President Obama heads to Austin, Texas on Thursday to kick off a jobs tour that will shift the focus of his administration away from contentious issues like gun control back toward economic growth. The administration is billing the president’s campaign as the “Middle Class Jobs & Opportunity Tour,” according to the Washington Post, and he will kick start the campaign in a city where the economy is booming.
A spokeswoman for Texas governor Rick Perry, who has bitterly opposed much of the president’s domestic agenda, tells National Review that the governor welcomes the president’s visit. “If President Obama is serious about getting our nation’s economy working again, then he’s come to the right place,” says Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. “Texas’ success didn’t happen by accident – it’s a result of policies put in place under Governor Perry’s leadership with a laser focus on making Texas a beacon of economic freedom.”
The White House earlier today suggested that, in choosing Austin, it is recognizing the state’s, and the city’s, thriving economy. Press secretary Jay Carney said the president is looking to highlight the private-sector job growth occurring outside the Beltway. “Out in the country there are positive things happening, and that that only reinforces the need for Washington to do some very simple things to help facilitate economic growth and job creation,” he said.
According to the Perry administration, the formula for that is simple. Washington can follow Texas’s lead, Nashed says, by cutting taxes and spending, rolling back regulations, passing tort reform, and then “getting out of the way and allowing employers to risk their capital and create jobs.”
The White House will announce other stops on the president’s jobs tour in the coming weeks.