WASHINGTON -- Less than a week ahead of a critical address before a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned defense of the labor movement and the benefits of union organizing to a fired up audience of Detroit workers.
The tone of the Labor Day speech indicates advisers inside the White House pushing for a jobs agenda to trump talk of debt and deficits have momentum going into Thursday's speech. That address, a White House spokesman told reporters, will only make glancing reference to the long-term nation's debt, and will instead lay out an ambitious plan to get millions of people back to work.
Obama's speech before the workers in Detroit did not include the words debt or deficit, nor did it include admonitions that people ought to "eat their peas."
Instead, the president stood up for the besieged labor, quoting Harry Truman from a Labor Day speech 63 years earlier, which said, "the gains of labor were not accomplished at the expense of the rest of the nation. Labor’s gains contributed to the nation’s general prosperity."
Obama, accustomed to speaking about the need for "shared sacrifice," spoke instead on Monday about shared prosperity.
"Now, let me say a word about labor in particular," Obama said. "I know it’s not easy when there's some folks who have their sights trained on you. After all that unions have done to build and protect the middle class, you’ve got people trying to claim that you’re responsible for the problems middle-class folks are facing. You’ve got Republicans saying you’re the ones exploiting working families. Imagine that."
"Now, the fact is, our economy is stronger when workers are getting paid good wages and good benefits," Obama continued. "Our economy is stronger when we've got broad-based growth and broad-based prosperity. That’s what unions have always been about -- shared prosperity."
The focus is an upbeat departure from what had become routine despondence from the White House about the need to cut spending. Friday's dismal jobs report, showing that the labor market added zero jobs, made talk of battling the deficit that much less appealing and giving a jolt to advocates of more aggressive action to create work.
Obama said that on Thursday he'd challenge Congress to put a million construction workers back on the job.
"We’ve got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We’ve got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. We’ve got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. Labor is on board. Business is on board. We just need Congress to get on board," Obama said.
"We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress. We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party," he said. "We’ll give them a plan, and then we’ll say, do you want to create jobs? Then put our construction workers back to work rebuilding America. Do you want to help our companies succeed? Open up new markets for them to sell their products. You want -- you say you’re the party of tax cuts? Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans. Show us what you got."
Video
Source: Huffington
The tone of the Labor Day speech indicates advisers inside the White House pushing for a jobs agenda to trump talk of debt and deficits have momentum going into Thursday's speech. That address, a White House spokesman told reporters, will only make glancing reference to the long-term nation's debt, and will instead lay out an ambitious plan to get millions of people back to work.
Obama's speech before the workers in Detroit did not include the words debt or deficit, nor did it include admonitions that people ought to "eat their peas."
Instead, the president stood up for the besieged labor, quoting Harry Truman from a Labor Day speech 63 years earlier, which said, "the gains of labor were not accomplished at the expense of the rest of the nation. Labor’s gains contributed to the nation’s general prosperity."
Obama, accustomed to speaking about the need for "shared sacrifice," spoke instead on Monday about shared prosperity.
"Now, let me say a word about labor in particular," Obama said. "I know it’s not easy when there's some folks who have their sights trained on you. After all that unions have done to build and protect the middle class, you’ve got people trying to claim that you’re responsible for the problems middle-class folks are facing. You’ve got Republicans saying you’re the ones exploiting working families. Imagine that."
"Now, the fact is, our economy is stronger when workers are getting paid good wages and good benefits," Obama continued. "Our economy is stronger when we've got broad-based growth and broad-based prosperity. That’s what unions have always been about -- shared prosperity."
The focus is an upbeat departure from what had become routine despondence from the White House about the need to cut spending. Friday's dismal jobs report, showing that the labor market added zero jobs, made talk of battling the deficit that much less appealing and giving a jolt to advocates of more aggressive action to create work.
Obama said that on Thursday he'd challenge Congress to put a million construction workers back on the job.
"We’ve got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We’ve got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. We’ve got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. Labor is on board. Business is on board. We just need Congress to get on board," Obama said.
"We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress. We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party," he said. "We’ll give them a plan, and then we’ll say, do you want to create jobs? Then put our construction workers back to work rebuilding America. Do you want to help our companies succeed? Open up new markets for them to sell their products. You want -- you say you’re the party of tax cuts? Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans. Show us what you got."
Video
Source: Huffington
No comments:
Post a Comment