A
weak
jobs
report
at
the beginning of June spurred increased talk that
President Obama could lose the election in November. In the
middle of the month he travelled to the Cleveland in the battleground
state of Ohio to
deliver this speech on the economy. "The debate in this election
is about how we
grow
faster, and how we create more jobs, and how we pay down our
debt," Obama stated. "That’s the question facing the American
voter. And in this election, you have two very different visions
to
choose from." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney delivered some countering
remarks in Cincinnati (+).
President
Barack
Obama
Remarks
on
the
Economy
Cuyahoga
Community
College
Cleveland,
Ohio
June
14, 2012
[WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT]
2:02 P.M. EDT
THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Thank you,
everybody. Good
afternoon, everybody. (Applause.) It is great to be back in
Cleveland. (Applause.) It is great to be
back here at Cuyahoga Community College. (Applause.)
I want to, first of all, thank Angela for her introduction and sharing
her story. I know her daughter is very proud of her -- I know her
daughter is here today. So give her a big round of
applause.
(Applause.) I want to thank your president, Dr. Jerry-Sue
Thornton. (Applause.) And I want to thank some members of
Congress
who made the trip today -- Representative Marcia Fudge, Representative
Betty Sutton, and Representative Marcy Kaptur. (Applause.)
Now, those of you who have a seat, feel free
to sit down. (Laughter and applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four
more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
So,
Ohio, over the next five months, this election will take many twists
and many turns. Polls will go up and polls will go down.
There will
be no shortage of gaffes and controversies that keep both campaigns
busy and give the press something to write about.
You may have heard I recently made my own unique contribution to that
process. (Laughter.) It wasn’t the first time; it won’t be
the last.
(Laughter.)
And
in the coming weeks, Governor Romney and I will spend time debating our
records and our experience -- as we should. But though we will
have
many differences over the course of this
campaign, there's one place where I stand in complete agreement with my
opponent: This election is about our economic future.
(Applause.)
Yes,
foreign policy matters. Social issues matter. But more than
anything
else, this election presents a choice between two fundamentally
different visions of how to create strong,
sustained growth; how to pay down our long-term debt; and most of all,
how to generate good, middle-class jobs so people can have confidence
that if they work hard, they can get ahead.
(Applause.)
Now,
this isn’t some abstract debate. This is not another trivial
Washington argument. I have said that this is the defining issue
of
our time -- and I mean it. I said that this is
a make-or-break moment for America’s middle class -- and I believe
it.
The decisions we make in the next few years on everything from debt and
taxes to energy and education will have an enormous impact on this
country and on the country we pass on to our
children.
Now,
these challenges are not new. We’ve been wrestling with these
issues
for a long time. The problems we’re facing right now have been
more
than a decade in the making. And what
is holding us back is not a lack of big ideas. It isn’t a matter
of
finding the right technical solution. Both parties have laid out
their
policies on the table for all to see. What’s holding us back is a
stalemate in Washington between two fundamentally
different views of which direction America should
take.
And this election is your chance to break that stalemate.
(Applause.)
At
stake is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political
parties, but between two paths for our country. And while there
are
many things to discuss in this campaign,
nothing is more important than an honest debate about where these two
paths would lead us.
Now, that debate starts with an understanding of where we are and how
we got here.
Long
before the economic crisis of 2008, the basic bargain at the heart of
this country had begun to erode. For more than a decade, it had
become
harder to find a job that paid the
bills -- harder to save, harder to retire; harder to keep up with
rising costs of gas and health care and college tuitions. You
know
that; you lived it. (Applause.)
During
that decade, there was a specific theory in Washington about how to
meet this challenge. We were told that huge tax cuts --
especially for
the wealthiest Americans -- would lead
to faster job growth. We were told that fewer regulations --
especially for big financial institutions and corporations -- would
bring about widespread prosperity. We were told that it was okay
to
put two wars on the nation’s credit card; that tax cuts would
create enough growth to pay for themselves. That’s what we were
told.
So how did this economic theory work out?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Terrible. (Laughter.)
THE
PRESIDENT: For the wealthiest Americans, it worked out pretty
well.
Over the last few decades, the income of the top 1 percent grew by more
than 275 percent -- to an average of $1.3 million
a year. Big financial institutions, corporations saw their
profits
soar. But prosperity never trickled down to the middle
class.
From
2001 to 2008, we had the slowest job growth in half a century.
