Obama attacks economic 'myth'

He touts 4.1% jobless rate in city where it hit 18.9% in 2009

President Barack Obama greets audience members Wednesday before speaking at Concord Community High School in Elkhart, Ind.
President Barack Obama greets audience members Wednesday before speaking at Concord Community High School in Elkhart, Ind.

ELKHART, Ind. -- President Barack Obama went on a "myth-busting" mission Wednesday aimed at rebutting Republican arguments about the economy, working to give cover to Democrats to embrace his policies ahead of the presidential election.

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Obama went to Elkhart, in northern Indiana, to illustrate how steps he took in the first days of his presidency had paid off and pulled the economy back from the brink.

"The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts. It's just not," Obama said. "They repeat it a lot, but it's not supported by the facts. But they say it anyway. Now what is that? It's because it has worked to get them votes."

When Obama went to Elkhart seven years ago on his first major presidential trip, the national unemployment rate was soaring and the White House was trying to secure support for injecting hundreds of billions of federal dollars into the economy. Though the economy has improved measurably, some have been reluctant to give Obama credit.

In Elkhart, the unemployment rate dropped from 18.9 percent in 2009, Obama's first year in office, to 4.1 percent in April.

Elkhart suffered during the recession when employees were laid off by the city's RV manufacturers such as Thor Industries Inc., Nexus RV and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary Forest River -- and after the 2006 closing of a Bayer AG plant.

But a recovery in the RV industry, which has benefited from low fuel prices, has led to an economic rebound.

Manufacturing jobs in the city, a five-minute drive from the Michigan border, have more than doubled from 12,000 in 2009 to 26,000 today, though they remain below previous highs. Federally funded projects to repair the city's streets and repave the airport's runway put construction workers back to work.

The White House views the economic rebound of the city, population 51,000, as a frame for the success of programs such as Obama's economic stimulus and his health care law.

"America's economy is not just better than it was eight years ago, it is the strongest, most durable economy in the world," Obama said.

While middle-class incomes have been slow to recover since the recession, they are now slightly higher, even adjusted for inflation. Median household income in the U.S. was $57,243 in April, about 0.6 percent higher than when the recession began in December 2007, according to Annapolis, Md.-based Sentier Research.

The economy was losing jobs at a rate of 791,000 a month when Obama took office, and unemployment was 7.8 percent. The unemployment rate in April was 5 percent, and the economy added 160,000 jobs.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence argued in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the city's paper, The Elkhart Truth, that the recovery had happened in spite of the president's policies, not because of them. Pence credited state-level tax cuts and deregulation for Indiana's economic improvement.

The Republican National Committee dismissed the president's visit as a "campaign trip" designed to help Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sell a weak Obama record as if it were "really a success story."

On Wednesday, Obama attempted a nearly line-by-line takedown of claims Republicans have made about his policies holding the economy back.

"What they're saying isn't true," Obama said of his Republican critics.

He dismissed GOP voices as "anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-trade and let's face it, anti-change."

"My bigger point is to bust this myth of crazy, liberal government spending," Obama said. "Government spending is not what is squeezing the middle class."

Referring to "the Republican nominee" -- Obama didn't mention Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, by name -- the president was met with shouts of "Donald's crazy" from some of the 2,000 people packed in a brightly lit gymnasium.

In a reference to the businessman's calls for doing away with Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, Obama asked incredulously how anyone could propose weakening Wall Street rules so soon after the collapse.

"If what you really care about in this election is your pocketbook; if what you're concerned about is who will look out for the interests of working people and grow the middle class, then the debate isn't even close," Obama said.

Only a Democratic successor can build on policies that pulled cities like Elkhart back from the deep recession, Obama said.

"One thing I can promise you is that if we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, then we won't build on the progress we've started," Obama said. "If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or don't vote at all, we won't build on the progress we've started."

Asked Wednesday night why he rarely mentions Trump's name, Obama said the businessman is better at marketing himself than the Democratic candidates.

"You know he seems to do a good job mentioning his own name," Obama said at a gathering hosted by PBS NewsHour. "So, you know, I figured I'll let him do his advertising."

Obama's attempt to frame the 2016 race came as Republicans, though begrudgingly, have mostly settled on Trump as their nominee, while Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue competing for the Democratic nomination.

Earlier in the day, Obama praised Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, for cutting federal deficits, and railed against a system rigged for the uber-rich in an implicit embrace of Sanders' campaign mantra.

Obama and his aides have long signaled frustration that as the economy has improved, the public's perception of his decision-making hasn't tracked the same trajectory.

Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder, a Republican, paused for several seconds and laughed when asked whether Obama deserved any credit for the recovery.

"At the bottom of the day, I think most elected officials [would say] -- and I'm guessing the president would say this himself -- that it is the local communities and the local businesses and workers that really are the major reason that a community will turn around," Yoder said.

Obama said he had returned to Elkhart "precisely because this county votes Republican." Though Obama won Indiana in 2008, he lost the traditionally Republican state four years later.

"I definitely got whooped here in 2012. I know I don't poll all that well in this county," Obama said, noting that both the Constitution and his wife prevent him from running again. "So I'm not here looking for votes."

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Emily Swanson and Tom Coyne of The Associated Press and by Justin Sink, Angela Greiling Keane and Mike Dorning of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/02/2016

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