(Bloomberg News) Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to Barack Obama, said the president would work with the business community to overhaul the tax code in a second term as Democrats today kick off their national convention that aims to propel his re-election bid.
"Let's broaden the base, let's reduce the rate," Jarrett said at a Bloomberg breakfast in Charlotte, North Carolina, the convention site. "That means we are going to close some loopholes, but that's going to benefit the broader business community."
"The long-term sustainable growth rests with the private sector," she said. "The president knows that."
Obama campaigned in Norfolk, Virginia, today on the final stop of visits to battleground states ahead of his acceptance speech at the convention on Sept. 6. Headline speakers at tonight's opening session include keynoter Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and first lady Michelle Obama. Party officials start the convention at 5 p.m. local time.
"We've come too far to turn back now," Obama told a crowd of about 11,600. "On Thursday night, I will offer what I believe is a better path forward, a path that will create good jobs."
Obama Frustration
Jarrett today said that while the president is frustrated with Republican lawmakers who have consistently opposed his agenda, he'll continue to try work with them.
"He's never going to give up on that," she said.
Obama's nomination speech will be more specific than Republican Mitt Romney's in detailing a path forward on deficit reduction and will emphasize tax fairness over Medicare, top aides said.
The address will tell Americans "where we've been and where we need to take this country," campaign manager Jim Messina said at a separate Bloomberg breakfast in Charlotte today.
Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter at the event said the speech will be "aspirational" and "pragmatic," and will "lay out a tangible path forward" with "a pretty clear sense of what the second term will be about."