OBAMA: Fostering strong U.S. economy starts with strong middle class

Fostering a strong U.S. economy started with building a strong U.S. middle class, and economic fairness was critical to the nation's recovery, U.S. President Barack Obama said here on Friday.

Speaking at the White House after the release of the latest job report, Obama stressed that the last thing the nation should do in the weak economic recovery is tax increase on middle class families. Flanked by middle-class Americans, Obama said "if we want to keep moving this country forward, these are the folks who are going to get us there." Obama said the nation continued to create jobs last month, evidence of the ongoing economic growth. "We've now created 4.5 million new jobs over the last 29 months, and 1.1 million new jobs so far this year," he noted. U.S. unemployment rose 0.1 percentage point from June to 8.3 percent in July, while the non-farm sector added 163,000 new jobs across the country last month, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. However, Obama stressed that there were still too many Americans looking for jobs, adding that "we've got more work to do on their behalf -- not only to reclaim all the jobs that were lost during the recession, but also to reclaim the kind of financial security that too many Americans have felt was slipping away from them for too long." "When families have the security of knowing that their taxes won't go up, they're more likely to spend, and more likely to grow the economy," said Obama, who has geared up his reelection bid. Obama criticized Republican lawmakers' efforts to extend Bush- era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans next year, noting that middle class families should not pay more taxes while the wealthiest Americans could pay less. "Instead of the middle class paying more, we should ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more, a modest amount, so that we can reduce our deficit and still make investments in things like education that help our economy grow," he added.