The
typical family saw their incomes fall. The failure to pay for the
tax
cuts and the wars took us from record
surpluses under President Bill Clinton to record deficits. And it
left
us unprepared to deal with the retirement of an aging population that’s
placing a greater strain on programs like Medicare and Social
Security.
Without
strong enough regulations, families were enticed, and sometimes
tricked, into buying homes they couldn’t afford. Banks and
investors
were allowed to package and sell risky mortgages.
Huge, reckless bets were made with other people’s money on the
line.
And too many from Wall Street to Washington simply looked the other
way.
For
a while, credit cards and home equity loans papered over the reality of
this new economy -- people borrowed money to keep up. But the
growth
that took place during this time period
turned out to be a house of cards. And in the fall of 2008, it
all
came tumbling down -- with a financial crisis that plunged the world
into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Here
in America, families’ wealth declined at a rate nearly seven times
faster than when the market crashed in 1929. Millions of homes
were
foreclosed. Our deficit soared. And nine
million of our citizens lost their jobs -- 9 million hardworking
Americans who had met their responsibilities, but were forced to pay
for the irresponsibility of others.
In
other words, this was not your normal recession. Throughout
history,
it has typically taken countries up to 10 years to recover from
financial crises of this magnitude. Today, the
economies of many European countries still aren’t growing. And
their
unemployment rate averages around 11 percent.
But
here in the United States, Americans showed their grit and showed their
determination. We acted fast. Our economy started growing
again six
months after I took office and it has
continued to grow for the last three years. (Applause.)
Our
businesses have gone back to basics and created over 4 million jobs in
the last 27 months -- (applause) -- more private sector jobs than were
created during the entire seven years
before this crisis -- in a little over two years.
(Applause.)
Manufacturers
have started investing in America again -- including right here in
Ohio. (Applause.) And across America, we've seen them
create almost
500,000 jobs in the last 27 months
-- the strongest period of manufacturing job growth since 1995.
(Applause.)
And
when my opponent and others were arguing that we should let Detroit go
bankrupt, we made a bet on American workers and the ingenuity of
American companies -- and today our auto industry
is back on top of the world. (Applause.)
But
let’s be clear: Not only are we digging out of a hole that is 9
million jobs deep, we’re digging out from an entire decade where 6
million manufacturing jobs left our shores; where
costs rose but incomes and wages didn’t; and where the middle class
fell further and further behind.
So
recovering from the crisis of 2008 has always been the first and most
urgent order of business -- but it’s not enough. Our economy
won’t be
truly healthy until we reverse that much
longer and profound erosion of middle-class jobs and middle-class
incomes.
So
the debate in this election is not about whether we need to grow
faster, or whether we need to create more jobs, or whether we need to
pay down our debt. Of course the economy isn’t
where it needs to be. Of course we have a lot more work to
do.
Everybody knows that. The debate in this election is about how we
grow
faster, and how we create more jobs, and how we pay down our
debt.
(Applause.) That’s the question facing the American
voter. And in this election, you have two very different visions
to
choose from.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: No, we don’t! (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Obama! (Applause.)
THE
PRESIDENT: Governor Romney and his allies in Congress believe
deeply
in the theory that we tried during the last decade -- the theory that
the best way to grow the economy is from
the top down. So they maintain that if we eliminate most
regulations,
if we cut taxes by trillions of dollars, if we strip down government to
national security and a few other basic functions, then the power of
businesses to create jobs and prosperity will
be unleashed, and that will automatically benefit us
all.
That’s
what they believe. This is their economic plan. It has been
placed
before Congress. Governor Romney has given speeches about it, and
it’s
on his website. So if they win the
election, their agenda will be simple and straightforward. They
have
spelled it out: They promise to roll back regulations on banks
and
polluters, on insurance companies and oil companies. They’ll roll
back
regulations designed to protect consumers and
workers. They promise to not only keep all of the Bush tax cuts
in
place, but add another $5 trillion in tax cuts on top of that.
Now,
an independent study says that about 70 percent of this new, $5
trillion tax cut would go to folks making over $200,000 a year.
And
folks making over a million dollars a year would
get an average tax cut of about 25 percent.
Now, this is not my opinion. This is not political spin.
This is precisely what they have proposed.
Now,
your next question may be, how do you spend $5 trillion on a tax cut
and still bring down the deficit? Well, they tell us they’ll
start by
cutting nearly a trillion dollars from
the part of our budget that includes everything from education and job
training to medical research and clean energy.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE
PRESIDENT: Now, I want to be very fair here. I want to be
clear.
