After coming under fire for advancing policies some say do not do enough to help the middle-class, President Barack Obama's economic team has "turned a corner" on those issues, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday.The liberal Brown, who represents a blue-collar state, has pressured the White House to focus more on aiding the manufacturing sector in order to create more middle-class jobs. On Friday, Brown said that he stands behind Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, but sought improvement from the agency on middle-class issues. "I think they've turned a corner," Brown said on CNN's "State of the Union." "The focus next year is all about creating jobs and I think we'll begin to see changes."
Geithner, National Economic Council chairman Larry Summers and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke have come unde fire from conservative congressmen and a growing amount of liberal lawmakers for policies they say heavily favor Wall Street banks instead of the middle-class and small businesses.
Brown appeared to key in on reports that President Barack Obama will use next year's State of the Union address to take on job creation an outline a domestic agenda that focuses on reducing the federal deficit. Brown said that Obama advisers such as manufacturing czar Ron Bloom are starting to have a bigger impact at the White House.
While Brown claimed Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and advisers like Bloom are committed to reviving the slumping manufacturing sector, he said other advisers have yet to come around the issue. "I think the president is. I think the vice president is. I think the advisers are mixed," he said.