OBAMA VISIT: President touts economic intervention and job creation

President Barack Obama discussed “a piece of encouraging news, for a change,” referring to stimulus funding investments made for private sector job growth, in places such as new construction and a rail spur at V&M Star.

The local effort involves $650 million of the parent company’s money to build a new mill in Youngstown, with the largest plant built in the Mahoning Valley since GM Lordstown in the 1960s.

“Just think about where we were a year ago. Our economies were collapsing,” he said.

Unpopular steps were required to rescue the economy, such as intervening in the auto industry and propping up some financial institutions. “Any fair minded person would say if we hadn’t acted, more people in the Valley, more people in Ohio, more people across America would be out of a job today.”

He cited the GM plant in Lordstown as a direct example.

“It was the right thing to do.”