WASHINGTON - In President Obama's weekly address to the nation this past weekend, he offered a glimpse of the speech he was expected to deliver yesterday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: "[America] is the best place on earth to do business," Obama said, according to a Politico report.

Obama repeated his administration's commitment of fostering business growth, increasing U.S. exports, and revitalizing the U.S. workforce, which will require upgrading education and technology.

"Supporting businesses with this kind of 21st century infrastructure and cutting-edge innovation is our responsibility," Obama said. "Our government has an obligation to make sure that America is the best place on earth to do business ?" that we have the best schools, the best incentives to innovate and the best infrastructure."

While he expressed optimism from last week's labor report that revealed unemployment fell to nine percent, he said the progress is insufficient to ease widespread hardship.

"Ultimately, our true measure of progress has to be whether every American who wants a job can find one; whether the jobs available pay well and offer good benefits; whether people in this country can still achieve the American Dream for themselves and their children," Obama said. "That's the progress we're after."

Obama said extending the Bush-era tax cuts in exchange for more long-term jobless benefits and small-business tax credits has already begun paying dividends.

"In the short-term, the bipartisan tax cut we passed in December will give an added boost to job creation and economic growth," Obama said. "This is a tax cut that is already making Americans' paychecks a little bigger and giving businesses more incentive to invest and hire."

Aides to Obama said he plans to announce soon a focus on increasing broadband Internet access as a way of connecting the "small town to the larger world."

"To win the future, America needs to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build the rest of the world," Obama said.

The Republican response, delivered by House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, says the best way to restore jobs is to trim government spending, to attack the federal debt and to create a stable environment for businesses.

"These deficits are unsustainable and unconscionable," Hensarling said. "They add uncertainty to our economy. They weaken confidence in our government. And they keep job-creating investment on the sidelines."