{"id":4074,"date":"2012-01-24T12:31:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T19:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=4074"},"modified":"2012-01-24T12:31:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T19:31:32","slug":"state-of-the-union-to-focus-on-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/01\/24\/state-of-the-union-to-focus-on-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the Union to Focus on Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alex Wong \/ Getty Images<\/p>

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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.\u00a0 It’s been widely reported the President’s speech will focus on the economy.<\/p>\n

White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe stopped by NPR Morning Edition<\/em> for a preview of the president’s speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“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.”<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A memo from the White House sent to media touts Obama’s record on creating jobs and boosting the economy.\u00a0 The Hill<\/em> published this excerpt from that memo on its website today<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The economy has added a total of 3.2 million private sector jobs,\u201d\u00a0reads the memo, titled, \u201cAn America Built to Last,\u201d which has been distributed to Capitol Hill and beyond.\u00a0 \u201cAmerican manufacturing is creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990\u2019s. The American auto industry is coming back. Today, American oil production is the highest it\u2019s been in eight years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Idaho, the number of people without jobs<\/a> has increased since the official end of the recession.\u00a0 The Idaho Department of Labor’s latest jobless report<\/a> shows at least 64,100 Idahoans were out of work last month.<\/p>\n

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