To push economic stimulus, Obama goes where it hurts

[babylonsister]

To push economic stimulus, Obama goes where it hurts
By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama traveled to the nation's heartland Monday, visiting a town with double-digit unemployment to put a human face on his urgent plea for more than $800 billion in new spending and tax cuts to jump-start the economy.

"We've had a good debate," he said in a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind. "Now it's time to act. That's why I am calling on Congress to pass this bill immediately. Folks here in Elkhart and across America need help right now, and they can't afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done."

The trip to Elkhart, a blue-collar town of 53,000 that builds RVs and has seen its unemployment rate triple from 4.7 percent to more than 15 percent, was the first of Obama's several campaign-style stops this week meant to build grassroots pressure on the Congress to pass the proposed stimulus bill.

Obama will follow with his first prime-time news conference at 8 p.m. Monday, a town hall meeting Tuesday in Florida, and a visit to a heavy equipment plant Thursday in Illinois.

With more than 8,000 jobs lost in Elkhart alone, Obama worked to show that the suffering in the country is deeply personal and to explain how his proposed package would help people.

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