Well, I want to start by thanking a few folks who've joined us today. We've got the mayor of Osawatomie, Phil Dudley is here. We have your superintendent Gary French in the house. And we have the principal of Osawatomie High, Doug Chisam. And I have brought your former governor, who is doing now an outstanding job as secretary of health and human services – Kathleen Sebelius (Pro-Abortion which was crammed along with Obamacare down our throats) is in the house. We love Kathleen.
Well, it is great to be back in the state of Tex – [laughter] – state of Kansas <--Nice gaff, Mr President, luckily the media will not point this one out also. I was giving Bill Self a hard time, he was here a while back.
As many of you know, I have roots here. I'm sure you're all familiar with the Obamas of Osawatomie. Actually, I like to say that I got my name from my father, but I got my accent – and my values – from my mother. She was born in Wichita. Her mother grew up in Augusta. Her father was from El Dorado. So my Kansas roots run deep.
My grandparents served during World War II. He was a soldier in Patton's army; she was a worker on a bomber assembly line. And together, they shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over the Great Depression and over fascism. They believed in an America where hard work paid off, and responsibility was rewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried – no matter who you were, no matter where you came from, no matter how you started out.
And these values gave rise to the largest middle class and the strongest economy that the world has ever known. It was here in America that the most productive workers, the most innovative companies turned out the best products on Earth. And you know what? Every American shared in that pride and in that success – from those in the executive suites to those in middle management to those on the factory floor <---Notice that there is not a history of class warfare in this country . So you could have some confidence that if you gave it your all, you'd take enough home to raise your family and send your kids to school and have your health care covered, put a little away for retirement.
Today, we're still home to the world's most productive workers. We're still home to the world's most innovative companies. But for most Americans, the basic bargain that made this country great has eroded. Long before the recession hit, hard work stopped paying off for too many people. Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefited from that success. Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and their investments – wealthier than ever before<---Let the class envy and class warfare begin Mr. President. But everybody else struggled with costs that were growing and paycheques that weren't – and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.
Now, for many years, credit cards and home equity loans papered over this harsh reality. But in 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We all know the story by now: mortgages sold to people who couldn't afford them, or even sometimes understand them<---See Chris Dodd and Barney Franks. Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling it off. Huge bets – and huge bonuses – made with other people's money on the line. Regulators who were supposed to warn us about the dangers of all this, but looked the other way or didn't have the authority to look at all.
It was wrong. It combined the breathtaking greed of a few<---Just say it already Mr President, "Evil capitalists" with irresponsibility all across the system. And it plunged our economy and the world<---OOPS, forgeot to mentioned the failed socialist policies. into a crisis from which we're still fighting to recover. It claimed the jobs and the homes and the basic security of millions of people – innocent, hardworking Americans who had met their responsibilities but were still left holding the bag.<---Again see Chris Dodd and Barney Franks. And ever since, there's been a raging debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity, restore balance, restore fairness.<---Free Market and Tax Cuts v's FAIL socialism. Throughout the country, it's sparked protests and political movements – from the Tea Party<---Conservatives to the people who've been occupying the streets<---Radical Marxists of New York and other cities. It's left Washington in a near-constant state of gridlock. It's been the topic of heated and sometimes colorful discussion among the men and women running for president.<---Republicans v's Barak Hussien Obama
But, Osawatomie, this is not just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time.<---Will we go back to Free Market Capitalism or FAIL big government control. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class<---Which President Obama has not yet completely destroyed, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class<---How can they when you keep them unemployed for so long. Because what's at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement. Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia.<---Code for revisionist Progressive history. After all that's happened, after the worst economic crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess.<---Thank you Mr President for letting everyone know that you have never believed in the Free Market principles. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for way too many years.<---Keep hammering in the class warfare, Karl marx would be proud of you Mr President. And their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.<---That's right Mr President, they want to destroy the goose that layed the golden egg because they benefit by that...how?
I am here to say they are wrong.<---Please tell us Mr President how much better things are with socialism, just dont mention Europe, we're only a few years behind them. I'm here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we're greater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. These aren't Democratic values or Republican values. These aren't 1% values or 99% values. They're American values. And we have to reclaim them.<---Really, socialism is the answer? You see, this isn't the first time America has faced this choice.<---You are correct Mr President, we have been fighting the imposition of foreign socialist practices for a very long time now, haven't we? At the turn of the last century, when a nation of farmers was transitioning to become the world's industrial giant, we had to decide: Would we settle for a country where most of the new railroads and factories were being controlled by a few giant monopolies that kept prices high and wages low? Would we allow our citisens and even our children to work ungodly hours in conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary? Would we restrict education to the privileged few? Because there were people who thought massive inequality and exploitation of people was just the price you pay for progress.<---Karl Marx would be so proud of this.
