WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT
President Barack Obama
DNC Event
Moody Theater
Austin, Texas
May 10, 2011
5:49 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello,
Austin! Thank you. Thank you so much. It is good to
be back
in Austin! (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you
back! (Applause.) I love Texas -- (applause) -- and I
especially
love Austin. (Applause.) Love this city. It was
always one of
my favorite places to visit during the campaign. And I intend to
drop by
a few more times during this campaign. (Applause.)
Can everybody please give it up for
Robert Earl Keen one more time? (Applause.) During the
campaign, I
was up here -- I was singing with some folk. But I kept my day
job.
(Laughter.)
It is wonderful to see all of
you. I really do just have incredible memories of this
city. This
may -- I think this may be the last time I took a walk, was here in
Austin. It was right before a debate and I started walking down
the river
and at the time nobody quite noticed me. (Laughter.) And I
got
pretty far down from the hotel and then somebody said, you’re Obama,
aren’t
you? (Laughter.) And that was it. (Laughter.)
Secret
Service started coming around and -- but I had wonderful memories of
this place
and I have so many good friends here. It is great to see all of
you.
It is also great to be out of
Washington, D.C. (Applause.) Now, don’t get me wrong, D.C.
is a
wonderful town. But the conversation in Washington -- did
somebody
fall? (Laughter.) You guys all right? Those
photographers are
incorrigible. (Laughter.) The conversation you hear in
Washington
is just very different from the conversation you’d hear around the
kitchen
table, or around the office coolers. And that’s why we recently
decided
our reelection campaign will be the first one in modern history to be
based out
of Washington, D.C. We’re going back to Chicago.
(Applause.)
We are going back to Chicago. I was thinking about coming to
Austin --
(applause) -- but I had to go home.
Because I don’t want our campaign
to only be hearing from pundits and lobbyists and political
insiders. I
want our campaign to be hearing from the folks who got me to the Oval
Office. I want to be hearing from you. I want to make sure
we’re
putting the campaign in your hands -- the hands of the same organizers,
the
same volunteers, the same ordinary people who did extraordinary things
the last
time around. That’s what this campaign is still about.
Now, I’ll confess a few things have
changed since that time. A few of us are a little bit
older. Some
of us are a lot grayer. (Laughter.) But all of us I hope
can still
remember that night in Grant Park -- (applause) -- the excitement in
the
streets, the sense of possibility in the air. And I hope you also
remember what I said back then -- that that wasn’t an ending, that was
just the
beginning. It was just the beginning of what we knew was going to
be a
steep climb.
Now, I confess I didn’t know how
steep it was going to be. (Laughter.) It turned out we took
office in the
middle of the worst recession in our lifetimes, one that left millions
of
Americans without jobs, hundreds of thousands without homes. It
was a
recession that’s so bad that a lot of families are still dealing with
the aftershocks
to this day.
And so coming in, we immediately
had to take a bunch of tough decisions. And they were not always
popular. But two and a half years later, an economy that was
shrinking at
about 6 percent is now growing again. (Applause.) Over the
last
three months, just the last three months alone, we’ve added about a
quarter --
about three-quarters of a million private sector jobs just in the last
three
months. Over the last 14 months, we’ve added more than 2 million
private
sector jobs to our economy. (Applause.)
Some of the things that folks said
wouldn’t work, they’ve worked. Remember our intervention in the
auto
industry when a whole bunch of folks were saying, let it go by the
wayside? G.M. is now hiring back all of its workers. All of
the Big
Three automakers are expecting to make a profit again.
(Applause.)
So we’ve made progress, but we
still got some climbing to do, so don't take off your boots.
(Laughter.) Because the summit we want to reach is one where
every child
in America has opportunity. It’s one where we’re looking out for
one
another, whether we’re poor or disabled or infirm or in our golden
years.
It’s one where America is more prosperous then ever before, and all
Americans
are sharing in that prosperity. That's the summit we want to
reach.
And it’s going to take more than a couple years to get there. In
fact,
it’s going to take more than one term to get there.
(Applause.)
It’s going to take more than one term.
And I’m reminded every night when I
-- some of you know I get letters from all across the country, and I
read 10 of
them every night. And I get letters from people who are really
working
hard, doing everything right, but they can barely afford to keep up,
barely
keep their families afloat. You get a letter from somebody who
has sent
out 50 resumes and hasn’t gotten an answer back. You get a letter
from a
child who says their parents are having to sell their homes -- Mr.
President,
is there anything you can do?
Those are the Americans I’m
thinking about every day when I wake up in the morning, and every night
when I
go to bed. And they're the reason you elected me President.
You
didn't elect me President for a fancy title or a nice place to live,
you
elected me to bring about real change in the lives of people all across
this
country and make sure everybody is getting a fair shot at the American
Dream. That’s why you elected me. (Applause.)
And because of you, we’ve made
great progress. I want you to remember that. We have made
incredible progress. Sometimes, folks forget. Progress
shouldn’t
make us complacent, but it should remind us that change is possible.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you
for getting bin Laden.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there
you go. (Applause.) Case in point. (Applause.)