They haven’t specified exactly where the knife would fall. But
here’s
some of what would happen if that cut that
they’ve proposed was spread evenly across the budget: 10 million
college students would lose an average of $1,000 each in financial aid;
200,000 children would lose the chance to get an early education in the
Head Start program. There would be 1,600 fewer
medical research grants for things like Alzheimer’s and cancer and
AIDS; 4,000 fewer scientific research grants, eliminating support for
48,000 researchers, students and teachers.
Now,
again, they have not specified which of these cuts they choose
from.
But if they want to make smaller cuts to areas like science or medical
research, then they’d have to cut things
like financial aid or education even further. But either way, the
cuts
to this part of the budget would be deeper than anything we’ve ever
seen in modern times.
Not only does their plan eliminate health insurance for 33 million
Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE
PRESIDENT: -- according to the independent Kaiser Family
Foundation,
it would also take away coverage from another 19 million Americans who
rely on Medicaid -- including millions
of nursing home patients, and families who have children with autism
and other disabilities. And they proposed turning Medicare into a
voucher program, which will shift more costs to seniors and eventually
end the program as we know it.
But
it doesn’t stop there. Even if you make all the cuts that they’ve
proposed, the math still doesn’t allow you to pay for a new, $5
trillion tax cut and bring down the deficit at
the same time. So Mr. Romney and his allies have told us we can
get
the rest of the way there by reforming the tax code and taking away
certain tax breaks and deductions that, again, they haven’t
specified.
They haven’t named them, but they said we can do
it.
But
here's the problem: The only tax breaks and deductions that get
you
anywhere close to $5 trillion are those that help middle-class families
afford health care and college and retirement
and homeownership. Without those tax benefits, tens of millions
of
middle-class families will end up paying higher taxes. Many of
you
would end up paying higher taxes to pay for this other tax cut.
And
keep in mind that all of this is just to pay for their new $5 trillion
tax cut. If you want to close the deficit left by the Bush tax
cuts,
we’d have to make deeper cuts or raise
middle-class taxes even more.
This
is not spin. This is not my opinion. These are facts.
This is what
they’re presenting as their plan. This is their vision.
There is
nothing new -- just what Bill Clinton has
called the same ideas they’ve tried before, except on steroids.
(Laughter and applause.)
Now,
I understand I’ve got a lot of supporters here, but I want to speak to
everybody who's watching who may not be a supporter -- may be
undecided, or thinking about voting the other
way. If you agree with the approach I just described, if you want
to
give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote
for Mr. Romney.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE PRESIDENT: Now, like I said, I know I’ve got supporters
here. No, no, you should vote for his allies in
Congress.
AUDIENCE: No!
THE
PRESIDENT: You should take them at their word, and they will take
America down this path. And Mr. Romney is qualified to deliver on
that
plan. (Laughter and applause.) No, he
is. (Applause.) I’m giving you an honest presentation of
what he’s
proposing.
Now, I'm looking forward to the press following up and making sure that
you know I'm not exaggerating. (Applause.)
I
believe their approach is wrong. And I’m not alone. I have
not seen a
single independent analysis that says my opponent’s economic plan would
actually reduce the deficit. Not one.
Even analysts who may agree with parts of his economic theory don’t
believe that his plan would create more jobs in the short term.
They
don’t claim his plan would help folks looking for work right now.
In
fact, just the other week, one economist from Moody’s said the
following about Mr. Romney’s plan -- and I'm quoting here -- "On net,
all of these policies would do more harm in the
short term. If we implemented all of his policies, it would push
us
deeper into recession and make the recovery slower."
That's not my spin. That's not my opinion. That's what
independent economic analysis says.
As
for the long term, remember that the economic vision of Mr. Romney and
his allies in Congress was tested just a few years ago. We tried
this. Their policies did not grow the economy.
They did not grow the middle class. They did not reduce our
debt. Why
would we think that they would work better this time?
(Applause.)
We
can’t afford to jeopardize our future by repeating the mistakes of the
past -- not now, not when there’s so much at stake.
(Applause.)
I've
got a different vision for America. (Applause.) I believe
that you
can’t bring down the debt without a strong and growing economy.
And I
believe you can’t have a strong and growing
economy without a strong and growing middle class.
(Applause.)
This
has to be our North Star -- an economy that’s built not from the top
down, but from a growing middle class, that provides ladders of
opportunity for folks who aren't yet in the
middle class.
You
see, we’ll never be able to compete with some countries when it comes
to paying workers lower wages or letting companies do more
polluting.