Theodore Roosevelt disagreed. He was the Republican son of a wealthy family. He praised what the titans of industry had done to create jobs and grow the economy. He believed then what we know is true today, that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history<---You dont seem to believe this Mr President with the socialist practices of controlling private industries. It's led to a prosperity and a standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world.<---Which you are slowly destroying. But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free licence to take whatever you can from whomever you can<---because this is not free market but socialism which does that. He understood the free market only works when there are rules of the road that ensure competition is fair and open and honest<---rules made to restrict our economic engine?. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing those companies to compete for consumers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. He fought to make sure businesses couldn't profit by exploiting children or selling food or medicine that wasn't safe. And today, they still can't.
And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism<---Progressivism or American socialism. "Our country," he said, "means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy … of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him."
Now, for this, Roosevelt was called a radical<---socialist. He was called a socialist<---Yes Mr President, you are correct – even a communist<---Well Mr President, if you say so, You would know, because it takes one to know one. But today, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage for women, insurance for the unemployed and for the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform<---Thanks for taking away power from the states as originally intended in the Constitution and making the Federal Government the beast that it has become and a progressive income tax<---Yeah, Teddy, thanks for this one.
Today, over 100 years later, our economy has gone through another transformation<---We are transforming from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and it's made it easier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere they want in the world. And many of you know firsthand the painful disruptions this has caused for a lot of Americans.<---Can you imagine if this had happened 100 years ago? We would not be driving cars because it would put the horse carriage industry out of business if these clowns had their way.
Factories where people thought they would retire suddenly picked up and went overseas, where workers were cheaper<---Dont forget to thank your friendly unions for this one, Mr President. Steel mills that needed 100 – or 1,000 employees are now able to do the same work with 100 employees<---If they could do it originally with 100, why did they then have 1000 and then go back to 100 employees. Wait, I get it, you've never run a business, let alone had a job. Being a community agitator is not really a job is it?, so layoffs too often became permanent, not just a temporary part of the business cycle. And these changes didn't just affect blue-collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the internet.<---So are you saying that we should get rid of ATM's and computers and go back to what was there before...to go from the Information Age to the Industrial Age again?
Today, even higher-skilled jobs, like accountants and middle management can be outsourced to countries like China or India. And if you're somebody whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone in another country, you don't have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for better wages or better benefits, especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union.<---Mr President, please don't tell anyone that if you cut the corporate tax which is the second highest in the world that many of these jobs could be done here.
Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt's time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let's respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. "The market will take care of everything," they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes – especially for the wealthy – our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn't trickle down, well, that's the price of liberty.<---That's right Mr President, whatever you do, don't open up the throttle to the greatest economic engine that the world has ever known, just let some shmucky communist country like China go and make inferior products. Now, it's a simple theory. And we have to admit, it's one that speaks to our rugged individualism<---Good old American Exceptionalism, that's a dirty word to people like President Obama and our healthy skepticism of too much government<---Yeah, things work so much better when you have this 800 pound gorilla on your back. That's in America's DNA<---In November 2012, we'll find out if anymore of it has survived. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here's the problem: It doesn't work. It has never worked. It didn't work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression.<---Whoa, Whoa, Whoa Mr President, slow down your marxism there a bit please. It's not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the 50s and 60s. And it didn't work when we tried it during the last decade. I mean, understand, it's not as if we haven't tried this theory.<---Go back a little further, genius, to 1980's, we unleashed prosperity on the world like never before in the history of mankind and we even collasped a communist country or two.
Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history<---Great class warfare there Mr President. And what did it get us? The slowest job growth in half a century<---Umh, ah...oh, yeah second slowest next to your current one. Yeah, I thought you should mention that one also.. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class<---Of which you are trying to destroy – things like education<---FAIL, no ammount of money can fix this socialist indoctrination program and infrastructure<--let the states fix these problem, get that 800 pound gorilla off their backs, science and technology<---how can you teach these things when the time is being utilized for political socialist indoctrination?, Medicare and social security<---Thanks for these wonderful socialist programs...I hope I get to see them. If not can I get a refund?.
