President Barack Obama visited Columbus Friday for the first time in more than a year to kick off the 10,000th road project under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, touting the plan’s benefits to the economies of Columbus and the nation. 

As more than 100 members of the media and the project’s construction crew gathered in front of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the president appeared from the corner of Parsons Avenue and Livingston Avenue.  

“When I was here last, America was losing over 700,000 jobs per month,” Obama said, an enormous American flag hanging from the site’s construction equipment as his back drop. “Our economy was shrinking, plants and businesses, right here in Ohio, were closing and we knew that if we failed to act then things were only going to get much worse.”  

This project is a small part of the president’s $862 million stimulus plan designed to reignite the country’s economy. Congress passed the plan in February 2009 with the support of only three Republican Senators and no Republicans from the House of Representatives. 

Columbus is using its money from the Recovery Act to improve the roads in the hospital’s surrounding areas. It is expected to create more than 2,300 new jobs from the construction of the roads to staffing the expansion of the hospital, according to the president. 

“Ultimately that’s the purpose of the recovery act,” Obama said. “Not just to jump start the economy and get us out of the hole that we are in right now, but to make the investment that will spur and spread prosperity to pay dividends to our communities for generations to come.”  

While Obama acknowledged that the U.S. economy has begun to turn around, seeing an increase in jobs six out of the last seven months, he said it is still not anywhere near where it should be. 

“While recovery may start with a project like this, it can’t end here,” Obama said. “If we want to ensure that Americans compete with any nation in the world we’re going to have to get serious about a long-term vision for this country and we are going to have to get serious about our infrastructure.”  

The president said he was confident this project will help return Columbus to economic prosperity.  

“It is with that vision of a brighter future for this city and for the country that we begin this project,” Obama said. “I am looking forward to seeing all that you achieve in the years and months to come.”
Following his nearly 13-minute speech, the president, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and eight construction workers received a tour of the upcoming project.
The speech was not open to the public and was one of many stops that Obama will take this summer to promote the Recovery Act.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele reiterated the Republican’s continuing dissatisfaction with the president’s plan in a statement released on the GOP’s website Friday saying the “PR tour” that the president is on does nothing for the economy but rather the people want to see progress.