Obama: Job creation 'not rocket science'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday America has solutions to all of its challenges and creating more jobs "is not rocket science."

Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Washington, the president told an estimated 140 invited guests "we've had a couple of very difficult days in the stock market, but the truth of the matter is, is that the challenges go beyond the stock market."

Obama noted that the U.S. economy contracted by 8 percent in the final fiscal-year quarter prior to his inauguration and claimed credit for 17 consecutive months of private sector job growth, as well as growth of corporate profits and stabilization of credit markets.

However, he said "recovery wasn't happening fast enough, and some of the headwinds that we've been dealing with are ones that are going to take some time to fix."

"But the truth of the matter is, is that we now live in a global economy where everything is interconnected, and that means that when you have problems in Europe and in Spain and in Italy and in Greece, those problems wash over into our shores," the president said.

Obama listed increased competition from China, India and Brazil, healthcare costs, deficiencies in the education system and "a dysfunctional political system" as significant problems facing the country.

However, he said "there are no challenges that we're facing that we don't have the solutions to. We know what to do."

Obama said fixing the nation's debt and deficit problems will require a combination of more taxes and "modest adjustments in programs like Medicare."

"It's not rocket science," he said. "And it doesn't require us to decimate the things that we know are going to help us grow and become competitive."