Remember that in those same years, thanks to some of the same folks who are now running Congress, we had weak regulation, we had little oversight, and what did it get us? Insurance companies that jacked up people's premiums with impunity and denied care to patients who were sick, mortgage lenders that tricked families into buying homes they couldn't afford<---Chris Dodd and Barney Franks, a financial sector where irresponsibility and lack of basic oversight nearly destroyed our entire economy<---They should have been allowed to collaspe.
We simply cannot return to this brand of "you're on your own" economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. We know that it doesn't result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. We know it doesn't result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that's enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citisens<--Maybe we can use a nice strong dose of hmmmm SOCIALISM! not.
Look at the statistics. In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1% has gone up by more than 25% to $1.2m per year. I'm not talking about millionaires, people who have a million dollars. I'm saying people who make a million dollars every single year. For the top one hundredth of 1%, the average income is now $27m per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her worker now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6%.<---Great class warfare Barry.
Now, this kind of inequality – a level that we haven't seen since the Great Depression – hurts us all. When middle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, when people are slipping out of the middle class, it drags down the entire economy from top to bottom. America was built on the idea of broad-based prosperity, of strong consumers all across the country. That's why a CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so that they could buy the cars he made. It's also why a recent study showed that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.<---Keep the class warfare line going...Karl Marx is enjoying this. Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsised voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder. It leaves everyone else rightly suspicious that the system in Washington is rigged against them, that our elected representatives aren't looking out for the interests of most Americans.<---Yeah, your m,oney came from...uhm, Barry, where did all your money come from?
But there's an even more fundamental issue at stake. This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that's at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try. We tell people – we tell our kids – that in this country, even if you're born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class. We tell them that your children will have a chance to do even better than you do. That's why immigrants from around the world historically have flocked to our shores.<---American Exceptionalism...you really hate that don't ya Barry? Get ready sir, there is a Conservative Ascendancy on the horizon.
And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart, and the middle class has shrunk. You know, a few years after World War II, a child who was born into poverty had a slightly better than 50-50 chance of becoming middle class as an adult. By 1980, that chance had fallen to around 40%. And if the trend of rising inequality over the last few decades continues, it's estimated that a child born today will only have a one-in-three chance of making it to the middle class – 33%.<---Goes to show that the Democrats social policies are FAIL...don't talk much about the war on poverty Barry? Why? oh ya..FAIL.
It's heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal. But the idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That's inexcusable. It is wrong. It flies in the face of everything that we stand for.<--Want to really help Barry, resign.
Now, fortunately, that's not a future that we have to accept, because there's another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country – a view that's truer to our history, a vision that's been embraced in the past by people of both parties for more than 200 years. It's not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It's not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all of society's problems. It is a view that says in America we are greater together – when everyone engages in fair play and everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share.<---Get ready for November 2012, it will make November 2010 seem like child play.
So what does that mean for restoring middle-class security in today's economy? Well, it starts by making sure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success<---Socialism is FAIL. The truth is we'll never be able to compete with other countries when it comes to who's best at letting their businesses pay the lowest wages, who's best at busting unions, who's best at letting companies pollute as much as they want<---Getting a bit heavy with the Karl Marx here, Barry. That's a race to the bottom that we can't win, and we shouldn't want to win that race. Those countries don't have a strong middle class<---Which is why you are destroying ours. I love it when you clue us all in on what you're doing Barry. They don't have our standard of living.
The race we want to win, the race we can win is a race to the top – the race for good jobs that pay well and offer middle-class security. Businesses will create those jobs in countries with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers, the most advanced transportation and communication, the strongest commitment to research and technology.<---Barry, they never taught you about business and how it works in marxist school did they?
The world is shifting to an innovation economy and nobody does innovation better than America. Nobody does it better. No one has better colleges. Nobody has better universities. Nobody has a greater diversity of talent and ingenuity. No one's workers or entrepreneurs are more driven or more daring. The things that have always been our strengths match up perfectly with the demands of the moment.<---Barry, it's called the Information Age. This is where all the new billionaires are being made. For a class warfare guy, you set the standards quite low going after millionaires.
