I like this! Here is the way to fix the economy and proof that a big goverment is indeed a good thing, of course when the economy turns around whatch the Republicans credit Bush or deny there is an improvement somehow.
updated 17 minutes ago
WAKARUSA, Ind.— President Barack Obama brought his latest prescription for recovery Wednesday to this economically ravaged region of northern Indiana, promising to “unleash prosperity for everybody, not just some.”
Obama announced that the federal government will distribute $2.4 billion in 48 taxpayer grants to create electric cars and recreational vehicles. The grants will be divided among 25 states.
Afterward, the president talked with Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director and chief White House correspondent, who relayed questions submitted by msnbc.com readers.
During his address at the old Monaco RV plant here — where 1,400 people were laid off as the company went through a bankruptcy process that was completed in March — Obama said that “for too long, we failed to invest in this kind of innovative work, even as countries like China and Japan were racing ahead.”
Navistar International Corp., which bought the plant this spring, will get $39.2 million to develop 400 advanced electric delivery trucks with a 100-mile range.
Seven of the 48 projects unveiled today will be in Indiana, Obama said — part of what he called “the largest investment in this kind of technology in American history.” Manufacturers in the area say this could help put people back to work in a part of the state where unemployment has neared 20 percent.
In recent days, the administration has pointed to economic indicators that it says suggest the economy is slowly beginning to recover. For Obama, the challenge is to connect directly with Americans to persuade them to remain optimistic while they wait for that recovery to take hold.
“It’s nice to get out of Washington and spend some time with the people who sent me to Washington,” Obama said.
“We’re not just going to rescue the economy,” the president promised in his third visit to the region as president. “We’re going to rebuild it.”
Obama stressed that he wanted to “make sure America leads in the deployment and design of the next generation of American vehicles.”
“I don't want to import a hybrid car,” he said to loud applause. “I want to build a hybrid car right here.”
Matt Rogers, a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said the challenge was to ensure that “these technologies can be produced in the United States,” because “almost all of these technologies are manufactured overseas.”
Officials projected that the 48 projects, which are part of Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program, could create tens of thousands of jobs — a prospect that had residents of Wakarusa and the larger Elkhart area lining the streets Wednesday to see the president, even though Obama’s event was closed to the public.
“Anything that can help this area to bring jobs back to this area is important for us, and we would appreciate anything that is going to be done,” Jo Geleske, director of the Wakarusa Public Library, who said she would likely be part of the throng lining the streets as Obama makes his way to Monaco.
Ed Neufeldt of Wakarusa, who introduced Obama on his visit to Elkhart for a town hall meeting in February, said he was hopeful that the president’s news would jump-start the region’s economy.
“When he was here before, he looked at me and he said, ‘Ed, I’m going to get you back to work,’” Neufeldt told NBC station WNDU of South Bend.
“I don’t know if he’ll get me back to work, but I feel like I represent everyone around here who is unemployed and not working, and if he can just get some of those back to work, he is getting me back to work,” Neufeldt said.
The crowds also included several groups of protesters, one of whom was Doug Till of Kalamazoo, Mich., who said he opposed the stimulus plan and believed higher taxes would better address the recession.
“If I personally don’t stand up and step in, how can I look my grandson in the eye?” Till asked. “He is being taxed on wages he hasn’t even earned. He’s been issued a credit card that’s been maxed out at over a half-million dollars, and he’ll be working his entire adult life to work off the interest on that debt, and it’s not fair.”
Other activists showed up to demonstrate in support of climate change legislation, sporting green hardhats and waving signs reading “Make our energy clean.”
Administration preaches optimism, patienceAs Congress breaks for the summer, the public message war is on, and Obama’s visit to Wakarusa is a key shot in that war.
“This area has been hit with a perfect storm of economic troubles,” Obama said. “We can’t afford to run this race at half-speed.”
Elkhart-Goshen has become the president’s version of Peoria, Ill.: If it will play in Elkhart, it might play across the country. Since he announced his campaign for president more than two years ago, Obama has dropped in on the area five times; it was in Elkhart that he made his first bolt outside the Washington Beltway as president, three weeks into the job, when he was lobbying for the stimulus.
That’s because the Elkhart-Goshen area is a microcosm of the problems afflicting the country. The area had an unemployment rate of 16.8 percent in June, up by 10 percentage points from last year. It’s higher than it was when Obama visited Elkhart in February, although the jobless rate has at least come down from 17.5 percent in May.
“Obviously, this is an area of the country that’s been particularly hard-hit as a result of the economic downturn,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Also on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden was in Detroit to make a similar pitch at NextEnergy, a nonprofit group that helps private businesses research and develop alternative and renewable energy programs.
Of the new grants, $1.5 billion will go to the production of batteries and their components, $500 million will go for other components needed for the cars, like electric motors, and $400 million will go toward plug-in hybrid cars, training for technicians and related costs.
Besides being a titan of the RV business, Navistar, which owns Monaco, is also in the hybrid electric vehicle business. In March, it unveiled its newest hybrid truck, the International WorkStar Hybrid 4x4, billed as “the industry’s first four-wheel drive diesel-electric hybrid commercial truck.”
Obama is the region only briefly and will not be mingling with the public. But Stacy Hughes, 22, a lifelong Wakarusa resident, said Obama’s simple presence was good news.
“It can’t be a bad thing,” Hughes told The Truth. “Anything to help our town and get it national attention is important.”
Alex Johnson and Bill Dedman of msnbc.com; Josh Weinhold, Dustin Lawrence and Marilyn Odendahl of The Elkhart Truth; and NBC station WNDU of South Bend, Ind., contributed to this report.
I'm also wondering how the oil companies and there lobbies are going to like the coming of electric cars, that is assuming they do replace gas powered cars.