President Obama’s Weekly Address: the Plan for a Strong Middle Class
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TOBY MELVILLE/AFP/Getty Images(CHICAGO) — President Obama spent much of this week traveling the country promoting his State of the Union message — what he calls a “Plan for a Strong Middle Class.” Now in his weekly address, the president’s message is the same, urging lawmakers to act on the proposals he laid out in his Tuesday speech before a joint session of Congress.
Speaking from Hyde Park Academy in his hometown Chicago, the president says he wants to reignite the “true engine of America’s economic growth — a rising, thriving middle class.”
“Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions: How do we bring good jobs to America? How do we equip people with the skills those jobs require? And how do we make sure your hard work leads to a decent living?” President Obama says in the address.
By launching manufacturing hubs across the country, the president says he believes it will “transform hard-hit regions into global centers of high-tech jobs and manufacturing.” America should become a “magnet for new jobs,” he says.
And, the president explains, getting there should be simple.
“We need to make our tax code more competitive, ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and rewarding companies that create jobs here at home. And we need to invest in the research and technology that will allow us to harness more of our own energy and put more people back to work repairing our crumbling roads and bridges,” says. “These steps will help our businesses expand and create new jobs.”
The president also notes his goals raising the minimum wage and providing every American child with “high-quality preschool,” because, he says, “kids in these programs do better throughout their lives.”
“These steps will help grow our economy and rebuild a rising, thriving middle class. And we can do it while shrinking our deficits. We don’t have to choose between the two – we just have to make smart choices,” he says.
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