Washington:
US President Barack Obama has said America is on the road to recovery thanks to his economic plan that included ensuring new jobs and industries don't go to China and India.
Blaming opposition Republicans, Obama said he took office in January 2009 "after nearly a decade of economic policies that gave us sluggish growth, falling incomes, and a record deficit, and policies that culminated in the worst financial crisis that we've seen since the Great Depression".
"Now, we didn't get here by accident," he said Monday at a Democratic Party fund raiser event in Atlanta, Georgia, noting that all told 8 million jobs were lost as a consequence of this crisis.
"We got here after 10 years of an economic agenda in Washington that was pretty straightforward: You cut taxes for millionaires, you cut rules for special interests, and you cut working folks loose to fend for themselves," Obama said. "That was the philosophy of the last (Republican) administration and their friends in Congress".
So when he took office, the president said he put forward a "new economic plan that rewards hard work instead of greed; a plan that rewards responsibility instead of recklessness".
The plan, Obama said, was "focused on making our middle class more secure and our country more competitive in the long run so that the jobs and industries of the future aren't all going to China and India, but are being created right here in the United States of America".
"Instead of spending money on tax breaks for folks who don't need them and weren't even asking for them, we're making smart investments in innovation and clean energy and education that are going to benefit all of our people and our entire economy over the long run."
"Now, because the policies of the last decade got us in such a deep hole, it's going to take some time for us to dig ourselves out," Obama said.
"We're certainly not there yet. But I want everybody to understand, after eighteen months, I can say with confidence we are on the right track," he said amid applause.