President Obama plans trip to Las Vegas next week

President Obama will visit Las Vegas next week, the president's first trip since the beginning of his second term and the first trip to Nevada since his reelection.

Multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press, reported news about the visit, and the Las Vegas Review Journal said the visit would likely come Monday or Tuesday.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the president would soon embark on a campaign-style effort to push his policy objectives.

"The president will travel. You can expect that," Carney said. "He will, as he does, make the case to the American people for the vision he laid out in his inaugural address, and the specifics that he will lay out at his State of the Union address on February 12."

It's not clear what the president will discuss, although Carney hinted the president could be discussing economic policy. House Republicans passed a bill Wednesday providing a temporary suspension of the debt ceiling that also demanded that the Senate pass a budget.

"He believes very strongly that even when we’re talking about seemingly arcane matters of budget policy — things like debt ceilings and spending in the out-years, and budget caps and deficit or debt to GDP ratios — that when distilled into common language, these are the essential matters that Americans care about because they affect their livelihoods; they affect their capacity to find work and then find higher-paying work," Carney said. 

"Growth of the economy, growth in job creation is essential to the president’s vision. It is the core goal that informs everything he does on domestic policy and international policy."

Carney added that the president believed "that not only is it the right strategy to engage the American people, it is essential as a reflection of why he’s in this to begin with, to explain to them his vision and to listen to them about what their hopes are and the direction that they hope the country will move in."

The president could also advocate his recently unveiled gun-control platform during the stop. On Friday, Vice President Biden will be traveling to Richmond, Va., for an event promoting the plan. Earlier Thursday, the vice president held a Google Plus "hangout" to engage voters on the issue.

---