Carney: Obama ‘putting the finishing touches’ on jobs speech

White House press secretary Jay Carney said President Obama was “putting the finishing touches” on his jobs speech to Congress.

“The president has spent certainly a part of the weekend putting the finishing touches on his proposals and the speech,” Carney told reporters accompanying the president to New Jersey to tour areas damaged by Hurricane Irene. “I think that that process continues over the next few days, but he’s very far along.”

Obama will deliver an address to a joint session of Congress next Thursday, Sept. 8.

For the past week, Obama has urged Congress to act quickly on what he called a “bipartisan agenda” that is expected to include infrastructure spending and requests for an extension of unemployment benefits and the payroll tax.

Carney said that the president would “put forward a number of proposals that have historically enjoyed bipartisan support and will, without question, if enacted, positively affect growth and job creation.”

He added that Obama “looks forward to Congress returning from its recess with the same sense of urgency that he feels about the need to take these kinds of measures.”

Jobs numbers released Friday showing that the economy added a net total of zero jobs in the month of August prompted new fears over the economy.

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