Obama: In Today’s Market, We Rely On Each Other

President Barack Obama used a recent appearance at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 34th Annual Awards Gala to push his sweeping jobs bill, stressing a vision of interconnectedness in American prosperity.

“Problems in the Latino community are problems for the entire American community,” Obama told attendees at the gala last week. “Our future is tied to how well the Latino community does. The reverse is also true: When our country is hurting, everybody feels the pain.”

The American Jobs Act is a combination of tax cuts and credits, infrastructure incentives and unemployment insurance reform designed to preserve and create jobs during the ongoing recession.

(List: Three Ways Obama’s Jobs Plan Helps Young Americans)

In addition to steep resistance from political rivals in Congress, the bill has come under attack by Congressional Democrats concerned that the monolithic legislation is unlikely to pass in its current form. Other progressive lawmakers have shied away from the bill because of its thematic connection to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a principal cause of the Republican coup in the 2010 elections.

Obama's comments came at a delicate moment in another sense as well. A Census Bureau report released this week indicates that foreign-born residents were less likely than the native-born to be poor in 2010, igniting potential feelings of disenfranchisement among unemployed citizens.

In the face of that prejudice, Obama played on fears of American obsolescence to make a case for national unity.

“At a time when countries like China are building high speed rail lines and gleaming new airports, we've got over a million unemployed construction workers, many of them Latino, who could be doing the same thing right here in the United States,” he said.

According to many analysts, passage of the bill is going to be an uphill battle for the administration, especially during an election season. Obama, however, kept his comments pragmatic during the gala.

“The fight we're having right now, the fight to put more Americans back to work ... could not be more important for the people in this room, for the Latino community and for millions of Americans who need help,” he said.

Obama also took a jab at lawmakers who have fought to preserve tax cuts from the Bush administration.

“Some folks have been working pretty hard in Congress to keep tax breaks for wealthy Americans,” he said. “The least they can do is fight just as hard for the middle class and people at the bottom.”

The president also said during the gala that he would do “everything in my power” to pass the DREAM Act, legislation that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented youth.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has 21 members in the current Congress, advocates legislation that protects and benefits Hispanic individuals in the United States. It was established in 1976.

Jon Christian is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Follow him on Twitter @Jon_Christian.

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