But we need to meet the moment. We've got to up our game. We need to remember that we can only do that together<---again Barry? Together we can. It starts by making education<---indoctrination a national mission – a national mission. Government and businesses, parents and citisens. In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class<---Barry, will a degree in Ancient Civilization Basket Weaving Techniques land me that $100,000 a year job?. The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. And their incomes are twice as high as those who don't have a high school diploma. Which means we shouldn't be laying off good teachers right now<---Because they have a degree in some useless Liberal Arts field – we should be hiring them. We shouldn't be expecting less of our schools –- we should be demanding more. We shouldn't be making it harder to afford college – we should be a country where everyone has a chance to go and doesn't rack up $100,000 of debt just because they went.<---Here is a novel idea Barry. Cut the pay of these overpriced teachers and funding to these schools. Why are they charging so much?
In today's innovation economy, we also need a world-class commitment to science and research, the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and our workers shouldn't be idle. We should be giving people the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges so they can learn how to make wind turbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries. And by the way, if we don't have an economy that's built on bubbles and financial speculation, our best and brightest won't all gravitate towards careers in banking and finance. Because if we want an economy that's built to last, we need more of those young people in science and engineering. This country should not be known for bad debt and phony profits. We should be known for creating and selling products all around the world that are stamped with three proud words: Made in America.<---Barry...Solyndra...ouch!!! Hurts don't it? Another socialist FAIL
Today, manufacturers and other companies are setting up shop in the places with the best infrastructure to ship their products, move their workers, communicate with the rest of the world. And that's why the over 1 million construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing market collapsed, they shouldn't be sitting at home with nothing to do. They should be rebuilding our roads and our bridges, laying down faster railroads and broadband, modernizing our schools – all the things other countries are already doing to attract good jobs and businesses to their shores.<---Barry wishes he could do with our workers what China does.
Yes, business<---small business too, and not government<---800 pound gorilla on our backs, will always be the primary generator of good jobs with incomes that lift people into the middle class and keep them there. But as a nation, we've always come together, through our government<---800 pound gorilla on our backs, to help create the conditions where both workers and businesses can succeed. And historically, that hasn't been a partisan idea. Franklin Roosevelt worked with Democrats and Republicans to give veterans of World War II – including my grandfather, Stanley Dunham – the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. It was a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, a proud son of Kansas who started the interstate highway system, and doubled down on science and research to stay ahead of the Soviets.
Of course, those productive investments cost money<---capitalism. They're not free. And so we've also paid for these investments by asking everybody to do their fair share<---socialism. Look, if we had unlimited resources, no one would ever have to pay any taxes and we would never have to cut any spending. But we don't have unlimited resources. And so we have to set priorities. If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflect our values. We have to make choices.<---By increasing taxes...really Mr President.
Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I've already signed nearly $1tn of spending cuts into law and I've proposed trillions more, including reforms that would lower the cost of Medicare and Medicaid.
But in order to structurally close the deficit, get our fiscal house in order, we have to decide what our priorities are. Now, most immediately, short term, we need to extend a payroll tax cut that's set to expire at the end of this month. If we don't do that, 160 million Americans, including most of the people here, will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,000 starting in January and it would badly weaken our recovery. That's the short term.
In the long term, we have to rethink our tax system more fundamentally. We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to make the investments we need in things like education and research and high-tech manufacturing – all those things that helped make us an economic superpower? Or do we want to keep in place the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can't afford to do both. That is not politics. That's just math.<---That's just SOCIALISM.
Now, so far, most of my Republican friends in Washington have refused under any circumstance to ask the wealthiest Americans to go to the same tax rate they were paying when Bill Clinton was president. So let's just do a trip down memory lane here.<---oh oh...Barry is using the 'way back machine'...
Keep in mind, when President Clinton first proposed these tax increases, folks in Congress predicted they would kill jobs and lead to another recession. Instead, our economy created nearly 23 million jobs and we eliminated the deficit.<---Genius, we were still going thru the effects of the Reagan tax cuts. If this stipulation were true then we would be going through a great economic revival after the Obama economic plan...which I must say is FAIL. Today, the wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a century. This isn't like in the early 50s, when the top tax rate was over 90%. This isn't even like the early 80s, when the top tax rate was about 70%. Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about 39%. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of you, millions of middle-class families. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1%. One percent.<---Class envy.
That is the height of unfairness<---Class envy. It is wrong. It's wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50m. It's wrong for Warren Buffett's secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. And by the way, Warren Buffett agrees with me.<---Barry, Warren and the rest of the patriotic millionaires should just donate extra millions that they don't need or want to the government. Why doesn't your buddy Warren do that?In fact, why doesn't Warren pay all the taxes that his company Berkshire Hathaway owe? So do most Americans – Democrats<---LEFTIES, independents<---Idiots who got Barry elected the first time...please try to avoid doing this again and Republicans<---RINO's. And I know that many of our wealthiest citisens would agree to contribute a little more if it meant reducing the deficit and strengthening the economy that made their success possible.<---I agree, every Patriotic Millionaire should turn over their money to the government if they want to.
