In the News

 

 

By Bill Glauber and Don Walker 

 

 

Waukesha — President Barack Obama took his road tour Thursday to GE's Waukesha gas engines plant, where he touted job training, talked up a rebounding economy and contended that 2014 could be "a breakthrough year for America."

 

"After five years of hard work, digging ourselves out of the worst recession of our lifetimes, we are now better positioned in the 21st century than any other country on Earth," Obama told several hundred workers and executives gathered on a factory floor.

 

Dressed in shirt sleeves and standing on a podium near a massive natural gas engine, Obama returned to what has become a central theme of his presidency: "Restoring opportunity to every single person."

 

During his speech, Obama made a pitch for Congress to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. He also spoke about the need for wage equality for women.

 

"If a woman is getting cheated, that's a family issue for the whole family," Obama said.

 

He even quipped about the cold weather.

 

"At the State of the Union, I was going to start out by saying the state of the union is cold. I decided that is not entirely appropriate," he said.

 

But he also showed a serious, fiery side as he pushed his programs, even if he can't get much traction with Congress.

 

"I want to work with them, but I can't wait for them," he said.

 

The Wisconsin stop was part of Obama's two-day tour after his State of the Union address that included stops in Maryland and Pennsylvania. After Waukesha, he traveled to Tennessee.

 

He used the Wisconsin appearance to amplify key themes from the speech.

 

 

In Waukesha, Obama signed a presidential memorandum to initiate an across-the-board review of how to best reform federal training programs.

 

Later, he gave the pen to Reggie Troop, the young man who introduced him.

 

Troop said he trained 40 hours a week over a three-month period to learn the job he has at GE Waukesha gas engines.

 

Obama said: "I'm making it official. Vice President Biden, a man who was raised on the value of hard work and who is tenacious, is going to lead an across-the-board review of America's training programs."

 

"What we need to do is look at where are the jobs and take a job-driven approach to training," Obama said. "That's what you're doing here in Wisconsin."

 

He said all the federal job training programs will be reviewed as Joe Biden and others reach out to local communities.

 

"Let's find what local programs do best and duplicate it and expand it," Obama said.

 

Mayor Tom Barrett said the initiatives already in place in the area are exactly what the president is advocating.

 

Gov. Scott Walker also has advocated for spending more to train state workers for in-demand jobs such as manufacturing.

 

In his speech, Obama said his labor secretary, Tom Perez, makes reference to "train and pray," in which workers are trained with the hope they get a job.

 

"That's what we've attacked here," Barrett said.

 

A competition will also be launched for the final $500 million of a community college training fund. Every state will be awarded at least one grant. The competition is designed to bolster partnerships with community colleges, employers and industry to create training programs for in-demand jobs.

 

 

At one stop inside the GE Waukesha gas engines plant, Obama took off his suit coat, donned safety glasses and was briefed by two GE workers on what appeared to be a very large crankshaft used for the GE engines.

 

Elsewhere in the plant, executives showed Obama a large GE Waukesha engine painted orange and sitting on an extra long forklift. The executives pointed out the features of the engine. Nearby a company sign said; "We create the things that make the world work better."

 

There was also a smattering of politicians in the audience, including former Gov. Jim Doyle and Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas.

 

For all the talk about political division in Wisconsin, on this day, at least, Obama brought together Republicans and Democrats.

 

He was accompanied on Air Force One by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat.

 

And he was greeted on the tarmac at Mitchell International Airport by Walker, Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

 

In an interview, Walker said he received a call from top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett around an hour before the president landed in Milwaukee.

 

He said "she and her team went through all the things" he had pointed out in a letter about the shortage of propane.

 

On the tarmac, Walker said, "It was nice to tell him (the president) thanks."

 

Mary Burke, the lone Democratic candidate for governor, was nowhere near the event, keeping commitments to campaign in the western part of the state. She did talk with Obama by phone Wednesday.

 

Democratic leaders diplomatically tiptoed around the issue of Burke's absence from an event featuring Obama, who carried the state twice in presidential elections.

 

A recent Marquette University Law School poll showed Obama with only a 44% approval rating in the state.

 

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said: "I think it would have been great if Mary Burke would have been here today. Obviously, I don't know what her schedule is, what the competing demands are. I know when you're running statewide, you have a lot of demands on your time."

 

Said Moore: "I have no idea what her schedule was and I don't even know if she was invited to be here. This was not a political event. This was an employment event. I think wherever she was she was doing what she needed to do."

 

Joe Fadness, executive director of the Wisconsin GOP, said: "While Barack Obama was in Wisconsin today (Thursday), Mary Burke was desperately avoiding any photo or appearance with her own party's leader, but she can't hide from their shared policy agenda: higher taxes and regulations, a wildly unpopular big government health care law, and budget deficits that led to massive job loss."

 

For their part, Democrats said Obama will be helpful during the fall campaign.

 

"There's no doubt in my mind, he'll be a plus," Barca said. "I wish we could get him here every other month."