That’s a race to the bottom that we should
not want to win. (Applause.) Because those countries don't
have a
strong middle class; they don’t have our standard of living.
(Applause.)
The
race I want us to win -- the race I know we can win -- is a race to the
top. I see an America with the best-educated, best-trained
workers in
the world; an America with a commitment
to research and development that is second to none, especially when it
comes to new sources of energy and high-tech manufacturing. I see
a
country that offers businesses the fastest, most reliable
transportation and communication systems of anywhere on Earth.
(Applause.)
I
see a future where we pay down our deficit in a way that is balanced --
not by placing the entire burden on the middle class and the poor, but
by cutting out programs we can’t afford,
and asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute their fair
share.
(Applause.)
That’s
my vision for America: Education. Energy.
Innovation.
Infrastructure. And a tax code focused on American job creation
and
balanced deficit reduction. (Applause.)
This
is the vision behind the jobs plan I sent Congress back in September --
a bill filled with bipartisan ideas that, according to independent
economists, would create up to 1 million
additional jobs if passed today.
This
is the vision behind the deficit plan I sent to Congress back in
September -- a detailed proposal that would reduce our deficit by $4
trillion through shared sacrifice and shared
responsibility.
This
is the vision I intend to pursue in my second term as President --
(applause) -- because I believe if we do these things -- if we do these
things, more companies will start here,
and stay here, and hire here; and more Americans will be able to find
jobs that support a middle-class lifestyle.
Understand,
despite what you hear from my opponent, this has never been a vision
about how government creates jobs or has the answers to all our
problems. Over the last three years,
I’ve cut taxes for the typical working family by $3,600.
(Applause.)
I’ve cut taxes for small businesses 18 times. (Applause.) I
have
approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency
than my Republican predecessor did in his. And I’m
implementing over 500 reforms to fix regulations that were costing
folks too much for no reason.
I’ve
asked Congress for the authority to reorganize the federal government
that was built for the last century -- I want to make it work for the
21st century. (Applause.) A federal
government that is leaner and more efficient, and more responsive to
the American people.
I’ve
signed a law that cuts spending and reduces our deficit by $2
trillion. My own deficit plan would strengthen Medicare and
Medicaid
for the long haul by slowing the growth of health
care costs -- not shifting them to seniors and vulnerable
families.
(Applause.) And my plan would reduce our yearly domestic spending
to
its lowest level as a share of the economy in nearly 60 years.
So,
no, I don’t believe the government is the answer to all our
problems.
I don’t believe every regulation is smart, or that every tax dollar is
spent wisely. I don’t believe that
we should be in the business of helping people who refuse to help
themselves. (Applause.) But I do share the belief of our
first
Republican President, from my home state -- Abraham Lincoln -- that
through government, we should do together what we cannot
do as well for ourselves. (Applause.)
That’s
how we built this country -- together. We constructed railroads
and
highways, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. We did those
things together. We sent my grandfather’s
generation to college on the GI Bill -- together.
(Applause.) We
instituted a minimum wage and rules that protected people’s bank
deposits -- together. (Applause.)
Together,
we touched the surface of the moon, unlocked the mystery of the atom,
connected the world through our own science and imagination.
We haven’t done these things as Democrats or Republicans. We’ve
done them as Americans. (Applause.)
As
much as we might associate the GI Bill with Franklin Roosevelt, or
Medicare with Lyndon Johnson, it was a Republican -- Lincoln -- who
launched the Transcontinental Railroad, the
National Academy of Sciences, land-grant colleges. It was a
Republican
-- Eisenhower -- who launched the Interstate Highway System and a new
era of scientific research. It was Nixon who created the
Environmental
Protection Agency; Reagan who worked with
Democrats to save Social Security, -- and who, by the way, raised taxes
to help pay down an exploding deficit. (Applause.)
Yes,
there have been fierce arguments throughout our history between both
parties about the exact size and role of government -- some honest
disagreements. But in the decades after
World War II, there was a general consensus that the market couldn’t
solve all of our problems on its own; that we needed certain
investments to give hardworking Americans skills they needed to get a
good job, and entrepreneurs the platforms they needed to
create good jobs; that we needed consumer protections that made
American products safe and American markets sound.
In
the last century, this consensus -- this shared vision -- led to
the
strongest economic growth and the largest middle class that the world
has ever known. It led to a shared prosperity.