It
should inspire us to finish what we started. Because of you, we
were able
to prevent a second Great Depression. But in the next few weeks,
in the
next few months, the next few years, we have to make sure that the new
jobs in
industries of our time are created right here in the United States of
America. We have to make sure that America is prepared to win the
future.
Because of you, we have ended
taxpayer subsidies that were going to banks under the student loan
program. We’re taking that money, billions of dollars, and making
college
more affordable for millions more students, including those right here
in
Austin at UT -- (applause) -- including right here.
(Applause.)
We’ve raised standards for teaching
and learning in schools across the country by launching something we
call Race
to the Top. We’ve got to keep on going, though. Our reforms
are not
done. I want every child in Texas and every child in America
ready to
graduate, ready to go to college, and actually able to afford going to
college. That’s how we’re going to out-compete and out-educate
the rest
of the world. That’s how America will succeed in the 21st
century.
Because of you, we made the largest investment in clean energy,
renewable
energy in our history -- (applause) -- investments that are already
creating
new jobs and new businesses.
But we’ve got more work to
do. Some of you may have noticed gas prices are a little
high. And
with all the instability around the world we’ve got to keep making
those
investments in alternative energy. And to help pay for it, by the
way,
because we’ve got to worry about our fiscal situation, it’s time to
eliminate
the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies that were given to oil and gas
companies
-- (applause) -- $4 billion of your money that they’re making for
record
profits while you’re struggling at the tank. Instead of
subsidizing
yesterday’s energy sources, let’s invest in tomorrow’s energies.
(Applause.)
Because of you we’re putting hundreds
of thousands of people back to work repairing crumbling roads and
bridges, our
infrastructure. But now we’ve got to make sure America is built
to
compete in the 21st century -- not just new roads and bridges, but
high-speed
rail lines and high-speed internet. We always used to have the
best
stuff. Texas knows something about that. But today South
Korea has
faster high-speed Internet than we do. China has got high-speed
rail. It doesn’t have to be that way. We created the
Internet. Austin knows a little bit about the high-tech
industry.
We should be leading the world when it comes to cutting-edge
technologies and
innovation.
Because of you we did what we’ve
been trying to do for almost a century. We said health care
should no
longer be a privilege, it should be a right in this country.
(Applause.) Everybody should get affordable health care in this
country. (Applause.) They said we couldn’t get it --
couldn’t do
it, and we did it. We said in the United States of America, you
should
never go broke because somebody in your family gets sick.
Because of you we passed Wall
Street reform that helps make sure you aren’t cheated when you apply
for a
mortgage or take out a credit card, and we don’t have to bail out banks
anymore. We passed a law that says women should get an equal
day’s pay
for an equal day’s work. (Applause.) And while we were at
it we put
two more women on the Supreme Court, including the first Latina.
(Applause.)
Because of you we overturned “don’t
ask, don’t tell” so everybody in this country can serve the country
they
love. (Applause.) We removed 100,000 troops from
Iraq. We
ended combat missions there, just like I promised we would. We’re
taking
the fight to al Qaeda. And because of the extraordinary bravery
of the
men and women who wear this nation’s uniform and the outstanding work
of our
intelligence agencies, Osama bin Laden will never again threaten the
United
States of America. (Applause.) We couldn’t be prouder of
them.
But we’ve still got more work to
do. We’ve still got more work to do when it comes to keeping
America safe
and making sure America is prosperous. We’ve got to move forward
on a
whole bunch of challenges that are still facing this nation.
I was just down in El Paso before I
came here. And we needed to -- yes, nice place, El Paso.
(Laughter.) And I talked about how we need to confront the
challenge of
immigration and pass comprehensive immigration reform that upholds our
tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We can
do
that. (Applause.)
We’ve got to break the cycle of one
energy crisis after another and bring about real energy reform that
grows our
economy. I know oil is big in Texas, and that's fine. We’ve
got as
much production going on as we have since 2003 right here in the United
States
of America, but we only have 3 percent of the world’s oil
reserves. We
use 25 percent of the world’s oil. We’re going to have to free
ourselves
from the grip of foreign oil, and we can clean up the planet in the
process if
we make the investments in basic research that are necessary.
(Applause.) We want to leave America better off than we
got.
(Applause.)
So ultimately that's what this
budget debate in Washington is all about. It’s about who we
are.
It’s not just about numbers. It’s about our values, what we care
about,
the kind of country we believe in.
Now, I believe in an America where
government lives within its means. We need to cut spending in
Washington. We need to cut domestic spending, defense spending,
health
care spending, spending in our tax code. We’ve got to eliminate
every
dime of waste. And if we’re serious about taking responsibility
for the
debt we owe, then we’ve got to make some tough decisions about the
things that
we can afford to do without.
We all need to share and sacrifice,
but we’re not going to reduce our deficit by sacrificing the things
that have
always made us prosper. I’m not going to sacrifice our investment
in
education. I will not sacrifice scholarships to students.
