President Obama spoke today in Fairfax, Virginia, regarding the economy and infrastructure issues.   He made a bit of news about Caterpiller earlier today.   

His office sent an advance copy of his remarks as prepared for delivery — thought folks might like a read: 

Thank you, everybody. I am extraordinarily pleased to be here with Virginia’s Governor, an exceptional leader and a great friend of mine, Tim Kaine. 

Not far from where we’re standing, back in Washington, we continue to have a debate about our economic plan — a plan to create or save more than 3 million jobs in the next few years. And I welcome that conversation. But I am here today because you don’t need to travel very far from that debate to see why enacting this plan is both urgent and essential to our recovery — to see that the time for talk has passed and that now is the time to take bold and swift action.

We’ve passed a version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan through the House. Yesterday, we passed a version through the Senate. Now we’ve got to get a final version to my desk — so that I can sign it and so that here in Virginia and across the country the people can use it.

In Virginia, the unemployment rate has surged to its highest level in more than a decade — and it might have been a lot worse were it not for the leadership of Governor Tim Kaine and former governor, now Senator Mark Warner. Unemployment claims have doubled in recent months compared to last year. Nationwide, we’ve lost 3.6 million jobs since this recession began — nearly 600,000 this past month alone.

These are the people I talked to in Elkhart, Indiana, on Monday, which has lost jobs faster than anyplace else in America, with an unemployment rate of over 15 percent. They’re the people I met yesterday in Fort Myers, Florida, which has been among the places hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. These are the folks looking for work, and these are the folks who want to work.

At the same time, look around us. Look at this construction site right where we’re standing. We’re surrounded by unmet needs and unfinished business — in our schools, in our roads, in the systems we employ to treat the sick, in the energy we use to power our homes. And that’s the core of my plan: putting people to work doing the work that America needs done.

(more…)