Pat Dollard

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Briefing Room:

It’s “absolutely clear” the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction, President Barack Obama said Thursday, amid fears that the economy had faltered.

Obama made his case during a visit to Missouri that his administration’s efforts, particularly through its signature $787 billion stimulus package, had staved off a second Great Depression and put the country on the path toward economic recovery.

“But what is absolutely clear is that we are headed in the right direction — and that the surest way out of these storms we’ve been in is to keep moving forward, not back,” the president said in prepared remarks set for delivery at Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Mo.

Companies like Smith Electric might have had to shed jobs or shut down without assistance from the federal government, Obama said, challenging Republican opponents to “tell the workers of Smith Electric that we’d be better off if your jobs didn’t exist.”

Obama made the trip to Kansas City as part of his “recovery summer” tour, promoting efforts by his administration to quell concerns that the United States has not added as many jobs as promised and could be slipping into a second recession. While the unemployment rate fell in June, the government estimated that a net 125,000 jobs were lost that month.

“All of our efforts, taken together, are making a difference. A year and a half ago, our economy was shrinking rapidly; now it’s growing,” Obama said. “The economy was bleeding jobs; it’s now adding private-sector jobs, and has been for six straight months.”

The president acknowledged that was more left to be done, and pledged his administration would work harder to put workers back in jobs.