It is not diversionary. It pleads for thinking things through to the end result. We have a revenue problem that has been the biggest cause of our debt. As the President said:
" What's at stake is a decision between two fundamentally different views about where we take the country right now. And the choice is up to you."
...at the heart of this country, its central idea is the idea that in this country, if youÂ’re willing to work hard, if youÂ’re willing to take responsibility, you can make it if you try. That you can find a job that supports a family and find a home you can make your own; that you wonÂ’t go bankrupt when you get sick. That maybe you can take a little vacation with your family once in a while -- nothing fancy, but just time to spend with those you love. Maybe see the country a little bit, maybe come down to Roanoke. That your kids can get a great education, and if theyÂ’re willing to work hard, then they can achieve things that you wouldnÂ’t have even imagined achieving. And then you can maybe retire with some dignity and some respect, and be part of a community and give something back.
ThatÂ’s the idea of America. It doesnÂ’t matter what you look like. It doesnÂ’t matter where you come from. It doesnÂ’t matter what your last name is. You can live out the American Dream. ThatÂ’s what binds us all together.
Now, the reason that I think so many of us came together in 2008 was because we saw that for a decade that dream was fraying, that it was slipping away; that there were too many people who were working hard but not seeing their incomes or wages go up; that we had taken a surplus and turned it into a deficit -- we were running two wars on a credit card; that job growth was the most sluggish it had been in 50 years. There was a sense that those who were in charge didnÂ’t feel responsible.
And so we came together to say we are going to bring about the kinds of changes that allow us to get back to those basics, allow us to restore and live out those values. What we didnÂ’t realize was that some of that recklessness, some of that irresponsibility would lead to the worst financial crisis weÂ’ve seen since the Great Depression. And I donÂ’t need to tell you what weÂ’ve been through over the last three and a half years because youÂ’ve lived it. Too many folks lost jobs. Too many people saw their homes lose value. Too many folks saw their savings take a hit.
But you know whatÂ’s given me confidence and faith is that fact that as IÂ’ve traveled around the country now, just like I used to travel around Illinois, that same decency, those same values -- theyÂ’re still alive, at least outside Washington. Times have been tough, but AmericaÂ’s character hasnÂ’t changed. The core decency of the American people is undiminished. Our willingness to fight through and work through the tough times and come together, thatÂ’s still there.
And so, just as we came together in the last campaign -- not just Democrats, by the way, but Republicans and independents, because weÂ’re not Democrats or Republicans first, weÂ’re Americans first. Just like we came together in 2008, we know that weÂ’ve got to keep working, we got to keep moving forward in 2012. And we knew back then that it wasnÂ’t going to be easy. These problems weÂ’re facing, they didnÂ’t happen overnight, and theyÂ’re not going to be solved overnight. We understood it might take more than one year or one term or even one President. But what we also understood was that we werenÂ’t going to stop until we had restored that basic American bargain that makes us the greatest country on Earth.
Our goal isnÂ’t just to put people back to work -- although thatÂ’s priority number one -- it is to build an economy where that work pays off. An economy where everyone, whether you are starting a business or punching a clock, can see your hard work and responsibility rewarded. ThatÂ’s what this campaignÂ’s about, Roanoke. And thatÂ’s why IÂ’m running for a second term as President of the United States of America.
Now, let me say this. ItÂ’s fashionable among some pundits -- and this happens every time America hits a rough patch -- itÂ’s fashionable to be saying, well, this time itÂ’s different, this time we really are in the soup; itÂ’s going to be hard to solve our problems. Let me tell you something. WhatÂ’s missing is not big ideas. WhatÂ’s missing is not that weÂ’ve got an absence of technical solutions to deal with issues like education or energy or our deficit. The problem weÂ’ve got right now is weÂ’ve just got a stalemate in Washington.