(Applause.) I will not sacrifice medical research for our
scientists. I will not sacrifice our highways and our airports,
making
sure they're safe. I will not sacrifice investments in clean
energy at a
time when our dependence on foreign oil is causing folks so much pain
at the
pump. I’m not going to sacrifice America’s future.
If we want to reduce our deficit,
our sacrifice has to be shared. And that means even as we’re
making
spending cuts, we also have to end the tax cuts to the wealthiest 2
percent of
Americans in this country. (Applause.) It’s not because we
want to
punish success. It’s because if we’re going to ask Americans to
sacrifice
a little bit, we can’t tell millionaires and billionaires that they
don't have
to do a thing.
I don't want a $200,000 tax cut
that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay more than $6,000 in
extra
Medicare costs. I don’t want that. I don’t want my tax cut
paid for
by cutting kids out of Head Start or doing away with health insurance
for
millions of people on Medicaid, seniors in nursing homes and poor
children and
middle-class families who are raising a child with a disability like
autism. That’s not a tradeoff I’m willing to make.
And I don’t believe that’s a
tradeoff that most Americans are willing to make, no matter what party
you
belong to. It’s not who we are as a country. We’re better
than
that. See, what makes America great is not just the scale of our
skyscrapers, the might of our military, the size of our GDP. What
also
makes us great is the character of our people.
We’re rugged individualists,
especially here in Texas. We’re self-reliant. We don’t like
being
told what to do. We believe each of us is endowed by our Creator
with
certain inalienable rights and liberties. That’s part of what
makes us
American. We’re proud of that.
But what also makes us American is
the idea that we’re all in it together; that I am my brother’s keeper,
that I
am my sister’s keeper; and that when I look out for somebody else, it’s
not out
of charity. It’s because my life is better. My life is
richer. (Applause.) Because I’m driving down in Austin and I see
some
kids playing, I know they’re in a good school. And I see some
seniors
taking a walk together holding hands, I know that they’ve got some
security. And if I go by a small business owner, I know that
they’ve got
opportunity. That’s -- that makes my life better -- when I know
that the
people around me have some measure of security and dignity and a shot
at the
American Dream.
That’s our vision of America.
It’s not a vision of a small America. It’s a vision of a big
America, a
bold and optimistic America, an America that does big things.
It’s a
vision where we’re living within our means but we’re still investing in
our
future; where everybody is making sacrifices, but nobody alone bears
all the
burden; where we live up to the idea that no matter who you -- what you
look
like, or who you are, no matter whether your ancestors landed on Ellis
Island
or came over here on a slave ship or crossed the Rio Grande, that we’re
all
connected to one another, and that we rise or fall together.
That's the idea at the heart of
America. (Applause.) That's the idea at the heart of this
campaign. (Applause.) And that's why, Austin, I’m going to
need
your help more than ever. This campaign is still in the early
stages. But now is the time where you can help shape this
campaign, just
like you did the first time; make sure we get out of the gate
strong.
And I know there are times where
some of you have felt frustrated because we haven’t gotten everything
done as
fast as you want or exactly the way you wanted it. I know.
(Laughter.) I know those conversations you have with your
friends.
(Laughter.) Oh, why is Obama compromising with the
Republicans? Why
haven’t we gotten judges appointed faster? And why didn’t we get
a public
option? You know, I know, all the grumbling.
(Laughter.)
And there are times where I get
frustrated, but we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We knew
that on a
journey like this, there were going to be setbacks and detours, and at
times we
would stumble. And I always laugh when people say, boy, you know,
the
Obama campaign back in 2008, that was just so smooth and flawless --
and I’m
thinking, what campaign were they looking at? (Laughter.)
We
screwed up all the time during our campaign. (Laughter.) We
made
mistakes. We lost all kinds of primaries and caucuses, and there
were all
kinds of times where I said things that I wish I hadn’t or didn't say
things I
wish I had. That's life.
But you guys stuck with me because
you knew that at each and every juncture in our history, when our
future is on
the line, when our country is at a crossroads -- like we are now -- we
can come
together and we can do big things. And we somehow have managed to
transform ourselves from just this ragtag band of colonies to the
greatest
country in the world. (Applause.)
We took an agricultural economy and
transformed it into an industrial economy, then into an information
economy. And we absorbed new waves of immigrants. And we
finally
dealt with the stain of slavery, and we made sure that women could
participate
fully in our democracy. And we made sure that workers had basic
rights. And we managed to do this, to move forward, not as
Republicans or
Democrats, but as Americans. As one people, as one nation.
So whenever you hear people saying
that our problems now are too big to solve, or we can’t bring about the
change
that we were talking about, or boy, politics is so nasty -- whenever
cynicism
rears its ugly head -- I want you to think about all the progress we’ve
made
already. I want you to think how unlikely it was the first time
around. I want you to think about all the unfinished business
that lies
ahead. And I want to -- I want you to remember and I want you to
remind
everybody else those three simple words that summed up our last
campaign and
that will sum up our spirit as a people: Yes, we can.
Thank you very much
everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of
America. God bless Texas. Thank you.
(Applause.)
END
6:14
P.M. CDT