Obama To Make Stop In Detroit To Boast Auto Industry, Region's Resurgence
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) -- Later this week, President Barack Obama will make his 14th trip to Michigan since taking office. The stop in Detroit on Wednesday will reflect on his decision to bail out the auto industry, while citing the return of manufacturing jobs to the region.
Obama's trip to Michigan comes one day after Republicans take control of both houses of Congress for the first time in eight years. The trip is one of a series of stops the President will make before he delivers his State of the Union address.
Fresh from a two-week Hawaiian vacation, the president was readying executive actions and legislative proposals to start promoting right away while advisers and speechwriters flesh out the broad themes that Obama wants to emphasis in his State of the Union address on Jan. 20. It will be his seventh since taking office, but his first before a Congress entirely in GOP hands.
In a sign of their divergent paths, Obama was heading out of Washington on Wednesday just as the new Congress was settling in. He plans stops in Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee aimed at highlighting how his own economic policies were contributing to the country's recovery.
Obama, expected back in Washington on Sunday, has appeared energized by the end-of-the-year action on immigration policy and Cuban relations, suggesting continued presidential relevance despite a political landscape dramatically altered by deep Democratic losses on Election Day.
Since the November midterms, the key question has been whether Obama will lean in or away from compromise with Republicans in his final two years. Of the issues the White House said Obama will emphasize in the coming weeks, none was among the few areas that both Democrats and Republicans have cited as ripe for dealmaking — trade, taxes, public works.
An Obama spokesman, Eric Schultz, said Obama would announces proposals this coming week that focus on helping the middle class benefit from the economic recovery.
"There are a number of issues we could make progress on, but the president is clear that he will not let this Congress undo important protections gained — particularly in areas of health care, Wall Street reform and the environment," Schultz said.
Obama has threatened to use his veto power to block GOP attacks this year.
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