President Barack Obama
DNC Event
Hyatt at the
Bellevue
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
June 30, 2011
5:25 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello,
Philly! (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you,
Philadelphia!
(Applause.) It is good to be back -- (applause) -- good to be
back in the
great state of Pennsylvania. (Applause.) Congratulations,
Phillies
fans. (Applause.) That is quite a rotation.
There are a couple of people I want
to acknowledge. First of all, you just heard from somebody who I
consider
just a dear, dear friend. This is a guy who stood with me when
nobody was
sure whether I was going to win or not. And he didn’t have to do
it, but
he was just a terrific, terrific supporter, a great friend. He is
a great
senator. Please give it up for Bob Casey. (Applause.)
Two other outstanding members of
your congressional delegation who have been with me and supportive of
everything we've been trying to do -- I could not be prouder of the
work they
do on behalf of their constituents -- Congressman Brady and Congressman
Fattah
are here. (Applause.) Thank you.
Your outstanding mayor, Mayor
Nutter is in the house. (Applause.) And one of the great
legislators in Congress who also happens to be a pretty good political
mind,
and that is why we are so proud to have her as the chairwoman of the
DNC --
Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Please give her a big round of
applause.
(Applause.)
Now, I see a lot of new faces out
here. And then I see a few faces I've known for a long
time.
(Applause.) Some of you who are here knew me before I had gray
hair. (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You're
looking good, though! (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank
you. (Laughter.) Malia and Sasha say that it makes me look
distinguished. (Laughter.) Michelle says it just makes me
look
old. (Laughter.) No, she loves me, but she just says it
makes me
look old. (Laughter.)
Now, being here with all of you, I
can't help but think back to the election two and a half years ago, and
that
night in Grant Park. It was the culmination of an extraordinary
campaign
that drew on the hard work and the support of people all across
America.
Men and women -- and some children -- I did very well with the eight
and under
demographic. (Laughter.) Men and women who believed that
change was
possible, who believed that we didn’t have to accept politics as usual,
who
believed that we could have a country that once again lived up to its
finest
ideals and its highest aspirations. And it was a beautiful
night.
Everybody was feeling pretty good.
But what I said that night -- some
of you remember this -- I said this is not the end; this is just the
beginning;
that the road we were on was going to be difficult, that the climb was
going to
be steep. We didn’t know how steep it was going to be. We didn’t
realize
the magnitude of the recession we were facing and the financial
crisis.
We didn’t realize we had already lost 4 million jobs by the time I was
sworn
in. But we knew it was going to be tough.
And that was okay -- because I did
not run for President to do easy things. I ran for President to
do hard
things. (Applause.) I ran for President because it was time
to do
big things. (Applause.) That we couldn’t keep kicking the
can down
the road anymore, too much was at stake, and that we had to get started
tackling the tough issues that families face each and every day.
Even if
it would take time -- (audience disruption.)
THE PRESIDENT: So -- listen
--
AUDIENCE: We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
guys. (Applause.) Now, let me tell you why I thought it was
so
important to run -- even though Michelle, she wasn’t so sure.
(Laughter.) And why you guys got involved. I just want
everybody to
remember. We ran because we believed in an economy that didn’t
just work
for those at the top, but worked for everybody -- where prosperity was
shared,
from the machinist on the line, to the manager on the floor, to the CEO
in the
boardroom.
We ran because we believed our
success isn’t just determined by stock prices and corporate profits,
but by
whether ordinary folks can find a good job that pays for a middle-class
life --
where they can pay the mortgage, and take care of their kids, and send
their
kids to college, and save for retirement, and maybe have a little left
over to
go to a movie and go to dinner once in a while. (Laughter and
applause.)
We ran because for a decade, wages
and incomes had flatlined, and costs kept on going up for everybody
even though
they didn’t have any more income. That was before the economic
crisis
hit. And obviously once the economic crisis did hit, we had to
take a
series of emergency steps to save this economy from collapse -- not
because we
wanted to help banks or make sure that the auto companies’ CEOs were
making
good bonuses, but we did it because we wanted to make sure that
families who
needed help could still take out a loan to buy a house or start a new
business. We wanted to make sure that the millions of people who
depended
on the auto industry, that they would still have jobs.
And so some of those decisions were
tough. And you remember, we got criticized a lot. But you
take a
look at what’s happened. Some folks didn’t want us getting
involved in
the auto industry -- I didn’t expect to be the CEO of a car company
when I ran
for President. (Laughter.) But as a consequence of what we
did, we
saved jobs. We saved American manufacturing.
