ARDEN, N.C. — Setting out to sell his second-term agenda, President Obama planned to travel to an engine-parts factory here on Wednesday to promote the revival of American manufacturing, one of the core messages of his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening.
It was the first of three stops this week in which Mr. Obama, having spoken to a divided Congress, will now try to build popular support for his proposals to invest in manufacturing and education, and raising the minimum wage — an agenda that he claims will help secure the prosperity of the middle class.
In visiting a production plant owned by the Canadian auto-parts maker, Linamar, Mr. Obama hopes to showcase his goal of making the United States a magnet for manufacturing jobs. That was one of three economic pillars of his address to a joint session of Congress.
Linamar Corporation, which makes parts for heavy-duty engines, recently opened its fourth American manufacturing plant in this small town on the outskirts of Asheville, occupying a closed Volvo construction equipment factory. The plant has hired 160 workers, according to the White House, and plans to take on 40 more by the end of 2013.
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Obama reiterated his ideas for making the United States more attractive for manufacturing, which include eliminating tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas and offering incentives for them to build factories in the United States.
Among his new proposals is a $1 billion plan to create a network of 15 so-called manufacturing institutes that would seek to develop new industries. On Tuesday, he extolled a pilot venture in Youngstown, Ohio, which he said had turned a shuttered factory into a lab where workers are honing their three-dimensional printing skills.
Mr. Obama has boasted of his record in bringing well-paying manufacturing jobs home. “After shedding jobs for more than 10 years,” he said on Tuesday, “our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the last three.” He pointed to Ford, Caterpillar, and Apple as examples of companies that had recently built plants or decided to make products in the United States, after long periods of investing abroad.
To underscore that point, the White House invited Apple’s chief executive, Timothy Cook, to sit in the gallery on Tuesday night as a guest of Michelle Obama. Apple, Mr. Obama said approvingly, will start producing its Mac computers in the United States this year.
The flicker of life in manufacturing is one of the more persuasive parts of Mr. Obama’s case that the country has made progress on his watch, particularly since the end of the financial crisis.
The other trends he cites stem in part from the fact that the economy remains lackluster: a decline in illegal immigration, a drop in carbon emissions, and a slowdown in the growth of health care costs.
Republicans claimed that Mr. Obama’s proposals, far from generating manufacturing jobs, would shackle employers with higher taxes and burdensome regulations.
“More government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses, and new private-sector jobs,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, in the official Republican response to Mr. Obama’s address. “It’s going to create more uncertainty.”
It was the first of three stops this week in which Mr. Obama, having spoken to a divided Congress, will now try to build popular support for his proposals to invest in manufacturing and education, and raising the minimum wage — an agenda that he claims will help secure the prosperity of the middle class.
In visiting a production plant owned by the Canadian auto-parts maker, Linamar, Mr. Obama hopes to showcase his goal of making the United States a magnet for manufacturing jobs. That was one of three economic pillars of his address to a joint session of Congress.
Linamar Corporation, which makes parts for heavy-duty engines, recently opened its fourth American manufacturing plant in this small town on the outskirts of Asheville, occupying a closed Volvo construction equipment factory. The plant has hired 160 workers, according to the White House, and plans to take on 40 more by the end of 2013.
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Obama reiterated his ideas for making the United States more attractive for manufacturing, which include eliminating tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas and offering incentives for them to build factories in the United States.
Among his new proposals is a $1 billion plan to create a network of 15 so-called manufacturing institutes that would seek to develop new industries. On Tuesday, he extolled a pilot venture in Youngstown, Ohio, which he said had turned a shuttered factory into a lab where workers are honing their three-dimensional printing skills.
Mr. Obama has boasted of his record in bringing well-paying manufacturing jobs home. “After shedding jobs for more than 10 years,” he said on Tuesday, “our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the last three.” He pointed to Ford, Caterpillar, and Apple as examples of companies that had recently built plants or decided to make products in the United States, after long periods of investing abroad.
To underscore that point, the White House invited Apple’s chief executive, Timothy Cook, to sit in the gallery on Tuesday night as a guest of Michelle Obama. Apple, Mr. Obama said approvingly, will start producing its Mac computers in the United States this year.
The flicker of life in manufacturing is one of the more persuasive parts of Mr. Obama’s case that the country has made progress on his watch, particularly since the end of the financial crisis.
The other trends he cites stem in part from the fact that the economy remains lackluster: a decline in illegal immigration, a drop in carbon emissions, and a slowdown in the growth of health care costs.
Republicans claimed that Mr. Obama’s proposals, far from generating manufacturing jobs, would shackle employers with higher taxes and burdensome regulations.
“More government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses, and new private-sector jobs,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, in the official Republican response to Mr. Obama’s address. “It’s going to create more uncertainty.”