Five years after the start of the financial crisis that has in many ways dominated his presidency President Barack Obama will host an event as he looks to shift the attention of the country back to the economy after weeks mired in the Syria situation, according to USA Today.
"[President Obama] will be joined on-stage and in the audience by people that have benefited from his economic recovery proposals over the last five years including small business owners, construction workers, homeowners, consumers and tax cut recipients," a statement from the White House said.
The economy will become a key issue in coming weeks as Congress is in the middle of yet another budget fight. Congressional Republicans have argued that many of the president's policies, especially the Affordable Care Act, have made it impossible for the United States to fully recover from the recession.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., believes that government spending needs to be drastically cut in order to kick-start the economy, USA Today reports.
"It's time to get serious about the challenges we face and re-position America for growth and prosperity in the 21st Century," McConnell said.
During an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" President Obama touted the accomplishments his administration has had in trying to pull the country out of such a deep economic hole.
"Well, let's think about where we were five years ago," President Obama said. "The economy was on the verge of a great depression. In some ways, actually, the economic data and - the collapse of the economy was worse than what happened - in the 1930s.
"And we came in, stabilized the situation," President Obama continued. "We've now had 42 straight months of growth, seven and a half million new jobs created, 500,000 jobs in manufacturing, 370,000 jobs in an auto industry that had completely collapsed."
The entire event can be seen on a live stream from C-Span at this link.
If you can't watch the event but would like to listen to it C-Span also as a radio option at this link.