This isn't about class warfare<---But it is Barry...just let your inner marxism out. This is about the nation's welfare<---socialism or fascism. It's about making choices that benefit not just the people who've done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole<---socialism or fascism.
Finally, a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street. As infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks from collapse, not only because a full-blown financial meltdown would have sent us into a second Depression<---the Barry Plan, but because we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country.
But part of the deal was that we wouldn't go back to business as usual. And that's why last year we put in place new rules of the road that refocus the financial sector on what should be their core purpose: getting capital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas<---Good one there with the socialization of GM and Chrysler and Solyndra, and financing millions of families who want to buy a home or send their kids to college<---spooky socialist there with government controlling this, kinda of creepy. I do not see anything good coming from this.
Now, we're not all the way there yet<---We will if you win in November 2012 Barry, and the banks are fighting us every inch of the way<---You keep trying to own them also. But already, some of these reforms are being implemented<---Thank you Dick Durbin.
If you're a big bank or risky financial institution<---notice how Barry lumps these two together?, you now have to write out a "living will" that details exactly how you'll pay the bills if you fail, so that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street's mistakes<---socialism or fascism. There are also limits on the sise of banks and new abilities for regulators to dismantle a firm that is going under<---socialism or fascism. The new law bans banks from making risky bets with their customers' deposits, and it takes away big bonuses and paydays from failed CEOs, while giving shareholders a say on executive salaries<---That's nice Barry, government telling a business what it can or cannot do...what's this called anyways? Oh yeah...SOCIALISM.
This is the law that we passed. We are in the process of implementing it now. All of this is being put in place as we speak<---muahahaha. Now, unless you're a financial institution whose business model is built on breaking the law, cheating consumers and making risky bets that could damage the entire economy, you should have nothing to fear from these new rules<---You vill do exactly vhat ve tell you to do...understand comrade?.
Some of you may know, my grandmother worked as a banker for most of her life – worked her way up, started as a secretary, ended up being a vice president of a bank. And I know from her, and I know from all the people that I've come in contact with, that the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals, they want to do right by their customers. They want to have rules in place that don't put them at a disadvantage for doing the right thing. And yet, Republicans in Congress are fighting as hard as they can to make sure that these rules aren't enforced.<---Because they dont want socialism or fascism Barry?
I'll give you a specific example. For the first time in history, the reforms that we passed put in place a consumer watchdog who is charged with protecting everyday Americans from being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders or payday lenders or debt collectors<---Big brother Barry?. And the man we nominated for the post, Comrade--->Richard Cordray, is a former attorney general of Ohio who has the support of most attorney generals, both Democrat and Republican,<---RINO's throughout the country. Nobody claims he's not qualified<---to be a socialist tool.
But the Republicans in the Senate refuse to confirm him for the job; they refuse to let him do his job. Why?<---because he is another socialist flunky that you are trying to appoint? Does anybody here think that the problem that led to our financial crisis was too much oversight of mortgage lenders or debt collectors?<---Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac?
Audience: No!<---lemming chorus
Obama: Of course not. Every day we go without a consumer watchdog is another day when a student, or a senior citisen, or a member of our Armed Forces – because they are very vulnerable to some of this stuff – could be tricked into a loan that they can't afford<---products of our public school system – something that happens all the time. And the fact is that financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. And I intend to make sure they do. And I want you to hear me, Kansas: I will veto any effort to delay or defund or dismantle the new rules that we put in place<---Thanks Barry, keep getting your marxism on.
We shouldn't be weakening oversight and accountability. We should be strengthening oversight and accountability<---More government control. I'll give you another example. Too often, we've seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there's no price for being a repeat offender. No more. I'll be calling for legislation that makes those penalties count so that firms don't see punishment for breaking the law as just the price of doing business.
The fact is this crisis has left a huge deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. And major banks that were rescued by the taxpayers have an obligation to go the extra mile in helping to close that deficit of trust. At minimum, they should be remedying past mortgage abuses that led to the financial crisis. They should be working to keep responsible homeowners in their home. We're going to keep pushing them to provide more time for unemployed homeowners to look for work without having to worry about immediately losing their house.<---I'll believe it when I see it. Who will pay for this?
