President Barack Obama claimed Thursday that “the facts” demonstrate that his economic policies are safely guiding the nation’s towards middle-class prosperity.
“Those are the facts,” he said. “It’s not conjecture, it’s not opinion… I laid out facts,” he told his audience of upper-income progressives at Northwestern University in Illinois Oct. 2.
Obama’s pitch to the progressives combined a mix of flattery, selective data and visceral campaign pitches, including promises of cheap loans for his student audience, more power for would-be regulators and greater wages for women.
“If we make sure a woman is paid equal to her efforts, it won’t just give women a boost; it’ll give their families and the entire economy a boost… Let’s catch up to 2014, pass a fair pay law, and make our economy stronger,” he told his audience, which included many university-trained women, who comprise one of the most pro-Democratic voting blocs.
He also suggested that wise government leadership created many private-sector gains, such as the boom in oil-drilling and natural-gas fracking.
Progressive economic “policies are right for America, they are supported by the facts,” he said.
His pitch was aimed at depressed Democrats who may not bother to vote in November. “What I want people to know is that there some really good things happening in America… across the board, the trend lines have moved in a positive directive,” he told the progressives, whose votes are vital to Democratic politicians facing state and federal elections this fall.
“I am not on the ballot this fall… But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them,” Obama said, effectively putting his arm around every Democratic candidate.
GOP and conservative groups hooted their disagreement as soon as the speech was completed.
“Thirty-three days before the midterm elections, President Obama is very transparently trying to refocus his party as their approval ratings continue to plummet, but he isn’t fooling anyone,” said Kirsten Kukowski, press secretary at the Republican National Committee.
“Under the Democrat’s watch, America’s middle class has downgraded from being the world’s richest, they’ve saddled us with trillions in debt and nearly 20 million Americans are still struggling for work,” she continued.
“Americans are done with the photo op speeches and empty promises and are going to elect a new Republican Senate that can start growing America’s economy instead of Washington’s economy so that hard-working Americans see better wages and more opportunity,” Kukowski added.
Obama admitted that his policies have not raised the average income, even though they have sharply boost income by the wealthiest Americans.
“The typical family isn’t bringing home any more than it did in 1997, that means it’s harder for middle-class Americans to climb the ladder of success,” he acknowledged.
“That means it’s harder for poor Americans to grab hold of the ladder at all. And that’s not what America is supposed to be about. It offends the very essence of who we are – a people who believe that even if we’re born into nothing, with hard work, we can change our lives, and our kids’ lives, too.”
“Nearly all the gains of the recovery have gone to the top 1 percent,” he admitted.
Obama also claimed a major immigration rewrite would help America.
“If we fix our broken immigration system, we won’t just prevent some of the challenges like the one that we saw at part of the border this summer; we’ll encourage the best and brightest from around the world to study here, stay here, and create jobs here,” he said.
Many polls shows that Americans oppose increased immigration rates.
In fact, the public’s opposition is so strong that Obama’s now political allies persuaded him to delay a plan that would provide work-permits to millions of illegal immigrants.