VOA常速英语2013--经济危机五年后奥巴马称前路还长

Five Years After Financial Meltdown, Obama Says More Work Ahead 经济危机五年后奥巴马称前路还长

WHITE HOUSE — President Barack Obama has marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S. financial crisis. He claims credit for major progress in the recovery from near collapse 1 five years ago, but says more work lies ahead.

An economy shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs, banks saddled with worthless subprime mortages, millions losing their homes, and an auto 2 industry near collapse -- It was a downward spiral that began on September 15, 2008 with the bankruptcy 3 and collapse of Lehman Brothers, followed by bailouts for other financial firms considered too big to fail.

成千上万人失去工作，银行背负毫无价值的次级贷款，数百万人失去房屋，汽车业面临破产，这就是2008年9月15日雷曼兄弟破产倒闭后的恶性循环，随后是那些太大而不能倒闭的金融机构开始申请纾困资金。

And that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression.

这就导致了大萧条以来的最大衰退。

When Obama took office in January 2009, the financial system itself was near collapse.

奥巴马2009年1月上任时，金融体系几近崩溃。

He spent much of his first term implementing 4 a stimulus 5 passed by Congress and bailing 6 out the struggling auto industry. On Monday, he reviewed the past.

他第一个任期的大多数时间都用来实施国会通过的刺激政策，并给苦苦挣扎的汽车业提供援助。周一，奥巴马回顾了过去。

"We put people to work repairing roads and bridges, to keep teachers in our classrooms, our first responders on the streets," he said. "We helped responsible homeowners modify their mortgages so more of them could keep their homes. We helped jump-start the flow of credit to help more small businesses keep their doors open. We saved the American auto industry.

“我们让人们回去工作，修建道路和桥梁，让教师们继续呆在教室里，让现场急救员呆在大街上。我们帮助负责任的房主修改房屋贷款，这样大多数都能继续持有房屋。我们使得信贷流通起来，帮助更多小企业继续经营，我们拯救了美国汽车业。”

Other steps included cutting middle class and small business taxes, financial system reform, and establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

其他的措施还有，削减中产阶级和小企业的税收，金融体系改革，建立消费者金融保护局。

But the U.S. economy continues to face challenges. 

但美国经济还将继续面临挑战。

Obama pointed 7 to a growing income gap.

奥巴马指出存在越来越大的收入差距。

"Even though businesses are creating new jobs, and have broken record profits, the top one percent of Americans took home 20 percent of the nation's income last year, while the average worker isn't seeing a raise at all," he said. "In fact, that understates the problem. Most of the gains have gone to the top one tenth of one percent.

“尽管各企业正在创造新的就业机会，并创下了前所未有的利润，去年，最顶端的1%的美国人拿走了全国收入的20%，而普通工人的收入却根本没有提高。事实上问题更严重，大多数收入都流到1%中最顶端的十分之一的人那里。”

Republican opponents in Congress rejected much of the president’s proposals for new stimulus and tax reform.

国会里的共和党反对派否定总统有关新刺激政策和税改的提议。

The negative political atmosphere in Washington, with a divided Congress, promises more conflict.

在国会存在分歧的情况下，华盛顿消极的政治气氛也意味着更多的冲突。

Republicans are threatening to defund Obama's signature healthcare law which could trigger a government shutdown, and a new battle looms 8 over raising the government’s debt limit, something Obama says is non-negotiable. He claims the Republicans’ budget priorities would place the economy at risk.

共和党威胁要不给奥巴马的医改法提供资金，这可能会导致政府关门，同时围绕着提高政府债务限制又产生新的争执，而奥巴马称债务限制提高是无可商议的。他说共和党的财政预算政策会将经济置于危险之地。

He said, "Are some of these folks really so beholden to one extreme wing of their party that they are willing to tank the entire economy, just because they can't get their way on this issue? Are they really willing to hurt people just to score political points?

他说，“是否有因为本党中的极端人士无法在这个问题上随心所欲，其他的人就有义务去破坏整个经济吗？还是他们只是为了获得政绩而损害人民呢？”

The government runs out of spending authority on September 30. Obama will continue his focus on the economy. Congress will spend the next two weeks trying to hammer out a new budget.

政府将于9月30日用完财务开支授权，奥巴马将继续把重点放在经济上。国会将在未来两周努力敲定新预算。