President Plans to Unveil 'New Ideas' to Boost Economy - East Idaho News
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President Plans to Unveil ‘New Ideas’ to Boost Economy

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Getty B 061311 ObamaJObs?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1374515110319SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The White House is trumpeting a forthcoming series of speeches by President Obama that will “lay out his vision for rebuilding an economy that puts the middle class…front and center.”

The first address will take place Wednesday in Galesburg, Ill., at Knox College, where eight years ago a young U.S. Sen. Obama first laid out his economic vision on a national stage.

“The president will talk about the progress we’ve made together, the challenges that remain, and the path forward,” the White House said in a statement.

“In a couple of months, we will face some more critical budget deadlines that require Congressional action,” senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer explained in a mass-email Sunday night. “The president wants to talk about the issues that should be at the core of that debate.”

Obama is looking to bolster his position with the public and rally his base ahead of another round of familiar fights with Republicans over the federal budget and debt limit coming this fall.

Obama’s approval rating, buffeted by a series of early second-term scandals, has been on a slide — down for a second consecutive quarter in Gallup’s daily tracking polls to 47.9 percent on average between April and July. In the quarter he was re-elected, Obama’s average approval was 51.9 percent.

Republicans have skewered the announced messaging blitz as a repackaging of old ideas with little chance of making an impact.

“Speeches don’t hire people. Speeches don’t get things done in Congress,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski.

By one count, the White House has announced at least eight presidential tours or campaigns to promote Obama’s economic agenda, including the “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour” in May. Few have resulted in substantive legislative progress on the president’s economic proposals.

The “clearest indication the president’s [economic] speeches will be a nothing-burger is how hard the [White House] is working to convince people it’s actually not,” Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said on Twitter.

Pfieffer says Obama’s speeches will include “new ideas and new pushes for ideas he has discussed before.” An administration official told ABC News the campaign will touch on manufacturing, jobs, health care, housing and education, but declined to provide details.

“Any idea would be more than what the GOP has offered,” said Brad Woodhouse, former Democratic National Committee spokesman and president of Americans United for Change.

Administration officials say any familiar themes in Obama’s new series of speeches will reflect consistency in message and persistence of principle when it comes to his economic agenda.

National unemployment was 7.6 percent in June with 11.8 million Americans looking for work. When Obama took office in January 2009, unemployment was 7.8 percent; it later peaked at 10 percent before steadily improving.

House Speaker John Boehner said flatly Sunday that despite having “more regular conversations” with President Obama of late, he’s determined to spoil any Obama-sponsored economic plans. “The president’s policies are getting in the way of the economy growing,” he told CBS’ Face the Nation.

As for Obama’s second-term agenda, Boehner said he has “no idea” what that is.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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