State of the Union to Focus on Economy

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President Barack Obama will deliver his final State of the Union speech of his first term tonight before Congress and a nationally televised audience.  It’s been widely reported the President’s speech will focus on the economy.

White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe stopped by NPR Morning Edition for a preview of the president’s speech.

“The central challenge that we are facing right now is we came out of a steep recession, the worst since the Great Depression, and the American people want to know how are we going to continue to climb out of it,” Plouffe said. “And that’s what the president is going to lay out tonight: A very specific blueprint for how we build an America that’s durable and that works for as many people in this country as possible.”

A memo from the White House sent to media touts Obama’s record on creating jobs and boosting the economy.  The Hill published this excerpt from that memo on its website today:

The economy has added a total of 3.2 million private sector jobs,” reads the memo, titled, “An America Built to Last,” which has been distributed to Capitol Hill and beyond.  “American manufacturing is creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990’s. The American auto industry is coming back. Today, American oil production is the highest it’s been in eight years.”

In Idaho, the number of people without jobs has increased since the official end of the recession.  The Idaho Department of Labor’s latest jobless report shows at least 64,100 Idahoans were out of work last month.

The Boise Weekly has been talking to local residents about what they’d like to hear in tonight’s speech.

We want to hear from you.  What does the State of the Union mean to you, and what do you want to hear from the President tonight?