And the outcome of this debate that weÂ’re having is going to set the stage not just for the next year or five years, but for the next twenty. On the one side youÂ’ve got my opponent in this presidential race and his Republican allies who --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, look -- I mean, weÂ’re having a good, healthy, democratic debate. ThatÂ’s how this works. And on their side, theyÂ’ve got a basic theory about how you grow the economy. And the theory is very simple: They think that the economy grows from the top down. So their basic theory is, if wealthy investors are doing well then everybody does well. So if we spend trillions of dollars on more tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, that thatÂ’s somehow going to create jobs, even if we have to pay for it by gutting education and gutting job-training programs and gutting transportation projects, and maybe even seeing middle-class folks have a higher tax burden.
So thatÂ’s part number one, right. More tax cuts for those at the top.
Part number two is they believe if you tear down all the regulations that weÂ’ve put in place -- for example, on Wall Street banks or on insurance companies or on credit card companies or on polluters -- that somehow the economy is going to do much, much better. So those are their two theories. TheyÂ’ve got the tax cuts for the high end, and theyÂ’ve got rollback regulation.
Now, hereÂ’s the problem. You may have guessed -- we tried this. We tried this in the last decade and it did not work.
But I just want to point out that we tried their theory for almost 10 years, and hereÂ’s what it got us: We got the slowest job growth in decades. We got deficits as far as the eye can see. Your incomes and your wages didnÂ’t go up. And it culminated in a crisis because there werenÂ’t enough regulations on Wall Street and they could make reckless bets with other peopleÂ’s money that resulted in this financial crisis, and you had to foot the bill. So thatÂ’s where their theory turned out.
Now, we donÂ’t need more top-down economics. IÂ’ve got a different view. I believe that the way you grow the economy is from the middle out. (Applause.) I believe that you grow the economy from the bottom up. I believe that when working people are doing well, the country does well. (Applause.)
I believe in fighting for the middle class because if theyÂ’re prospering, all of us will prosper. (Applause.) ThatÂ’s what I'm fighting for, and thatÂ’s why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States. (Applause.)
Now, this is what I've been focused on since I've been in office. In 2008, I promised to make sure that middle-class taxes didnÂ’t go up. And in fact, because of the recession, you needed some help, so we cut the typical family's income taxes by $3,600. (Applause.) So if you hear somebody say that I'm a big tax guy, just remember $3,600 for the typical family. ThatÂ’s the tax break you've gotten since I've been in office. (Applause.)
Four years later, I'm running to keep middle-class taxes low. So this week, I called on Congress to immediately extend income tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income. Now, what that means is 98 percent of Americans make less than $250,000, so 98 percent of folks would have the certainty and security that your taxes, your income taxes would not go up a dime. (Applause.) And, by the way, this is not a hypothetical. This wasn't some campaign promise. The reason I called on Congress to act now is because if they donÂ’t do anything, on January 1st, almost everybody here, your taxes will go up an average of $1,600.
So we need to stop that tax hike from happening.
So you would think that this makes sense, right, because the Republicans say they're the party of no new taxes, right? ThatÂ’s what they always say. Except so far, they've refused to act. And this might confuse you. You might say, why would they not want to give 98 percent of Americans the certainty of this income tax cut?
Well, it turns out they donÂ’t want you to get your tax break unless the other 2 percent, the top 2 percent, they get their tax break as well.
Now, understand, the top 2 percent, folks like me, we're the ones who most benefited over the last decade from not only tax breaks, but also a lot of the money from increased profits and productivity went up to that top 2 percent. So the bottom line is, the top 2 percent doesnÂ’t need help. They're doing just fine.
And I understand why they wouldnÂ’t want to pay more in taxes. Nobody likes to pay more in taxes. Here's the problem: If you continue their tax breaks, that costs a trillion dollars. And since we're trying to bring down our deficit and our debt, if we spend a trillion dollars on tax cuts for them, we're going to have to find that trillion dollars someplace else. That means we're going to have to maybe make student loans more expensive for students. Or we might have to cut back on the services we're providing our brave veterans when they come home.
