国际英语新闻：Obama reaffirms to build new foundation for U.S. economy

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- In an effort to push his reform agenda, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed Wednesday that the United States need to build a new foundation as the economy emerges from the recession.

In his remarks at Carnegie Mellon University, Obama outlined economic achievements of his administration and emphasized the policies that he intended to implement to build a stronger economy in the future.

STATE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

Obama's remarks highlighted the progress that has been made in building the "new foundation" for growth and prosperity that the president called for a year ago.

That new foundation, Obama said at Georgetown University in April 2009, would be built on five pillars: new rules for Wall Street; investments in education, renewable energy and health care; and reductions in federal spending to bring down budget deficits.

In the new remarks, Obama reaffirmed that the foundation is not only based on investments, but also based on reforms.

Compared with a year ago, the state of the U.S. economy improved considerably.

Obama said that the economy, which was shrinking at an alarming rate when he took office, has now been growing for three consecutive quarters. After losing an average of 750, 000 jobs a month during the winter of last year, the nation has now added jobs for five of the last six months.

The taxpayers money it cost to shore up the financial sector and the auto industry is being paid.

"Despite temporary setbacks, uncertain world events, and the resulting ups and downs of the market, this economy is getting stronger by the day," Obama said.

The President owed the improved economy situation largely to his administration's policies.

His administration's 862 billion dollars stimulus plan included significant investments in education and incentives for growth in renewable energy industries. The 1 trillion dollars health care bill he signed into law in March was the largest overhaul of the U. S. health care system in decades.

And the financial overhaul, which is on the final procedure of legislation, is expected to become law in weeks.