In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama laid out a blueprint for an economy built to last, driven by American manufacturing, American energy, and American workers.

Today, he released a budget for fiscal year 2013 that illustrates how we turn that blueprint into a strong economy, and it stays true to the President's belief that we succeed when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.

Finding ways to put people back to work is the President's top priority, and he is proposing more than $350 billion to foster short-term job growth. That includes an extension of the middle-class $1,500 payroll tax cut (the one Mitt Romney derides as a "temporary little Band-Aid") and unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. The President is investing in clean energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure to boost our economy, rebuild our country, and create jobs: $30 billion will help modernize 35,000 American schools, and a $50 billion upfront investment for surface transportation will fix roads, rails, and runways—and create thousands of quality jobs quickly.

And because investment in education is a central component of strong economy, the President also announced a new $8 billion Community College to Career Fund that will train 2 million workers for good, high-paying jobs in high-growth and high-demand industries.

All of this falls within spending caps that will reduce our discretionary spending by $1 trillion over 10 years and reduce our deficit by more than $4 trillion.

For a detailed account of what's inside President Obama's 2013 budget, check out this post at whitehouse.gov.

As an industry that employs more than 11 million workers and has added more than 230,000 jobs since 2010, our country’s manufacturing sector is a launch-pad for economic growth and bedrock for American families. And if the past few years are any indication, it’s an industry that has proven itself able to adapt, innovate, and compete across the globe.

Yesterday, the President toured the Alcoa Davenport Works plant in Bettendorf, Iowa, and then spoke to local workers about the fruits of their labor. The Alcoa plant is a hub for the company’s $3 billion aerospace business and produces the aluminum-lithium alloy used to manufacture Airbus and Boeing airplanes – including Air Force One.

Amid the downturn in American manufacturing several years ago, Alcoa went back to the drawing table and re-emerged with a streamlined process and better product.

Addressing the plant, the President praised the strategic investments made by Alcoa as a model for the industry:

Sometimes, the old ways of doing things just won’t cut it anymore. I was just talking to Klaus [Kleinfeld]; he was talking about some sheet metal that you guys produce, that for a while you guys lost market share completely. You got your team together, redesigned it, and now you have 80 percent of the market back. That’s adapting to change.  And see, when change happens, you’ve got a choice. You can either keep on doing what you were doing and hope things work out, or you can make the decision that not only you can meet the challenges of the future, but you can help set the pace. 

That’s true for this company, and it’s true for America.

Although many of the challenges facing our country have been years in the making, President Obama believes that our country’s workers are up to meeting those challenges and delivering on America’s promise:

I ran because I believe in an America where working families aren’t just treading water but they’re moving forward, and where our businesses lead the change on new technologies like clean energy and advanced manufacturing of the sort you’re doing right here at this plant. 

As part of his effort to help support the manufacturing industry and create jobs, the President launched a new initiative in Pittsburgh last week called the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP). This program connects industry, universities, and federal resources to invest in budding technologies that grow our economy and ensure long-term competitiveness.

Learn more about the AMP initiative as well as other new programs that will help strengthen America’s economy.