(Applause.) We
cut taxes for middle-class families. We ended subsidies to the
banks for
student loans, to make college more affordable. (Applause.)
We made
sure -- that’s why I signed a bill to make sure there was equal pay for
equal
work, because I’ve got two daughters and I want to make sure they’re
treated
just the same as the boys are. (Applause.) That’s why we’re
promoting manufacturing and homegrown American energy -- because that’s
what
will lead to jobs that pay a decent salary. I want the wind
turbines and
the solar panels and the electric cars to be built right here in
America.
(Applause.)
That’s why, with the help of these
outstanding members of Congress, we’re standing up a new consumer
bureau with
just one responsibility: looking out for ordinary people in the
financial
system so folks aren’t cheated. Whether you’re getting a credit
card or
getting a mortgage, you need to know that you’re getting a fair
deal.
(Applause.)
And that’s why we passed health
reform, so that nobody in the richest nation on Earth goes bankrupt
when they
get sick. (Applause.)
We also had a long campaign in 2008
because we believed it was time to end the war in Iraq. And
that’s what
we’re doing. We’ve removed 100,000 troops from Iraq. We’ve
ended
combat missions. We are on track to remove the rest of the
troops, bring
them home by the end of this year. (Applause.)
I ran for President because I
believed we needed to refocus our efforts and our energy in Afghanistan
and
going after al Qaeda. And we are going after al Qaeda and we’ve
taken out
their leadership. (Applause.) And because of our progress
and the
extraordinary sacrifices of our troops, we are fulfilling the
commitment I made
at the start to reduce our troops, starting this month, so that Afghans
can
start taking responsibility for their own security -- (applause) -- and
we can
start rebuilding right here at home. (Applause.) It's time
to start
rebuilding here at home -- time for nation-building right here.
We live in a world where America is
facing stiff competition for good jobs from rapidly growing nations,
like China
and India and Brazil. For a long time we were told the best way
to win
that competition is just to undermine consumer protections and
undermine clean
air laws and clean water laws and hand out tax breaks to millionaires
and
billionaires. That was the idea that held sway for close to a
decade. And let's face it, it didn’t work out very well.
In fact, if you look at our
history, you'll see that philosophy has never worked out very well --
where
people are just asking, "What's in it for me?" America was
built on the hard work and ingenuity of our people and our
businesses.
But we also set up a free system of public schools and a generation was
sent to
college on the G.I. Bill. (Applause.) And we constructed
roads and
highways that spanned a continent. And through investments and
research
and technology, we sent a man to the moon. And we discovered
lifesaving
medicine. And we launched the information age and created the
Internet
and created millions of jobs along the way. (Applause.)
That's how
you build a strong nation. That's how you build a strong middle
class -- by
making the investments that are needed and always looking out over the
horizon. (Applause.)
So we believe in business and we
believe in free markets. But we also believe in making sure that
every
kid in this country has a chance. (Applause.) And we
believe that
our seniors deserve to retire with dignity and respect and have some
semblance
of security. (Applause.) And we believe in making
investments in
science and technology. (Applause.) And we believe in
having the
best infrastructure in the world. And so the same things that
worked for
us in the past, that's what we need to be doing today.
There's an important debate in
Washington right now about how to cut the deficit. And let me say
it is
absolutely critical that we get a handle on our finances. We've
spent a
lot of money that we don't have. And we've made a lot of
commitments that
are going to be hard to keep if we do nothing. And like families
all
across America, government has to live within its means.
So I'm prepared to bring our deficit
down by trillions of dollars. That's with a "t" --
trillions. (Laughter.) But I will not reduce our deficit by
sacrificing our kids' education. (Applause.) I'm not going to
reduce our
deficit by eliminating medical research being done by our
scientists.
(Applause.) I won't sacrifice rebuilding our roads and our
bridges and
our railways and our airports -- I want Philadelphia to have the best,
not the
worst.
Not just roads and bridges and
sewer mains and water systems; I want us to have the best broadband --
(applause) -- the best electric grid. I’m not going to sacrifice
clean
energy at a time when our dependence on foreign oil is causing so many
Americans pain at the pump. (Applause.) That’s sacrificing
America’s
future.
