U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday that Washington's current preoccupation with the debt and deficit is really all about job creation, as he sought to assure the public that whatever abstract debate they're hearing, he's focused on their top economic concern heading into his re-election campaign.
Meeting with a group of business leaders in politically important North Carolina on the day of the first major Republican presidential debate, Obama heard concerns about everything from difficulty getting small business loans to regulatory burdens on airlines. He pledged to do everything he could to help businesses as his administration aims to breathe life into the faltering economic recovery.
At the same time, as Washington faces an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government's borrowing limit or go into unprecedented default, Obama tried to make real for people what's at stake. He argued for smart decisions on what to cut and how -- sending a message to Republicans who say they won't agree to raise the debt limit unless Obama and Democrats agree to enormous spending cuts and no tax increases at all.
"The thing I want to emphasize is that we need to solve our medium- and long-term debt and deficit issues not for abstract reasons, but because they are a concrete impediment to growth and jobs," Obama said during the meeting at a clean energy plant in Durham.
Obama is looking for ways to brighten a bleak employment picture, pushing private-sector hiring along with his own political fortunes during a two-day trip to two key states -- North Carolina and Florida -- and a rendezvous with an important Hispanic constituency on the island of Puerto Rico.
The trip gives him a chance to offer a counterpoint to what is sure to be a sustained attack on his economic and other policies during the nationally televised GOP debate.
Republicans shrugged off Obama's efforts.
"Photo-ops with business leaders only reinforce that no one in this administration has ideas to create the private sector jobs our economy desperately needs," said Brendan Buck, spokesman for GOP House Speaker John Boehner.
Before meeting with his jobs council at Cree, Inc., Obama toured a portion of the plant where LED lights are assembled. He met Josephine Lynch, a 43-year-old mother of four who landed the job two months ago after nearly three years of unemployment. She was a substitute teacher in New Jersey before losing her job. She then went back to school to get her electronics certification.
Obama hopes millions of unemployed workers will follow Lynch's example by going back to school to get training for jobs in new industries, such as clean energy.
In the meeting, which was shown live on the White House website, Obama said the economy had made "great strides" from where it stood in 2008. But he said that even though jobs were being created they weren't being created fast enough. Job growth slowed sharply in May, with the private sector adding just 54,000 jobs.
Obama's options are limited after spending about $800 billion U.S. in 2009 on an economic stimulus program. The administration and Congress are now focused on cutting long-term spending, the price for increasing the government's borrowing authority. The government says it will exceed its $14.3-trillion U.S. debt ceiling on Aug. 2.
By unveiling his jobs council proposals in North Carolina, Obama chose a state with the 10th highest unemployment rate in the country and where he won his narrowest victory in the 2008 presidential campaign.