It
is this vision that has guided all my economic policies during my first
term as President -- whether in the design of a health care law that
relies on private insurance, or an approach
to Wall Street reform that encourages financial innovation but guards
against reckless risk-taking. It’s this vision that Democrats and
Republicans used to share that Mr. Romney and the current Republican
Congress have rejected -- in favor of a "no holds
barred," "government is the enemy," "market is everything"
approach.
And
it is this shared vision that I intend to carry forward in this century
as President -- because it is a vision that has worked for the American
middle class and everybody who's striving
to get into the middle class. (Applause.)
Let
me be more specific. Think about it. In an age where we
know good
jobs depend on high skills, now is not the time to scale back our
commitment to education. (Applause.) Now is
the time to move forward and make sure we have the best-educated,
best-trained workers in the world. (Applause.)
My
plan for education doesn’t just rely on more money, or more dictates
from Washington. We’re challenging every state and school
district to
come up with their own innovative plans
to raise student achievement. And they’re doing just that.
I want to
give schools more flexibility so that they don’t have to teach to the
test, and so they can remove teachers who just aren’t helping our kids
learn. (Applause.)
But,
look, if we want our country to be a magnet for middle-class jobs in
the 21st century, we also have to invest more in education and
training. I want to recruit an army of new teachers,
and pay teachers better -- (applause) -- and train more of them in
areas like math and science. (Applause.)
I
have a plan to give 2 million more Americans the chance to go to
community colleges just like this one and learn the skills that
businesses are looking for right now. (Applause.)
I have a plan to make it easier for people to afford a higher education
that’s essential in today’s economy.
And
if we truly want to make this country a destination for talent and
ingenuity from all over the world, we won’t deport hardworking,
responsible young immigrants who have grown up
here or received advanced degrees here. (Applause.) We’ll
let them
earn the chance to become American citizens so they can grow our
economy and start new businesses right here instead of someplace
else.
(Applause.)
Now
is not the time to go back to a greater reliance on fossil fuels from
foreign countries. Now is the time to invest more in the clean
energy
that we can make right here in America.
(Applause.)
My
plan for energy doesn’t ignore the vast resources we already have in
this country. We’re producing more oil than we have in over a
decade.
But if we truly want to gain control of
our energy future, we’ve got to recognize that pumping more oil isn’t
enough.
We
have to encourage the unprecedented boom in American natural gas.
We
have to provide safe nuclear energy and the technology to help coal
burn cleaner than before. We have to become
the global leader in renewable energy -- wind and solar, and the next
generation of biofuels, in electric cars and energy-efficient
buildings. (Applause.)
So
my plan would end the government subsidies to oil companies that have
rarely been more profitable -- let’s double down on a clean energy
industry that has never been more promising.
(Applause.)
And
I want to put in place a new clean energy standard that creates a
market for innovation -- an approach that would make clean energy the
profitable kind of energy for every business
in America.
With
growing competition from countries like China and India, now is not the
time for America to walk away from research and development. Now
is
the time to invest even more -- (applause)
-- so that the great innovations of this century take place in the
United States of America. So that the next Thomas Edison, the
next
Wright Brothers is happening here, in Ohio, or Michigan, or
California. (Applause.)
My
plan to encourage innovation isn’t about throwing money at just any
project or new idea. It’s about supporting the work of our most
promising scientists, our most promising researchers
and entrepreneurs.
My
plan would make the R&D tax credit permanent. But the private
sector can’t do it alone, especially when it comes to basic
research.
It’s not always profitable in the short term.
And in the last century, research that we funded together through our
tax dollars helped lay the foundation for the Internet and GPS and
Google, and the countless companies and jobs that followed. The
private sector came in and created these incredible companies,
but we, together, made the initial investment to make it
possible.
It's
given rise to miraculous cures that have reduced suffering and saved
lives. This has always been America’s biggest economic advantage
--
our science and our innovation. Why would
we reverse that commitment right now when it’s never been more
important?
At
a time when we have so much deferred maintenance on our nation’s
infrastructure -- schools that are crumbling, roads that are broken,
bridges that are buckling -- now is not the time
to saddle American businesses with crumbling roads and bridges.
Now is
the time to rebuild America. (Applause.)
So
my plan would take half the money we’re no longer spending on war --
let’s use it to do some nation-building here at home. Let’s put
some
folks to work right here at home. (Applause.)
My
plan would get rid of pet projects and government boondoggles and
bridges to nowhere. (Laughter.) But if we want businesses
to come
here and to hire here, we have to provide the
highways and the runways and the ports and the broadband access, all of
which move goods and products and information across the globe.
