Obama discusses 're-igniting' a thriving middle class in weekly address

Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions: How do we bring good jobs to America? How do we equip people with the skills those jobs require? And how do we make sure your hard work leads to a decent living?

President Obama devoted his weekly address this morning to examining ways to complete the task he mentioned in his State of the Union address: "reigniting the true engine of America's economic growth ' a rising, thriving middle class." Creating new jobs'paying special attention to the manufacturing sector, particularly the part that builds and repairs intfrastructure'was at the top of his list.

We need to launch manufacturing hubs across the country that will transform hard-hit regions into global centers of high-tech jobs and manufacturing. We need to make our tax code more competitive, ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and rewarding companies that create jobs here at home. And we need to invest in the research and technology that will allow us to harness more of our own energy and put more people back to work repairing our crumbling roads and bridges.

Skills, job training and education'from pre-school to high schools to college affordability'were also on his wish list for his second term, he said. The other keystone to prosperity he focused on was making sure that working people simply aren't living in poverty. He pushed once again raising the minimum wage and passing immigration reform to spur growth. And we can do that, despite what Republicans say, without raising the deficit, he told listeners:

But I disagree with Republicans who think we should do that by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits. That would force our senior citizens and working families to bear the burden of deficit reduction while the wealthiest are asked to do nothing more. That won't work. We can't just cut our way to prosperity.

Instead, I've proposed a balanced approach; one that makes responsible reforms to bring down the cost of health care and saves hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. And we should finally pursue bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit.

To read the transcript in full, check below the fold or visit the White House website.