided and I know millions of others Americans like me feel the same -- Deborah from Ohio

$40 dollars puts one tank of gas in my economy car.  It gives me the gas money I need to drive my son to school. When you are a single mother trying to send a child through college every penny counts   -- Marie from New Mexico

More voices:

• $40 Means No Extras for My Students
• $40 Could Be the Difference Between Eating or Not Eating
• Why Your Voice Matters