Or we might have to stop investing in basic science and research that keeps us as a leading-edge economy. Or, as they suggested, maybe you would have to turn Medicare into a voucher program.
I donÂ’t think those are good ideas. So what I've said to the Republicans is, look, all right, let's have this debate about the tax cuts for the wealthiest folks. I donÂ’t mind having that debate. But in the meantime, let's go ahead and do what we agree on, which is give 98 percent of Americans some certainty and some security. (Applause.) So far, they haven't taken me up on my offer.
Now, this gives you a sense of how Congress works these days -- you've got the possibility of your taxes going up in four months, five months, and instead of working on that, guess what they worked on this week?
They voted for the 33rd time to try to repeal a health care bill we passed two years ago, after the Supreme Court said it's constitutional and we are going to go ahead and implement that law. I donÂ’t know about you, Virginia, but I think they've got a better way to use their time. I think helping you make sure your taxes donÂ’t go up, that would be a good use of congressional time.
Now, this is just a small example of the difference between myself and Mr. Romney, between myself and some of the Republicans who are running Congress. And look, Virginia, I want to repeat -- this is a choice. If you think their way of doing things is a recipe for economic growth and helping the middle class, then you should vote for them.
You can send those folks to Washington. I promise you they will carry out what they promise to do.
But thatÂ’s not why I went to Washington. I went to Washington to fight for the middle class. I went to Washington to fight for working people who are trying to get into the middle class, and have some sense of security in their lives. People like me and Mr. Romney donÂ’t need another tax cut. You need some help right now to make sure your kids are living the kind of life you want for them. And thatÂ’s why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States.
On almost every issue, you've got the same kind of choice. When the auto industry was about to go under, a million jobs lost, and my opponent said, "let's let Detroit go bankrupt," what did I say? I said I'm betting on America's workers. IÂ’m betting on American industry. And guess what? Three years later, GM is number one again and the American auto industry has come roaring back.
So I believe in American manufacturing. I believe in making stuff here in America. My opponent, he invested in companies who are called “pioneers” of outsourcing. I don’t believe in outsourcing -- I believe in insourcing. I want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas; let’s give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Roanoke, right here in the United States of America. Let’s invest in American workers so they can make products and ship them around the world with those three proud words: Made in America.
IÂ’m running because our men and women in uniform have sacrificed so much. We could not be prouder of them and we could not be prouder of our veterans. And because of their efforts, I was able to keep my promise and end the war in Iraq. And I now intend to transition out of Afghanistan and bring our troops home. And what I said is, because of their outstanding work, weÂ’ve been able to decimate al Qaeda and take out bin Laden. And so now itÂ’s time for us to take half of the money we were saving on war and pay down our deficit, and use the other half to do some nation-building here at home.
Roanoke knows something about transportation -- this was a railroad hub for a long time. So you know how important that is to growing an economy. LetÂ’s take some of that money and rebuild our roads and our bridges and our rail systems, and letÂ’s build wireless networks into rural communities so everybody can tap into world markets. LetÂ’s put construction workers back to work doing what they do best and that is rebuilding America. ThatÂ’s why IÂ’m running for a second term as President of the United States. ThatÂ’s the choice you face.
IÂ’m running to make sure that our kids are getting the best education in the world. When I came into office, we passed a tuition tax credit that has saved millions of families thousands of dollars, and now I want to extend it. But I donÂ’t want to stop there. We just won a fight thanks to some of the folks who are here, including students from VT that -- we just won a fight to make sure that student loan interest rates would not double.
But thatÂ’s not enough. I want to lower tuition to make it more affordable for all young people. I want to help our elementary schools and our middle schools and our high schools hire more teachers, especially in math and science. I want 2 million more people to be able to go to community colleges to get trained in the jobs that businesses are hiring for right now -- because a higher education, a good education is not a luxury, it is an economic necessity. ThatÂ’s how weÂ’re going to win the race for the future. And thatÂ’s why IÂ’m running for a second term as President -- to finish the job we started in 2008.
