Obama Emphasizes Economy, Job Creation At Town Hall In Pennsylvania

Add as your preferred news source on Google

Add Now

President Barack Obama took a renewed emphasis on job creation on the road Friday, speaking to a crowd at a community college in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Despite job loss figures that were lower than expected and a slight drop in the unemployment rate, Obama said there was still more work to be done to fix the ailing economy.

"This is good news, just in time for the season of hope. But I want to keep this in perspective," Obama said. "We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost one job too many."

He added, "Good trends don't pay the rent. We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can."

Obama cautioned that there may still be setbacks on the road to economic recovery and employment for many Americans but credited the policies he undertook since taking office for setting the nation on a more hopeful trend.

"I didn't take these steps because they were popular or gratifying - they weren't," he said. "When I was running for this office, things like saving the banks and rescuing auto companies were not on my to-do list. They weren't even on my want-to-do list."

He added, "I did them because they were necessary to save our country from an even greater catastrophe."

Noting that many companies are still skittish about hiring more workers even as increases in productivity are leading to higher profits, Obama said his administration would not wait to enact policies to encourage job creation.

"We need to do everything we can, right now, to get our businesses hiring again so that our friends and neighbors can go back to work," he said.

Obama said that at Thursday's jobs summit at the White House he had heard a wide variety of ideas to promote job creation, from making further investments in renewable energy and the nation's infrastructure to plans to assist small businesses and homeowners.

"On Tuesday, I'm going to speak in greater detail about the ideas I'll be sending to Congress to help jumpstart private sector hiring and get Americans back to work," he said. "We've to do more than manage our way through this crisis. Because long before this recession hit many of our communities … were struggling even when the economy was doing well."

He added, "In addition to dealing with the immediate crisis we face today, we've got to face up to the challenges necessary to strengthen our economy for the long haul."

Emphasizing that most, if not all, of his initiatives were aimed at improving the American economy, Obama said he was stressing health reform so that businesses would be spared rapidly rising insurance premiums and education to ensure that America could be competitive internationally.

"We're doing everything we can to spur new industries, like clean energy, to create good, new jobs that won't be sent off-shore," he said. "When the current emergency passes, I'm committed to bringing down the deficits that loom as a threat to our future economic growth."

Obama said such steps were necessary after decades of a culture in Washington that put off doing what was right in order to take the easy path.

"The middle class took a beating for it. It got papered over because there was a lot of cheap credit out there… [but] the long term trends were not good," he said. "Well, I didn't run for President to sweep our messes under the rug with the next election in mind."

He added, "I ran for President to solve our problems, once and for all, with the next generation in mind."

Noting that it had not been long since he and First Lady Michelle Obama had been struggling to pay off their own student loans and that members of their own families were having difficulty finding work, Obama said he would not rest until he had improved the economy.

"That's why we're here. That's what we're fighting for," he said. "And as long as I've got the privilege of being your President, I will always be right there, with you, in the thick of that fight."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com