During Saturday’s Weekly Address, President Obama reflected on his time in office and touted the “extraordinary progress” the country has made over the last eight years. Transcript as Follows: “Happy New Year, everybody. At a time when we turn the page on one year and look ahead to the future, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for everything you’ve done to make America stronger these past eight years. Just eight years ago, as I prepared to take office, our economy teetered on the brink of depression. Nearly 800,000 Americans were losing their jobs each month. In some communities, nearly one in five folks were out of work. Almost 180,000 troops were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden was still at large. And on challenges from health care to climate change, we’d been kicking the can down the road for way too long. Eight years later, you’ve told a different story. We’ve turned recession into recovery. Our businesses have created 15.6 million new jobs since early 2010 – and we’ve put more people back to work than all other major advanced economies combined. A resurgent auto industry has added nearly 700,000 jobs, and is