Obama to talk housing in Valley

President expected to detail plan to aid homeowners in stop on economic tour

President Barack Obama will visit Arizona next week as he tours the country speaking about his plans for the nation’s economic recovery.

The president is scheduled to give a speech in the Phoenix area on Tuesday highlighting housing and the middle class, White House spokesman Keith Maley said.

Obama has delivered campaign-style speeches in the past two weeks on investing in infrastructure, lowering the cost of college loans and overhauling the tax code during stops in Galesburg, Ill.; Warrensburg, Mo.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

He has criticized Republicans for not doing enough to help struggling families.

The president will travel to Phoenix “to continue talking with Americans about his better bargain for the middle class,” Maley told

“In Tennessee, the president laid out one cornerstone of that vision: a plan to create good jobs that pay decent wages by investing in manufacturing and infrastructure,” Maley said. “Next week in Arizona, the president will lay out his plan to continue to help responsible homeowners and those Americans who seek to own their own homes as another cornerstone of how we strengthen the middle class in America.”

In talking about housing, Obama will revisit the topic of his first presidential stop in Arizona in February 2009. It will be Obama’s sixth official visit to the state. As of late Wednesday, the White House had not given details as to the location and time of the speech.

The day of his visit to Arizona, the president will travel to Burbank, Calif., to tape an appearance on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, the White House said. The following day, he will be at Camp Pendleton, Calif., to visit troops.

The Republican National Committee said the president is offering nothing new in his speeches on the economy.

“President Obama is simply regurgitating and repackaging dated proposals that haven’t put the economy back on track,” spokesman Ryan Mahoney said in a statement. “With an economic strategy seemingly based on nothing but empty rhetoric, it’s no wonder Americans don’t believe he’s looking out for the middle class.”