Obama focuses on job creation in Baltimore visit
Obama leaves behind scandal-engrossed Washington to focus on job creation in Baltimore
President Barack Obama talks to a class of pre-Kindergarten school children at Moravia Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Md., Friday, May 17, 2013, during the his second "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour". (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
BALTIMORE (AP) -- President Barack Obama says Washington lawmakers should spend every single day focused on the economy and helping people get back to work.
Obama cited several signs of positive growth in the economy. But he said there's still more work to do and, in his words, "our focus cannot drift."
Obama commented during a visit to a Baltimore company that makes digging and pumping equipment for the mining industry. The visit is part of a new effort by the president to focus on his ideas for growing the middle class.
The trip also came at the end of a week that found Obama consumed by a trio of political controversies, including the targeting of conservative political groups by the Internal Revenue Service.
