Elkhart, Indiana was the first town I visited as President. I'd been on the job for three weeks, and we were just a few months into the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. Elkhart was hit harder than most. Unemployment there peaked at nearly twenty percent shortly after my visit. Nearly one in five people there were out of work.
This week, I returned to Elkhart. Unemployment there has now fallen to around four percent. More families are back on sturdy ground; more are covered by health insurance; more of their kids are graduating from high school. And it's no accident - it's because people there worked hard, and sacrificed, and looked out for each other.
But it's also because we made a series of smart decisions early in my presidency1. To rescue the auto2 industry. To help families refinance their homes. To invest in things like high-tech3 manufacturing, clean energy, and the infrastructure4 that creates good new jobs - not to mention the job training that helps folks earn new skills to fill those jobs.
The results are clear. America'
