US President Barack Obama has said that the country's economy is heading in the right direction but not fast enough as per his expectations and those of the people.
"Today, it's growing again. Today, we have added private sector jobs for five months in a row. So the economy is headed in the right direction. But for a lot of Americans - for Racine and a lot of other communities - it's not heading there fast enough," Obama said at a town hall meeting in Racine, the city that has the second highest unemployment rate in Wisconsin.
"Not if you are out of work. Not if you can't pay the mortgage. Not if you can't take care of your family. The truth is, from the day we walked into the White House, we knew that the crisis we faced was so severe that it was going to take months, and may be even years, to fully heal, to dig ourselves out of one of the worst recessions in our history," he said.
He said in addition to everything that has been done, "additional steps to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing were also being taken." "We want an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who lost their job through no fault of their own," he said.
Obama said he believes it was time for the US to embrace a clean energy future.
"I don't want clean energy jobs to go to China or Germany. I want those industries to take root right here in the United States. We have provided entrepreneurs and small business owners with tax credits and loan guarantees that will lead to over 700,000 jobs in 2012. These are good-paying, middle-class, American jobs," he said.
"They are world class turbines and solar panels and new advanced battery industry is here. So now the US was getting 40 per cent of that market from two per cent. That was all done through the Recovery Act," the President said.
"It is going to drive our economy in the 21st century. It is not time for us to look backwards, it's time for us to look forward right now when it comes to energy policy in this country," Obama said. "So, look, these are incredibly challenging times for America, especially for families who've been hurt by this recession," he said adding that the problems being faced by the US are not going to go away overnight.
"No President, no politician, has the power to make that happen," he said.
"We're not going to fix them overnight, but what we can do is make a choice about which direction we want to take this country. What we can do is what we've always done, which is shape our own destiny as a nation," Obama said.
