Reporting from Washington -- Even before the stimulus deal was complete in Congress, President Obama said Wednesday that evidence already showed his economic rescue plan would improve the lives of American workers.
The White House asserted three times Wednesday that Caterpillar Inc., which has laid off workers recently, would be able to rehire employees if Congress approved the stimulus bill.
But as the president prepared for a trip today to visit a Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Ill., it was unclear whether the world's biggest maker of earth-moving equipment could provide an example of the stimulus bill's job-creating powers.
The Peoria, Ill.-based company would not say how many laid-off employees might return to work, or when. Nor would it say how many workers targeted for upcoming layoffs might keep their jobs.
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Caterpillar officials said they had not examined the agreement on the stimulus bill hammered out by House and Senate negotiators, and would not comment on the plan.
Despite the president's announcement, workers back in his home state of Illinois weren't sure how to interpret the comments that Obama said were made by Caterpillar's chief executive.
"He's not saying, 'I'm going to rehire U.S. employees or even Peoria employees,' " said Rick Doty, president of United Auto Workers Local 974, which represents thousands of Caterpillar workers. "He's just saying if [the stimulus bill] is to his liking, then he'll rehire some people that they laid off. To me, it's more of a threat than anything else."