And that’s what I want to say to
all of you, Philadelphia. There’s more than one way to mortgage
our
future. It would be irresponsible, we would be mortgaging our
future, if
we don’t do anything about the deficit. But we will also be
mortgaging
our future and it will be irresponsible if, in the process of reducing
our
deficit, we sacrifice those very things that allow us to grow and
create jobs
and succeed and compete in the future.
What makes America great is not
just the height of our skyscrapers or the might of our military or the
size of
our GDP. What makes us great is the character of our people.
(Applause.)
And we are rugged individualists -- that’s part of what makes us
American; we
like to make up our own minds and we don’t like other people to tell us
what to
do. But what also makes us who we are is our faith in the future
and our
recognition that our future is shared.
It’s the belief I am my brother’s
keeper and my sister’s keeper; that my life is richer and our country
is
stronger when everybody participates and everybody has a measure of
security
and everybody has got a fair shot at the American Dream.
(Applause.) That’s our vision for America. Not a vision of
a small
America, but a vision of a big America and a compassionate America and
an optimistic
America, and a bold America. And that’s what we’re fighting
for.
(Applause.)
And the good news is that America
is possible -- an America where we’re living within our means, but
we’re still
investing in the future. That’s possible. Where everybody
is making
sacrifices, but nobody bears all the burden by themselves. The
idea that
no matter what we look like or who we are, no matter whether our
ancestors came
from Ellis Island or on a slave ship, or across the Rio Grande, that we
are all
connected to one another, and that we rise and fall together.
(Applause.)
That’s the idea at the heart of
America. That’s the idea at the heart of our last campaign.
That’s
the idea at the heart of this campaign. That’s why I’m going to
need your
help more than ever. (Applause.)
This campaign is at its early
stages. I’ve got a day job. I’ve got other things to
do.
(Laughter.) But while I’m working, there are going to be
candidates
parading around the country. (Laughter and applause.) And
they’re
going to do what they do, which is they’re going to attack -- here in
Philadelphia, they’re going to attack. They won’t have a plan --
(laughter) -- but they will attack. And I understand that; that’s
politics as we’ve come to know it.
But what I also understand is, is
the American people are a lot less interested in us attacking each
other;
they’re more interested in us attacking the country’s problems.
(Applause.) They’re less interested in hearing us exchange
insults about
the past; they want us to exchange ideas about the future.
(Applause.) That’s the contest I’m looking forward to, because I
know
that’s the contest that America needs. And by the way, that’s the
contest
that we will win. (Applause.)
And, Philadelphia, I know there are
some of you who are frustrated because we haven’t gotten everything
done that
we said we were going to do in two and a half years. It’s only
been two
and a half years. I got five and a half years more to go.
(Applause.) And there are -- look, there are times where I feel
frustrated. But we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We
knew a
journey like this one, there were going to be setbacks, like there were
setbacks during the first campaign. There are going to be times
where we
stumble, just we stumbled sometimes during the first campaign.
But we also knew that at each and
every juncture in our history when our future was on the line --
(audience
interruption.)
AUDIENCE: Obama!
Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama! (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: What we also
knew was that whenever the country has been at a crossroads, we’ve
always come
together to keep the American Dream alive for the next
generation. And
now is the time for us to do it again. Now is the time to finish
what we
started and keep the dream alive.
And I just to want to remind
everybody here, this campaign is not about me. It’s about
us.
(Applause.) It’s about students who are working their way through
college, workers heading to factories to build American cars again,
small
business owners testing new ideas, construction crews laying down
roads,
families who faced hardship and setbacks but who haven’t stopped
believing in
this country, and who believe that we can emerge from this challenge
stronger
than before.
That’s the story of progress in
America -- the stubborn refusal to accept anything less than the best
that this
country can be. And with your help, if you’re willing to keep
fighting
with me, if you’re willing to knock on doors with me, if you are going
to get
as much energy going as you got in 2008, then together we are going to
write
another chapter in that story and leave a new generation a brighter
future.
God bless you, Philadelphia.
God bless you, Pennsylvania. Yes, we can. May God bless
you, and
God bless America. (Applause.)
END
5:46
P.M. EDT
President Barack Obama
DNC Event
Private
Residence
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
June 30, 2011
7:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank
you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody have a
seat.
I think I’m going to use this instead.
Is this working? There you go.
Well, what a spectacular evening, and thank you all for taking the time
to be here. I want to, first of all, obviously thank Rhonda and
David
for not only hosting this incredible event but also just being such
great friends for so many years. Thank you very much, you
guys.