My
plan sets up an independent fund to attract private dollars and issue
loans for new construction projects based on two criteria: how
badly
are they needed, and how much good will
they do for the economy. (Applause.)
And
finally, I think it’s time we took on our fiscal problems in an honest,
balanced, responsible way. Everybody agrees that our deficits and
debt
are an issue that we’ve got to tackle.
My plan to reform the tax code recognizes that government can’t bring
back every job that’s been outsourced or every factory that’s closed
its doors. But we sure can stop giving tax breaks to businesses
that
ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies
that create jobs right here in the United States of America -- in Ohio,
in Cleveland, in Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
And
if we want to get the deficit under control -- really, not just
pretending to during election time -- (laughter) -- not just saying you
really care about it when somebody else is
in charge, and then you don’t care where you’re in charge.
(Applause.) If you want to really do something about it, if you
really
want to get the deficit under control without sacrificing all the
investments that I’ve talked about, our tax code has to ask
the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more -- (applause) -- just
like they did when Bill Clinton was President; just like they did when
our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in
history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
(Applause.)
And
here’s the good news: There are plenty of patriotic, very
successful
Americans who’d be willing to make this contribution again.
(Applause.)
Look,
we have no choice about whether we pay down our deficit. But we
do
have a choice about how we pay down our deficit. We do have a
choice
about what we can do without, and where
our priorities lie.
I
don’t believe that giving someone like me a $250,000 tax cut is more
valuable to our future than hiring transformative teachers, or
providing financial aid to the children of a middle-class
family. (Applause.)
I
don’t believe that tax cut is more likely to create jobs than providing
loans to new entrepreneurs or tax credits to small business owners who
hire veterans. I don’t believe it’s
more likely to spur economic growth than investments in clean energy
technology and medical research, or in new roads and bridges and
runways.
I
don’t believe that giving someone like Mr. Romney another huge tax cut
is worth ending the guarantee of basic security we’ve always provided
the elderly, and the sick, and those who
are actively looking for work. (Applause.)
Those
things don’t make our economy weak. What makes our economy weak
is
when fewer and fewer people can afford to buy the goods and services
our businesses sell. (Applause.) Businesses
don’t have customers if folks are having such a hard time.
What
drags us all down is an economy in which there’s an ever-widening gap
between a few folks who are doing extraordinarily well and a growing
number of people who, no matter how hard
they work, can barely make ends meet. (Applause.)
So,
Governor Romney disagrees with my vision. His allies in Congress
disagree with my vision. Neither of them will endorse any policy
that
asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even
a nickel more in taxes. It’s the reason we haven’t reached a
grand
bargain to bring down our deficit -- not with my plan, not with the
Bowles-Simpson plan, not with the so-called Gang of Six plan.
Despite
the fact that taxes are lower than they’ve been in decades, they won’t
work with us on any plan that would increase taxes on our wealthiest
Americans. It’s the reason a jobs
bill that would put 1 million people back to work has been voted down
time and time again. It’s the biggest source of gridlock in
Washington
today.
And
the only thing that can break the stalemate is you.
(Applause.) You
see, in our democracy, this remarkable system of government, you, the
people, have the final say. (Applause.)
This
November is your chance to render a verdict on the debate over how to
grow the economy, how to create good jobs, how to pay down our deficit.
Your vote will finally determine the
path that we take as a nation -- not just tomorrow, but for years to
come. (Applause.)
When
you strip everything else away, that’s really what this election is
about. That’s what is at stake right now. Everything else
is just
noise. Everything else is just a distraction.
(Applause.)
From
now until then, both sides will spend tons of money on TV ads.
The
other side will spend over a billion dollars on ads that tell you the
economy is bad, that it’s all my fault
-- (applause) -- that I can’t fix it because I think government is
always the answer, or because I didn’t make a lot of money in the
private sector and don't understand it, or because I’m in over my head,
or because I think everything and everybody is doing
just fine. (Laughter.) That’s what the scary voice in the
ads will
say. (Laughter.) That’s what Mr. Romney will say.
That’s what the
Republicans in Congress will say.
Well,
that may be their plan to win the election, but it’s not a plan to
create jobs. (Applause.) It’s not a plan to grow the
economy. It’s
not a plan to pay down the debt. And it’s
sure not a plan to revive the middle class and secure our future.
I think you deserve better than that. (Applause.)
At
a moment this big -- a moment when so many people are still struggling
-- I think you deserve a real debate about the economic plans we’re
proposing.
