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Obama touts efforts to help economy

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-22 01:20

US President Barack Obama speaks about the economy during a visit to Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York, September 21, 2009. [Agencies]

TROY, New York: President Barack Obama said Monday that better economic days are coming thanks to innovation and some help from the government.

"As we emerge from this current economic crisis, our great challenge will be to ensure that we do not just drift into the future," Obama said at Hudson Valley Community College. "Instead, we must choose to do what past generations have done: shape a brighter future through hard work and innovation."

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Obama delivered of a mix of an economic pep talk and a plug for his plan for economy recovery: a sustained investment in education, technology, health care and research. He told his audience that Washington has for years not lived it up to its responsibilities to help.

"If government does its modest part, there is no stopping the most powerful and generative economic force the world has ever known: the American people," Obama said.

The president's pitch came in a region where the economic mood has long been gloomy. Nationwide, unemployment is at 9.7 percent, the highest level since 1983.