Really appreciate it. (Applause.)
To those who helped to organize this event, thank you all. To our
outstanding DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, we love her.
(Applause.) To one of the finest mayors in the country, Michael
Nutter. (Applause.) And to one of my dearest friends -- I
always tell
this story, when we were campaigning during the primary back in 2008,
and it was still pretty rough going, this guy stepped up, endorsed me,
despite the fact that we were losing here in Pennsylvania, didn’t bat
an eye, volunteered to do it and did it happily, and has been a great
friend ever since. So we just love him, Bob Casey.
(Applause.)
I want to spend most of my time tonight taking questions and having a
good conversation, so I’m just going to make a few remarks at the
top.
Obviously we’ve gone through as tough an economic time in this country
as we have in my lifetime and in most of our lifetimes. Since the
Great Depression, we haven’t seen the combination of a financial crisis
and then a recession as severe as the one that we experienced in 2008.
And as a consequence, my administration had to make a series of tough
decisions. A lot of them weren’t popular, but they were the right
things to do. And as a consequence of those decisions, we’ve seen
an
economy that was shrinking by 6 percent now growing again, and we’ve
created over 2 million private sector jobs over the last 15 months.
But
as I think everybody here is aware, things are still tough for folks
out there. I get letters, about 10 a night out of the 40,000
communications we get from all across the country, and some of the
stories are inspiring, but a lot of them are also heartbreaking, of
people losing their homes, people losing their jobs, people trying to
figure out if they can save a small business that’s been in the family
for years, for generations, but suddenly capital is frozen up; from
kids who are worried about their parents losing their home and what it
might mean to move.
And
it’s a reminder that as much progress as we’ve made, we’ve got a long,
long way to go, and that the challenges that America is facing right
now weren’t a year in the making or two years in the making, but are
actually 10 years in the making. And what we’ve seen over the
last
decade has been a stagnation of income and wages. Some of that
was
covered up by a housing boom and bubble and everybody using up the
credit card. But the truth is, is that the underlying economy is
going
through all kinds of structural changes -- because of global
competition, because of automation. We are in a more competitive
world
than ever before.
And
part of the reason that I ran for President -- the primary reason that
I ran for President -- was I want to make sure that America makes the
tough decisions that allow us to compete effectively in the 21st
century, and we start reversing the squeeze on the middle class and the
decline of our economic fundamentals that have been going on for a very
long time.
Now,
what does that mean? It means that we’re going to have to improve
our
education system. And I know that Mayor Nutter and others have
struggled with this for many years. We are making extraordinary
progress thanks to as good of a Secretary of Education as I think we’ve
ever seen in Arne Duncan, and we’re starting to hold schools
accountable, giving them more resources in exchange for more
reform.
But we’ve got a long way to go. That’s not a project that we can
finish in two, two and a half years.
We’ve
got to revamp our community colleges and make sure that our young
people can afford to go to a four-year college. And we’ve made
progress there, by changing the student loan program so that billions
of dollars of subsidies that were going to banks are now going to young
people to make college more affordable. But making sure that we
once
again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,
the goal that I set two years ago, we’re on track, but that’s going to
take a few more years.
We have to have an energy policy in this country. We still don’t
have
one, which is why so many people around the country are so vulnerable
to changes in the price of oil. And so what we’ve done through
the
Recovery Act and through clean energy programs all across the country
is making sure that clean energy jobs are created here in the United
States and we’re starting to create a more efficient transportation
sector so that we can start weaning ourselves off of dependence on
foreign oil.
And a lot of people don’t realize that even without legislation last
year, we raised fuel-efficiency standards on cars for the first time in
30 years, and we’re going to do it again. But reversing our
energy
policy and making it smart in a way that not only saves people’s
dollars but also helps save the planet, that’s not a two-year
project.
That’s a multiyear project.
We still have not dealt with immigration in a serious way. And
the
fact of the matter is, historically we’re a nation of laws and we’re a
nation of immigrants. And I have consistently said that there’s a
way
of reconciling what I think everybody recognizes is a problem of
illegal immigration, but doing so in a way that’s true to our values so
that we’re attracting the best and the brightest to stay here and to
study here, and that young people understand that they’re welcome as a
part of the American family.
We still have work to do when it comes to infrastructure. We used
to
have the best roads and the best bridges and the best airports.
