President Barack Obama, previewing a big push on the US economy next week, on Saturday defended policies that he said "have stopped the bleeding" and put the middle class on the road to recovery. Obama, struggling to bring down the 9.6 percent jobless rate, is to spend next week talking up proposals on improving the economy. He hopes to gain some traction with impatient voters as they ponder whether to toss out his Democrats in the November 2 congressional elections.
In his weekly radio and Web address, Obama pointed to measures funded by the Democrats' $814 billion economic stimulus as responsible for halting the economic slide he faced when taking office in January 2009. This includes spending on roads and bridges and money given to local governments to avert layoffs of teachers, fire-fighters and police officers. "The steps we have taken to date have stopped the bleeding," Obama said. "But strengthening our economy means more than that."
Other steps, he said, were aimed at helping the middle class, citing a portion of his US healthcare overhaul that stopped insurance companies from refusing to cover people with pre-existing health conditions. Obama is trying to convince Americans that Democratic policies offer the best economic future for them as he seeks to turn back a strong challenge from Republicans for control of the US House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Obama is to visit a labour rally in Milwaukee on Monday, the Labour Day holiday, and then is to lay out targeted proposals to boost job growth when he visits Cleveland on Wednesday. A presidential news conference is planned on Friday at the White House.
A number of options are likely, such as extending middle class tax cuts, investing in clean energy, spending more on infrastructure, and delivering more tax cuts to businesses to encourage hiring. The White House is careful to say these proposals do not add up to a second stimulus package, given voters' anxiety about the country's record budget deficit.
Democrats are to kick off their autumn effort to hang on to Congress on Wednesday when Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine delivers a speech in Philadelphia that the party said will frame the choice for voters. Kaine will "explain the choice the American people have in front of them - a choice between Democrats, who are moving America forward and Republicans, who want to take us back to the failed policies of the past that brought our economy to the brink of collapse," a party statement said.
Republicans said Democratic policies are responsible for the sagging economy. "This administration claimed its economic policies would keep unemployment under 8 percent, cut the deficit and turn our economy around. Instead, the unemployment rate is nearing 10 percent, the debt is exploding and we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs over the summer months," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
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