THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody.

AUDIENCE:  Good afternoon.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it is great to be back in Ohio.  Strickland said I’ve been in Ohio so much he might start charging me for it.  (Laughter.)

It is wonderful to be back in Ohio, and it is wonderful to be back in the beautiful city of Columbus.  I just want to say thank you right off the top to Mayor Coleman for his outstanding leadership of this city.  (Applause.)  You’ve got one of the best mayors in the country.  You also got one of the best governors in the country in Ted¹ Strickland.  (Applause.)

And I also want to just acknowledge that you’re going to have one of the best -- you already have one of the best senators in Sherrod Brown, and you’re going to have another one in Lee Fisher.  (Applause.)  So we appreciate the great work that they’re doing.

I’m going to mention some of the congressional delegations² here, because they’ve got a lot to do with what’s going on at this site.

My last visit here was a little over a year ago, when I came to take part in a graduation ceremony for 114 -- the 114th class of the Columbus Police recruits（新兵，新成员） .  Some of you may remember that.  I know the mayor does.  I don’t have to tell anybody here that these have been difficult times for Ohio and difficult times for the country.  And when I was here last, America was losing 700,000 jobs per month.  Our economy was shrinking.  Plants and businesses right here in Ohio were closing.  And we knew that if we failed to act, then things were only going to get much worse.

That’s why, with the support of Sherrod Brown, but also members of the House of Representatives Mary Jo Kilroy, Steve Driehaus and Charlie Wilson, who are all here -- wave, guys -- (applause) -- that’s why these folks worked so hard to pass the Recovery Act, which cut taxes for middle-class families, that way boosting demand; cutting taxes for small businesses so that they could make payroll³ and keep their doors open; extending unemployment insurance and COBRA to help folks make it through some really tough times; to rebuild our infrastructure⁴ and make investments that would spur additional investments from the private sector⁵ and strengthen our country in the long run.  That’s what the Recovery Act was all about.

And since then, here in Ohio, nearly 2,400 small businesses have gotten loans to keep their doors open and their workers on payroll, 4.5 million families have gotten tax cuts to help pay their bills and put food on the table, some 450 transportation projects are underway or have been completed, and more than 100,000 Ohioans are at work today as a result of these steps.  And today, I return to Columbus to mark a milestone⁶ on the road to recovery:  the 10,000th project launched under the Recovery Act.  That’s worth a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

And I want to thank Secretary Ray LaHood, who has been instrumental in so many of the projects that have taken place.  He has done an outstanding job, as have our other agencies in administering these programs.

Now, these projects haven’t just improved communities.  They’ve put thousands of construction crews -- just like this one -- to work.  They’ve spurred（鞭策，教唆） countless⁷ small businesses to hire because -- these are some big guys here, so they got to eat -- (laughter) -- which means that you got to get some food brought in -- or the local restaurants here benefit from the crews being here at work.  It means that instead of worrying about where their next paycheck is going to come from, Americans across the country are helping⁸ to build our future -- and their own futures⁹.

Now, as my friend Joe Biden -– who has done a great job overseeing the Recovery Act -- would say, this is a big deal.  (Laughter.)  And I think it’s fitting that we’ve reached this milestone here in this community, because what you’re doing here is a perfect example of the kind of innovation and coordination¹⁰ and renewal¹¹ that the Recovery Act is driving all across this country.

A lot of people came together to make this day possible -- business and government, grassroots organizations, ordinary citizens who are committed to this city’s future.  And what you’re starting here is more than just a project to repair a road –- it’s a partnership¹² to transform a community.

Mayor Coleman was describing for me how all these pieces fit together on the way over here.  So the city is using recovery dollars to rebuild the infrastructure.  And because of that, in part, the hospital is expanding its operations to take even better care of more people, more children, here in Columbus and throughout Ohio, which means they’re hiring more people.

So together, you’re creating more than 2,300 new jobs and sending a powerful message that this neighborhood will soon be a place where more families can thrive, more businesses can prosper¹³, economic development that’s being sparked today is going to continue into the future.  And my understanding is, because the hospital is now growing, that means they’re putting money back into the neighborhood for housing and other facilities so that the entire community starts rebuilding.

Ultimately, that’s the purpose of the Recovery Act –-not just to jumpstart the economy and get us out of the hole that we’re in right now, but to make the investments that will spur growth and spread prosperity and pay dividends¹⁴（股息，红利） to our communities for generations to come.

Since I was here last year, we’ve begun to see progress all across the country.  Businesses are beginning to hire again.  Our economy, which was shrinking by 6 percent when I was sworn in, is now growing at a good clip, and we’ve added jobs for six out of the past seven months in this country.  We were losing 700,000 jobs a month; for the last six out of the last seven months, we’ve increased jobs here in the United States of America, in part because of the policies that these members of Congress were willing to step up and implement¹⁵（实施，执行） .