Jarrett Says U.S. Must Invest in Infrastructure

President Barack Obama will make the case for continued investment in education and infrastructure in his State of the Union address tonight, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said.

“It’s smart spending,” Jarrett said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. The president is pushing for such investments in an effort to reduce the unemployment rate of 9.4 percent.

Jarrett said Obama won’t endorse any specific recommendations of his deficit reduction commission, such as raising the Social Security retirement age but said he has asked Budget Director Jack Lew to examine them.

“Tonight is really about the broad framework,” Jarrett said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net.