ELKHART — President Barack Obama doesn't plan to take full credit for the economic turnaround in Elkhart and the rest of the country during his stop here Wednesday, according to his top spokesman.
"The private sector all across the country led our recovery, and that certainly is true in Elkhart," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a phone interview Tuesday. The turnaround "would not have been possible without the grit and determination and resilience of the American people."
Still, the president's economic stimulus plan, auto industry bailout and Wall Street reform initiative also played important roles, he said. That too will come out in his address at Concord High School, Obama's fifth stop in Elkhart County since 2008.
Obama will appear later at a town hall gathering at The Lerner Theatre in downtown Elkhart sponsored by PBS NewsHour, the nightly Public Broadcasting System news program.
"The president believes it’s important for the American people to understand what strategy we pursued in the depths of the Great Recession that led to our recovery," Earnest said. That strategy "was not just successful but is worth building on."
Obama returns to Concord High School more than seven years after a Feb. 9, 2009, address there. At the time, Elkhart County, like the rest of the country, was in the throes of the Great Recession, with unemployment here reaching nearly 20 percent — third worst in the nation at the time, trailing only El Centro, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz.
Elkhart County's unemployment rate has since dipped, 3.9 percent as of April. Now Obama is returning to note the progress and make the call for continued improvement.