Governor
Romney and the Republicans who run Congress believe that if you simply
take away regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars, the market
will solve all of our problems
on its own. If you agree with that, you should vote for
them. And I
promise you they will take us in that direction.
I
believe we need a plan for better education and training -- (applause)
-- and for energy independence, and for new research and innovation;
for rebuilding our infrastructure; for a
tax code that creates jobs in America and pays down our debt in a way
that’s balanced. I have that plan. They don’t.
(Applause.)
And
if you agree with me -- if you believe this economy grows best when
everybody gets a fair shot, and everybody does their fair share, and
everybody plays by the same set of rules
-- then I ask you to stand with me for a second term as
President.
(Applause.)
In
fact, I’ll take it a step further. I ask, you vote for anyone
else --
whether they’re Democrats, independents, or Republicans -- who share
your view about how America should grow.
(Applause.)
I
will work with anyone of any party who believes that we’re in this
together -- who believes that we rise or fall as one nation and as one
people. (Applause.) Because I’m convinced
that there are actually a lot of Republicans out there who may not
agree with every one of my policies, but who still believe in a
balanced, responsible approach to economic growth, and who remember the
lessons of our history, and who don’t like the direction
their leaders are taking them. (Applause.)
And
let me leave you with one last thought. As you consider your
choice in
November -- (applause) -- don’t let anybody tell you that the
challenges we face right now are beyond our
ability to solve.
It’s
hard not to get cynical when times are tough. And I’m reminded
every
day of just how tough things are for too many Americans. Every
day I
hear from folks who are out of work or
have lost their home. Across this country, I meet people who are
struggling to pay their bills, or older workers worried about
retirement, or young people who are underemployed and burdened with
debt. I hear their voices when I wake up in the morning, and
those voices ring in my head when I lay down to sleep. And in
those
voices, I hear the echo of my own family’s struggles as I was growing
up, and Michelle’s family’s struggles when she was growing up, and the
fears and the dashed hopes that our parents and
grandparents had to confront.
But
you know what, in those voices I also hear a stubborn hope, and a
fierce pride, and a determination to overcome whatever challenges we
face. (Applause.) And in you, the American
people, I’m reminded of all the things that tilt the future in our
favor.
We
remain the wealthiest nation on Earth. We have the best workers
and
entrepreneurs, the best scientists and researchers, the best colleges
and universities. We are a young country
with the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity drawn from every
corner of the globe. So, yes, reforming our schools, rebuilding
our
infrastructure will take time. Yes, paying down our debt will
require
some tough choices and shared sacrifice. But it
can be done. And we’ll be stronger for it.
(Applause.)
And
what’s lacking is not the capacity to meet our challenges. What
is
lacking is our politics. And that’s something entirely within
your
power to solve. So this November, you can
remind the world how a strong economy is built -- not from the top
down, but from a growing, thriving middle class.
(Applause.)
This
November, you can remind the world how it is that we’ve traveled this
far as a country -- not by telling everybody to fend for themselves,
but by coming together as one American
family, all of us pitching in, all of us pulling our own weight.
(Applause.)
This
November, you can provide a mandate for the change we need right
now.
You can move this nation forward. And you can remind the world
once
again why the United States of America
is still the greatest nation on Earth. (Applause.)
Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of
America. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
2:55
P.M.
EDT
Former Gov. Mitt Romney
Excerpt of Remarks
Seilkop Industries
Carthage
(Cincinnati), OH
June 14, 2012
[TRANSCRIPT]
Now, you may
have heard that President Obama is on the other side of
the state. And he's going to be delivering a speech on the
economy.
He's doing that because he hasn’t delivered a recovery for the economy.
And he’s going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans
for making the economy better, but don't forget, he’s been President
for 3 1/2 years. And talk is cheap, action speaks very loud.
And if you
want to see the results of his economic policies, look around Ohio,
look around the country, and you’ll see that a lot of people are
hurting. A lot of people have had some real tough times and the
policies the President put in place did not make America create more
jobs. As a matter of fact, he made it harder for America to
create
more jobs.
Now when he was recently elected he went on ‘The Today Show’
and he was asked about what he’d do, how he’d measure his success, and
he said: ‘Look, if I can't turn the economy around in three years, I’ll
be looking at a one-term proposition.’ And he’s right; he is looking at
a one-term proposition. [applause]
He's going to be saying today that he wants
four more years. He may have forgotten he talked about a one-term
proposition if he couldn’t get the economy turned around in three
years, but we’re going to hold him to his word.
