The Forex Journal

(RTTNews) - President Barack Obama Wednesday rejected charges that he was seeking a big government takeover on a host of issues. Speaking to business leaders in Washington, Obama said his goals, from education to health reform to financial regulations and economic policies, were aimed at setting a stronger framework for the nation moving forward.

"We need an economy where we borrow less and produce more," he said. "We need an economy where we generate more jobs here at home and send more products overseas."

He added, "We need to invest and nurture the industries of the future, and we need to train our workers to compete for those jobs."

Obama said that America's leadership in the 20th century had come about by bringing the nation together to work with resolve for the common good.

"A thriving, competitive America is within our reach but only if we move forward as one nation; only if we move past the old debates and the crippling divides between left and right, between business and labor, between private enterprise and the public sector," he said.

He added, "Whatever differences we have in this country, all of us have a stake in meeting the same goal, which is an America in which a growing prosperity is shared widely by its people."

Reaffirming his faith in the power of the free market, Obama said that government nevertheless had a vital, if limited goal in fostering economic growth.

"Government has set up basic rules of the marketplace from the enforcement of contracts and managing the money supply, to maintaining airline safety standards and creating federal deposit insurance," he said. "And on balance, these rules have been good for business, not bad, for they ensure honest competition and fair dealing and a level playing field."

He added, "The Business Roundtable has always understood that in each of these instances, government hasn't stepped in to supplant private enterprise, but to catalyze it, to create the conditions for entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive."

Obama also rejected the cries of government takeover and socialism that have greeted what he called "reasonable efforts" to reform financial regulations or invest in the future.

"Not only does that kind of rhetoric deny our history, but it prevents us from asking hard questions about the right balance between the private and public sectors," he said. "Rather than hurling accusations about big-government liberals or mean-spirited conservatives, we're going to have to answer those tough questions."

He added, "Getting that balance right has less to do with big government or small government than it has to do with smart government."

Obama said his domestic agenda was aimed at improving the nation's infrastructure, education and government while investing in research and innovation.

He also called on the business leaders to take a long-term view of the benefits his policies would have for their companies and to rethink some of the ways they approach business decisions.

"It's undoubtedly in the short-term interests of individual corporations at any given moment to pay less in taxes, to deal with fewer regulations," he said. "But it's in the long-term interest of all companies to do business in a nation that maintains the world's best research facilities and universities; a nation with public schools that graduate highly skilled, highly educated young people; a nation with functioning railways and airports; a nation that's not dragged down by crushing debt; a nation in which families are getting good jobs, and when they work hard they can support those families."

He added, "To put it simply, we are all in this together."

Obama called on his audience to reject railing against Capitol Hill just as politicians should reject scapegoating of Wall Street.

"All of it makes for easy talking points and good political theater. But it doesn't solve our problems. It doesn't move us forward," he said. "It just traps us in the same debates and divides that have held us back for a very long time and forced us to keep on punting down the road the same problems we've been facing for decades."

He added, "I believe we can't afford that kind of politics anymore."