US President Barack Obama has asserted that he has been successful in his efforts to stabilise the American economy, saying that efforts were made to ensure it did not "tip into a Great Depression".
"My first task was to make sure that we stopped the bleeding, make sure that we stabilised the financial markets, making sure that we didn't tip into a Great Depression. And we have succeeded in doing that," Obama said at a party fund raising event in Philadelphia.
"But the hole that we dug was deep and millions of people are still out of work. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. People have trouble paying their bills.
"Young people have trouble when they get out of school finding a job. So it wasn't enough just to stop the bleeding. We also had to lay that new foundation to make this economy stronger. That's what we've been doing," he said.
The US President said his administration made the largest investment in education at the federal level in history, and freed up billions of dollars to go directly to young people so that they could go to school.
"We made the largest investment in research and development in our history because we knew that we had to regain our competitive advantage in a 21st century global marketplace. We started investing in infrastructure because it turns out that we used to have the best infrastructure in the world and we don't anymore," he said.
China is spending 9 per cent of its GDP on infrastructure, while Germany and Europe were spending 5 per cent on the sector, he said.
"We were spending 2 per cent, which is why our bridges were falling down and our airports were constantly delayed. All these steps that we took were putting people back to work," Obama added.
Taking a dig at the Republicans, Obama said they were seeking the driving keys of the country after the mid-term polls.
"What we have to tell them is, you can’t have the keys back because you don't know how to drive. We cannot afford to give you the keys to the car back. You don't know how to drive it," the US President noted.
