President Barack Obama signaled Monday that a deficit-cutting package should include an extension of the one-year payroll tax cut for workers, saying any effort to slash government spending must be coupled with targeted investments.
Obama traveled to this key state in the 2012 election as part of a two-day swing that includes stops in Florida and Puerto Rico a trip that appears designed to show the president is proactive on the economy as his job approval ratings decline and the Republican presidential contenders hammer his record.
With Congress unwilling to pass another significant stimulus bill, Obama pushed more modest measures Monday aimed at addressing rising unemployment.
He convened a meeting of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a group of CEOs from large companies such as Comcast, GE and DuPont, and heard recommendations on ways to jolt the sagging economy. Obama also toured Cree Inc., a manufacturer of clean energy lighting that the president hailed as a success that can be replicated across the country. And Obama touted new public-private partnerships the administration is pursuing, including a push to train 10,000 new engineers every year.
Obama walked a rhetorical fine line throughout his visit, trying to project optimism about the economic recovery since the 2008 crash while not appearing out of touch with millions of unemployed workers. Republicans have hammered him for recently describing a slowdown in the economy, following the May jobs report that showed the unemployment rate rising to 9.1 percent, as a bump in the road.
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