As
midterms loom, Obama shifts spotlight to economy
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[October 03, 2014]
By Roberta Rampton
EVANSTON Ill. (Reuters) - President Barack
Obama tried on Thursday to turn the spotlight on the economy, the issue
U.S. voters care about most ahead of November midterm elections, making
the case that his policies have steered the country away from the brink
of collapse and laid a foundation for growth.
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It's the second take for a strategy that the White House rolled
out in June, only to have its optimistic message drowned out by
crises in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and western Africa.
While he said his speech was not political, Obama sought to contrast
Democratic policies with those of Republicans, arguing he needs the
Senate to stay in Democrats' hands in November elections to
accomplish economic goals like raising the minimum wage, retraining
workers for better jobs and spending more on infrastructure
projects.
"Make no mistake: These policies are on the ballot. Every single one
of them," he said on a visit to a Chicago suburb.
The response from Republicans was swift.
"This administration has thrown a wet blanket over the economy with
its focus on spending, borrowing, taxing and regulating, and those
things clearly haven’t worked. We need to move in a different
direction," said Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the
Senate.
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Obama walked the crowd through a list of statistics he has been
trumpeting all summer.
Unemployment has been slashed since 2009. The energy, tech and
manufacturing sectors are booming. So is the stock market. Exports
have surged. The deficit has been trimmed.
"What I want people to know is that there are some really good
things happening in America,” Obama said in a 45-minute speech to
about 1,000 people at the Kellogg School of Management at
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
"By every economic measure, we are better off now than when I took
office," he said. But polls show the good-news message is a hard
sell. During Obama's watch, average family incomes have fallen by
more than $2,100, Census Bureau data shows.
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Fewer than one in 10 Americans believe Obama is doing a great job on
the economy, polling data from Ipsos shows, and about two-thirds of
the population believes the economy is heading the wrong way.
"It's hard to convince those people who are still suffering
that things are getting better," said Matthew Green, associate
professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.
Obama acknowledged that for many Americans, "it’s still harder than
it should be to pay the bills and to put away some money" and said
it could take years of investments and changes in policies to expand
the economy.
"If we take the necessary steps to build on the foundation … I
promise you that over the next 10 years, we will build an economy
where wage growth is stronger than it was in the past three
decades," he said.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by John Whitesides and
Cynthia Osterman)
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