And we
don’t anymore. A lot of people here travel, and you go to Beijing
airport or Singapore airport, and you look at the trains in Europe or
Japan, and you realize that we’ve fallen behind and we’re not making
the investments that we should. And think about all the
construction
workers who used to be in housing who could be put to work right now
doing the work that America needs done, right here in Philadelphia and
right here in Pennsylvania and all across the country.
So when it comes to the economy, we’ve got enormous work to do.
And
that’s a lot of what this debate in Washington is about right now
surrounding the deficit. Some of you know that I had a press
conference yesterday that attracted a little bit of attention, and I’ll
probably have to have a few more before we get this issue
resolved.
This is not just a numbers debate. This is a values debate.
All of us
agree that we’ve got to lower our deficit and lower our debt so that we
have a sustainable fiscal path. All of us agree on that. We
actually
roughly agree on the numbers. We need to bring down the deficit
by
about $4 trillion over a 10- to 12-year window and start bending the
cost curve on health care costs. And the question is, how do we
do
it? And what I’ve said is that we can come up with $2 trillion
worth
of cuts -- cuts to domestic discretionary spending, which includes cuts
of some things that I think are worthy and I’d like to do but we can’t
afford right now; cuts to defense spending, where we have an obligation
to make sure that our troops have the best equipment and we continue to
have the finest fighting force in the world, but let’s face it, the
Pentagon has waste, too, and we’ve already identified $400 billion
worth of waste. We can identify at least the equivalent to make
sure
that we’re also maintaining economic security here at home.
But we’re going to have to also, if we want to achieve this goal, make
sure that we do two tough things that, frankly, neither party wants to
do but have to be done. The first is we’re going to have to make
sure
that we continue to focus on how do we reduce Medicare and Medicaid
costs, and the second is we’re going to have to have more
revenue. And
what I’ve said to the Republican Party and what I’ve said to the
Democratic Party in Congress is, there’s a way to do this that makes
sure that we still maintain our sacred commitment to our seniors so
that they have the security that they need in retirement, and there’s a
way to do it that makes sure that businesses aren’t over-burdened and
that success is still rewarded in our society. We can make
changes
that are balanced, that involve some shared sacrifice, but assure that
we’re still making the investments we need to win the future and assure
that we’re not mortgaging our future because of irresponsible fiscal
practices.
And the question is going to be, do we have a politics that’s up to the
task? This is not a technical problem. A lot of folks have
been
talking about, well, we need to bring all the parties together and just
sort of hammer it out. Well, the truth is, is that you could
figure
out on the back of an envelope how to get this thing done. The
question is one of political will. And one of the reasons I ran
in
2008 was because what I saw was a political system that refused to
speak hard truths and then act in terms of what was best for our
country as opposed to what’s best for our politics. And that’s
needed
now more desperately than ever.
So part of the reason I think many of you -- as I look around the room,
I’ve got some folks who supported me in 2008 for the same reason that I
ran -- because you’ve still got confidence in our politics and you’ve
still got confidence in the future of this country. And I guess
the
point I’d like to make -- and then we’ll just open it up for questions
-- is I hope that all of you understand that when we started off on
this project back in 2007, it wasn’t going to be done by 2011.
We’ve
still got a lot of work to do, and I’m going to need you as bad as I
needed you back then. I have a few more trappings now. My
plane is
much nicer than when we ran. (Laughter.) And I understand
that
sometimes generating the same energy is difficult because we’ve now
gone through two years of very difficult work. And my hair is
grayer,
so I’m not as young and vibrant as I was. (Laughter.)
But I hope you understand that the stakes are enormously high.
And,
again, as you watch this debt limit and deficit debate unfold, I hope
you remember, we can make sure that Medicare is there for future
generations and that we are maintaining our commitment to our seniors,
and we can make sure that we have a tax code that is simpler and fairer
and is not inhibiting business and is not inhibiting the free
market.
We can accomplish those things while still bringing down the deficit,
but we’ve got to do it in a way that is fair and balanced so that we’re
still investing in things like medical research, we’re still investing
in our infrastructure, we’re still investing in our kids.
That’s what I think everybody understands and everybody believes.
The
only way it’s going to happen is if you’re engaged in this
debate. And
if you are, if you stand with me, if you stand with Bob and Debbie and
Michael and others who I think are trying to do the right thing, I’m
confident we’ll be able to look back at this period as, yes, a period
of great challenge, but also a period in which America made
extraordinary strides to secure its future for the next generation.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank
you. (Applause.)
END 7:45
P.M. EDT