WeÂ’ve got to deal with homeownership, and the fact of the matter is that my opponentÂ’s philosophy when it comes to dealing with homeowners is, let the market bottom out and let as many foreclosures happen as it takes. I donÂ’t think thatÂ’s part of a solution -- thatÂ’s part of the problem.
So what I want to do is, I want to let every single person refinance their homes and save about $3,000 a year because youÂ’ll spend that $3,000 on some of these stores right here in downtown. YouÂ’ll help small businesses and large businesses grow because theyÂ’ll have more customers. It will be good for you and it will be good for the economy. And thatÂ’s why IÂ’m running for a second term as President -- because I want to help AmericaÂ’s homeowners.
I am running because I still believe that you shouldnÂ’t go bankrupt when you get sick. We passed that health care law because it was the right thing to do. And because we did, 30 million people who donÂ’t have health insurance are going to get help getting health insurance. Six million young people who didnÂ’t have health insurance can now stay on their parentÂ’s plan and get health insurance.
Seniors are seeing their prescription drug costs go down. And, by the way, if youÂ’ve got health insurance, youÂ’re not getting hit by a tax. The only thing thatÂ’s happening to you is that you now have more security because insurance companies canÂ’t drop you when you get sick. And they canÂ’t mess around with you because of some fine print in your policy. If youÂ’re paying your policy, you will get the deal that you paid for. ThatÂ’s why we passed health care reform.
Now, one last thing -- one of the biggest differences is how we pay down our debt and our deficit. My opponent, Mr. RomneyÂ’s plan is he wants to cut taxes another $5 trillion on top of the Bush tax cuts.
Well, first of all, like I said, the only way you can pay for that -- if youÂ’re actually saying youÂ’re bringing down the deficit -- is to cut transportation, cut education, cut basic research, voucherize Medicare, and youÂ’re still going to end up having to raise taxes on middle-class families to pay for this $5 trillion tax cut. ThatÂ’s not a deficit reduction plan. ThatÂ’s a deficit expansion plan.
IÂ’ve got a different idea. I do believe we can cut -- weÂ’ve already made a trillion dollarsÂ’ worth of cuts. We can make some more cuts in programs that donÂ’t work, and make government work more efficiently. Not every government program works the way itÂ’s supposed to. And frankly, government canÂ’t solve every problem. If somebody doesnÂ’t want to be helped, government canÂ’t always help them. Parents -- we can put more money into schools, but if your kids donÂ’t want to learn itÂ’s hard to teach them.
But you know what, IÂ’m not going to see us gut the investments that grow our economy to give tax breaks to me or Mr. Romney or folks who donÂ’t need them. So IÂ’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced way. WeÂ’ve already made a trillion dollarsÂ’ worth of cuts. We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more. And, by the way, weÂ’ve tried that before -- a guy named Bill Clinton did it. We created 23 million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did just fine. We created a lot of millionaires.
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didnÂ’t -- look, if youÂ’ve been successful, you didnÂ’t get there on your own. You didnÂ’t get there on your own. IÂ’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If youÂ’ve got a business -- you didnÂ’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didnÂ’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we donÂ’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. ThatÂ’s how we funded the GI Bill. ThatÂ’s how we created the middle class. ThatÂ’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. ThatÂ’s how we invented the Internet. ThatÂ’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and thatÂ’s the reason IÂ’m running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. YouÂ’re not on your own, weÂ’re in this together.
So all these issues go back to that first campaign that I talked about, because everything has to do with how do we help middle-class families, working people, strivers, doers -- how do we help them succeed? How do we make sure that their hard work pays off? ThatÂ’s what I've been thinking about the entire time I've been President."
more...MUCH more
I bet anything he took it to a publisher. Even he probably got tired.
At least he makes sence.