The big banks should increase access to refinancing opportunities to borrowers who haven't yet benefited from historically low interest rates. And the big banks should recognise that precisely because these steps are in the interest of middle-class families and the broader economy, it will also be in the banks' own long-term financial interest. What will be good for consumers over the long term will be good for the banks.
Investing in things like education that give everybody a chance to succeed<---code word for increase taxes. A tax code that makes sure everybody pays their fair share<---increase taxes. And laws that make sure everybody follows the rules<---more government control of your life. That's what will transform our economy<---into what, Europe's?. That's what will grow our middle class again<---wrong chief. In the end, rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot, and a fair share will require all of us to see that we have a stake in each other's success. And it will require all of us to take some responsibility.<---socialism/fascism 101
It will require parents to get more involved in their children's education<---Barry, are you going to make a law for this?. It will require students to study harder<---ditto. It will require some workers to start studying all over again<---ditto. It will require greater responsibility from homeowners not to take out mortgages they can't afford<---if you keep ruining the economy, house values will continue to drop Mr President. They need to remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.<---Afetr what you've done Barry, I really hope that they do.
It will require those of us in public service to make government more efficient and more effective, more consumer-friendly, more responsive to people's needs<---Like the Postal Service. That's why we're cutting programs that we don't need to pay for those we do<---Like the Military. That's why we've made hundreds of regulatory reforms that will save businesses billions of dollars<---800 pound gorilla on their backs. That's why we're not just throwing money at education, we're challenging schools to come up with the most innovative reforms and the best results<---improved indoctrination.
And it will require American business leaders to understand that their obligations don't just end with their shareholders<---hehe...sorry Barry, forgot that they dont teach much business to you community agitators. Andy Grove, the legendary former CEO of Intel, put it best. He said, "There is another obligation I feel personally, given that everything I've achieved in my career, and a lot of what Intel has achieved…were made possible by a climate of democracy, an economic climate and investment climate provided by the United States."<---Who is stopping this patriotic millionaire and his company from voluntarily donating more money to our government?
This broader obligation can take many forms. At a time when the cost of hiring workers in China is rising rapidly, it should mean more CEOs deciding that it's time to bring jobs back to the United States, not just because it's good for business, but because it's good for the country that made their business and their personal success possible.<---lower the corporate tax rate genius.
I think about the Big Three auto companies who, during recent negotiations, agreed to create more jobs and cars here in America, and then decided to give bonuses not just to their executives, but to all their employees, so that everyone was invested in the company's success<---it should be the Big Two Government and one Independent auto companies who you forced to do these things.
I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota. It's called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin's competitors closed dozens of plants, let hundreds of workers go. But Marvin's did not lay off a single one of their 4,000 or so employees – not one. In fact, they've only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin's grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Great Depression.
Now, at Marvin's when times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and some pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, "You can't grow if you're cutting your lifeblood – and that's the skills and experience your workforce delivers." For the CEO of Marvin's, it's about the community. He said, "These are people we went to school with. We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurants. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere, but we are in Warroad."
That's how America was built<---will it stay that way?. That's why we're the greatest nation on Earth<---ditto. That's what our greatest companies understand<---but cant do anything right now, till you and your ilk are gone. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest<---Barry, you really hate the Free Market, dont ya?. It's about building a nation where we're all better off. We pull together. We pitch in. We do our part. We believe that hard work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on<---like good comrades.
And it is that belief that rallied thousands of Americans to Osawatomie – maybe even some of your ancestors – on a rain-soaked day more than a century ago. By train, by wagon, on buggy, bicycle, on foot, they came to hear the vision of a man who loved this country and was determined to perfect it. "We are all Americans," Teddy Roosevelt told them that day. "Our common interests are as broad as the continent." In the final years of his life, Roosevelt took that same message all across this country, from tiny Osawatomie to the heart of New York City, believing that no matter where he went, no matter who he was talking to, everybody would benefit from a country in which everyone gets a fair chance.
And well into our third century as a nation, we have grown and we've changed in many ways since Roosevelt's time. The world is faster and the playing field is larger and the challenges are more complex. But what hasn't changed – what can never change – are the values that got us this far. We still have a stake in each other's success. We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try. And we still believe, in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, "The fundamental rule of our national life," he said, "the rule which underlies all others – is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together." And I believe America is on the way up.<---It will be Barry, it will be, on November 2012. If we vote you out of office.
