US made enormous progress over last 5 years: Obama

President Barack Obama has said the US has made enormous progress in economy over the last five years.

Washington: President Barack Obama has said the US has made enormous progress in economy over the last five years and he would spend the rest of his presidential tenure to help realise the dreams of American people.

"We have made enormous progress over the last five years. Things have changed for the better, just like we sought to bring about when we worked so hard back in 2007 and 2008," he said yesterday at an event organised by Obama for America.

"But now we`ve got to keep the momentum going. In some ways, what we`ve done is clear away the rubble of this incredible crisis that we went through. Now the challenge is to get back to the first order of business: the challenges that were facing families even before the financial crisis and the Great Recession hit," he said.

"We have gotten back on level ground, but now we`ve got to keep climbing, we`ve got to keep going because there are still too many of our friends and our neighbours and family members who are out there hurting, who are still struggling, who are still treading water," he said.

"The ground beneath our feet is a little firmer than it was, but we`ve got a long way to go before middle-class families feel secure and before those who are willing to strive to get into the middle class have more ladders or opportunity," he added.

Asserting that the businesses have created 7.2 million jobs over the last 40 months, he said, this is the fastest job growth that the US has seen since 1999.

"But way too many folks out there are still looking for work. And for those who were lucky enough to have a job, wages and incomes are still flat-lined, whereas for the top 1 percent, they`re still seeing massive increases in their wealth and incomes," Obama said.

"So we`ve got growing inequality in our society and a continued sense of insecurity when it comes to ordinary families," he added.

Obama said that in next few days he would address meetings in various parts of the country on economic issues.

"It will be a pretty good speech. But as we`ve learned... and then things still get stuck here in Washington, which is why I`m going to need your help," he said, referring to the obstacles being faced by him in getting the reforms passed through the Congress.

Noting that he has got a little over 1,200 days left in office, Obama said he is going to spend every waking minute of every one of those days thinking about and then acting upon any good ideas out there that are going to help ordinary Americans succeed and that are going to make sure that the next generation believes in the American Dream because they`ve seen it in their own lives.

"That`s how I`m going to spend my time. I hope that`s how you`re going to spend your time. Because if you do, I guarantee you we will continue to make progress and we will deliver on everything that we talked about in 2008 and 2012," Obama said.

PTI

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