Washington, D.C.— President Obama promises to keep moving full-speed ahead with his economic agenda, even though progress, he admits, has been “painfully slow.”

“I will keep trying to stimulate growth and jobs as long as I’m president,” Obama says, speaking from the East Room of the White House. Republicans, he argues, are holding middle-class Americans “hostage” with their “partisan” opposition to his policies.

Though Obama avoided using the word “stimulus” during his eighth press conference, it hung over his remarks as he turned toward November. Obama says that he will continue to confidently defend his economic record this fall, to “remind the American people” that the country is “moving in the right direction” — even as his poll numbers continue to drop.

After blaming the “policies of the past decade” for the recession, Obama moved to his recent proposal to allow businesses to write off capital expenses next year, as well as his plan for a research and development tax credit. Talk of his $50 billion infrastructure proposal followed. These new policies, he predicts, will help Democrats as they campaign this election season, serving as an example of progress, even though there is “a long way to go.” His administration, he adds, is “hardly Johnny-come-lately” on the economy.

At the top of the presser, Obama tapped Austan Goolsbee to succeed Christina Romer as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee, 41, is a former economics professor at the University of Chicago who advised Obama during his presidential campaign.