Now I know that he will
have all sorts of excuses and he'll have all sorts of ideas he’ll
describe about how he will make things better, but what he says and
what he does are not always the exact same thing. And so if people want
to know how his economic policies have worked and how they performed,
why they can talk to their neighbor and ask whether things are
better.
They can talk to the 50 percent of college kids graduating from college
this year that can’t find a job. They can talk to the people who
represent the unemployed. The President said that if we let him borrow
$787 billion for a stimulus, he’d keep unemployment below 8 percent,
nationally. We have now gone 40 straight months with unemployment above
8 percent. But then he’ll say, well, but the things he’s been doing
have been good and helped to create growth and put people back to work.
Oh, really? Go check on that.
PRESS
RELEASE
from
Gary Johnson 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:Joe Hunter
Natalie Dicou
GOV. GARY JOHNSON:
EXCUSES AND BLAME
DON'T CREATE JOBS — EXCEPT FOR SPEECH WRITERS
June 14, 2012, Santa Fe, NM - Saying
"Enough with the excuses and blame," Libertarian presidential candidate
and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson responded to Ohio speeches
today by both President Obama and Mitt Romney by stating that neither
will "commit to the steps that are truly necessary to put America back
to work."
In
a
statement, Johnson said, "While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney deliver
dueling economic speeches in Ohio, the simple fact is that neither of
them will commit to the steps that are truly necessary to put America
back to work in an economic environment freed from the burdens of
smothering deficits and government meddling that are, in fact, killing
jobs and preventing recovery.
"We
are
in deep, deep trouble economically, and virtually every American is
paying the price. Yet we have a president making excuses and promising
that things will get better if we just let him have four more years to
keep going down a failed path. And we have a Republican candidate
promising to do better, but without offering anything dramatically
different from the same policies that have gotten us into this
mess.
"Enough
with
the excuses and blame. Neither creates jobs — except for
speechwriters. We must eliminate deficit spending now, not someday off
in the future when it won't hurt so much. I pledge to send Congress a
balanced budget in 2012. And whether Congress adopts a balanced budget
or not, we need a president who will veto every bill that will cause us
to spend money we don't have. It can be done. I did it 750 times as
governor.
"If
reducing
taxes a little bit on businesses is a good idea, as both Obama
and Romney have suggested, cutting them to zero and turning America
into the job-creating monster of the global economy is a better idea. I
propose to do just that.
"And
if
we are to expect investors to invest and employers to employ, the
nation's chief executive must act aggressively to cut regulatory
burdens and align them with common sense. Uncertainty and angst about
'what the government will do to us next' are just as much job-killers
as are high taxes and out-of-control spending.
"This
economy
will only recover and let America get back to work when
Washington stops helping us to death and faces the fact that we cannot
spend or tax our way to prosperity. Stop the deficits, stop the
government interference in the economy, stop printing money, and get
out of the way. That's what government can do to help."
###
WASHINGTON, June
5,
2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Presidential
Candidate Gary Bauer congratulated Governor Scott
Walker for his win in Wisconsin's
recall
election,
calling
it
"another
sign
that
taxpayers
will
award
office
holders
ready
to do the hard work of reigning in out-of-control
government spending."
Bauer, the chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, made
the following statement:
"I congratulate Governor Scott Walker
for his hard-fought victory tonight, and most especially for having the
courage of his convictions to fight the good fight. But the victory in Wisconsin is not Scott
Walker's alone. It is a victory for the hard-working
taxpayers of Wisconsin,
who foot the bill year after year. It is a victory for common
sense
over powerful special interests. It is a victory that taxpayers
in
every state can celebrate. It is a victory, yes, even for some
union
members.
"Since
Gov. Walker's reforms were enacted, tens of thousands of state
employees have opted to keep more of the money they earn rather than
let the public employees union siphon off their hard-earned
dollars.
In other words, once given the choice, more than half of the public
employees union's members decided that they didn't need the
union.
These reforms will pay real dividends for the taxpayers of
Wisconsin.
They are the real winners tonight.
"The recall election is a sign of good things to come. The
power of the Big Labor bosses has finally been checked, not just in Wisconsin,
but also in scores of other states across the country. More
governors,
legislators and taxpayers will be inspired to stand up against the
liberal labor unions and do what is truly in the best interests of
their communities. Wisconsin's
10
Electoral College votes are now in play, and the anti-tax, small
government movement that swept the country in 2010 is about to sweep Barack Obama out of office in 154 days!"
Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1drYR)