Obama speaks on American Jobs Act in South Side

President Barack Obama came to Pittsburgh Tuesday in an effort to make a last-minute push for… President Barack Obama came to Pittsburgh Tuesday in an effort to make a last-minute push for the American Jobs Act, which the Senate voted down later that night.

“Today, the Senate of the United States has a chance to do something about jobs right now by voting for the American Jobs Act,” Obama said at his speech in South Side as a crowd of more than 200 audience members erupted in applause. “This is a moment of truth for the U.S. Senate.”

Obama arrived in the Steel City at 11:15 a.m. to deliver a 20-minute speech pushing for the American Jobs Act at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 5. He spoke to an audience made up of Pittsburgh workers, residents and politicians. Obama also toured the training center and met with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness for their third quarterly meeting.

The president left Pittsburgh at 3:20 p.m. to head to Orlando, Fla., where he continued the campaign for his jobs plan.

Despite the president’s two trips, the Senate voted against the bill 50-49 Tuesday night. To open debate on the bill, it would have required 60 Senate votes.

Obama released a statement following the vote and said that he will work with Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid to pass the individual proposals of the jobs plan.

The president said the Pittsburgh IBEW plant was “an example of how if we get a good collaboration between business and labor and academia, there’s no reason why we cannot continue to have the best-trained workers in the world.”

Obama has visited numerous cities in the past couple of weeks to push for the $447 billion American Jobs Act, which calls for tax cuts for the middle class and small business owners, as well as construction spending to create jobs.

Republicans oppose multiple parts of the bill, including the tax hikes on the upper class and the way Obama wants to fund the bill.

During his speech, Obama said the focus for him and the 27 members of the Jobs Council at Tuesday’s meeting was entrepreneurship. He commended late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and said “to see the outpouring of support for him and his legacy tells a story about what America’s all about.”

Obama stressed the need for legislation and government spending because of the state of the economy, saying that the “economy needs a jolt right now.”

The president highlighted the fact that hundreds of construction and electrical workers have been laid off and said that the workers could repair America’s infrastructure, including Pittsburgh’s bridges, if the act were to move forward.

The city’s bridges are 54 years old, which is 13 years older than the national average, Obama said. There are almost 6,000 bridges in Pennsylvania that local construction workers could be rebuilding right now, he said. Obama said that if the American Jobs Act was passed, laid-off construction workers would be hired to work on damaged infrastructure.

“Did you know that more than a quarter of the bridges in this state are rated structurally deficient?” Obama said. “Structurally deficient — that’s a fancy way of saying they need to be fixed.”

Obama acknowledged that Republicans who said they agreed with the ideas in the jobs plan aren’t keen on passing it because it would “give [him] a win.” But he refuted the Republicans’ claim.

“It’s about giving the American people who are hurting out there a win, about giving small businesses, entrepreneurs and construction workers a win. It’s about giving the American people, all of us together, a win,” Obama said as the crowd cheered.

The president said that the election is 13 months away, and that Americans “don’t have the luxury of waiting 13 months.” He highlighted the urgency to pass the act to create jobs now and encouraged political parties to debate politics later and focus on rebuilding the economy.

Allegheny County Labor Council president Jack Shea said Obama’s speech was right on point, and that the American Jobs Act will put people to work not only in Pittsburgh, but across the country.

“We have too many people laid off,” Shea said. “Republicans have to quit playing games and work as partners with Obama.”

Rich Fitzgerald, the Democratic candidate for Allegheny County executive, said he supports the act. He said the recession has lingered on too long and that the American people are hurting.

“Nothing now is more important for this country than to get people back to work,” Fitzgerald said.

Tim Wisyanski, an electrical apprenticeship instructor for the IBEW Local 5, said the speech was fantastic and that the jobs plan is exactly what the American people need.

“We can get a lot of people back to work with this act,” Wisyanski said. “We’ve seen too much unemployment.”

In closing, the President said he was confident that the country can move forward, that Americans “shape our own destiny,” and that “we are tougher than the times we’re in right now.”

“Let’s get to work and show the rest of the world just why it is that America is the greatest country on earth,” Obama said.