You lie!
This week, Americans across the country cast their votes and made their voices heard, and your message was clear.
You’re rightly frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery.
So am I.
You’re fed up with partisan politics and want results.
I do too.
So, I congratulate all of this week’s winners, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.
But now, the campaign season is over, and it’s time to focus on our shared responsibilities to work together and deliver those results: speeding up our economic recovery, creating jobs, and strengthening the middle class so that the American Dream feels like it’s back within reach.
That’s why I’ve asked to sit down soon with leaders of both parties so that we can have an extended discussion about what we can do together to move this country forward, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to have a chance to work together in the brief upcoming session of Congress.
Here’s why this lame duck session is so important.
Early in the last decade, President Bush and Congress enacted a series of tax cuts that were designed to expire at the end of this year.
What that means is, if Congress doesn’t act by New Year’s Eve, middle-class families will see their taxes go up starting on New Year’s Day.
But the last thing we should do is raise taxes on middle-class families.
For the past decade, they saw their costs rise, their incomes fall, and too many jobs go overseas.
They’re the ones bearing the brunt of the recession.
They’re the ones having trouble making ends meet.
They are the ones who need relief right now.
So, something’s got to be done, and I believe there’s room for us to compromise and get it done together.
Let’s start where we agree.
All of us want certainty for middle-class Americans.
None of us want them to wake up on January 1st with a higher tax bill.
That’s why I believe we should permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for all families making less than $250,000 a year.
That’s 98 percent of the American people.
We also agree on the need to start cutting spending and bringing down our deficit.
That’s going to require everyone to make some tough choices.
In fact, if Congress were to implement my proposal to freeze non-security discretionary spending for three years, it would bring this spending down to its lowest level as share of the economy in 50 years.
But, at a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.
We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children.
I recognize that both parties are going to have to work together and compromise to get something done here.
But, I want to make my priorities clear from the start.
One: middle class families need permanent tax relief, and two: I believe we can’t afford to borrow and spend another $700 billion on permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
There are new public servants in Washington, but we still face the same challenges, and you made it clear that it’s time for results.
This a great opportunity to show everyone that we got the message and that we’re willing, in this post-election season, to come together and do what’s best for the country we all love.
Thanks.
You lie!
Over the last few months I've had the opportunity to travel around the country and meet people where they live and where they work, from backyards to factory floors.
I did some talking, but mostly I did a lot of listening.
People are frustrated, they’re deeply frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery and the opportunities that they hope for their children and their grandchildren.
They want jobs to come back faster, they want paychecks to go further, and they want the ability to give their children the same chances and opportunities as they’ve had in life.
The men and women who sent us here don't expect Washington to solve all their problems, but they do expect Washington to work for them, not against them.
They want to know that their tax dollars are being spent wisely, not wasted, and that we're not going to leave our children a legacy of debt.
They want to know that their voices aren’t being drowned out by a sea of lobbyists and special interests and partisan bickering.
They want business to be done here openly and honestly.
Now, I ran for this office to tackle these challenges and give voice to the concerns of everyday people.
Over the last two years, we’ve made progress, but, clearly, too many Americans haven’t felt that progress yet, and they told us that, and as President, I take responsibility for that.
I’m not suggesting this will be easy.
I won’t pretend that we will be able to bridge every difference or solve every disagreement.
There’s a reason we have two parties in this country, and both Democrats and Republicans have certain beliefs and certain principles that each feels cannot be compromised, but what I think the American people are expecting, and what we owe them, is to focus on those issues that affect their jobs, their security, and their future, reducing our deficit, promoting a clean energy economy, making sure that our children are the best educated in the world, making sure that we’re making the investments in technology that will allow us to keep our competitive edge in the global economy.
Because the most important contest we face is not the contest between Democrats and Republicans.
In this century, the most important competition we face is between America and our economic competitors around the world.
To win that competition, and to continue our economic leadership, we’re going to need to be strong and we’re going to need to be united.
You lie!!
None of the challenges we face lend themselves to simple solutions or bumper-sticker slogans.
Nor are the answers found in any one particular philosophy or ideology.
As I’ve said before, no person, no party, has a monopoly on wisdom, and that’s why I’m eager to hear good ideas wherever they come from, whoever proposes them, and that’s why I believe it’s important to have an honest and civil debate about the choices that we face.
That’s why I want to engage both Democrats and Republicans in serious conversations about where we’re going as a nation, and with so much at stake, what the American people don’t want from us, especially here in Washington, is to spend the next two years refighting the political battles of the last two.
We just had a tough election.
We will have another in 2012.
I’m not so naïve as to think that everybody will put politics aside until then, but I do hope to make progress on the very serious problems facing us right now, and that’s going to require all of us, including me, to work harder at building consensus.
You lie!
I do believe there is hope for civility.
I do believe there’s hope for progress, and that’s because I believe in the resiliency of a nation that’s bounced back from much worse than what we’re going through right now, a nation that's overcome war and depression, that has been made more perfect in our struggle for individual rights and individual freedoms.
Each time progress has come slowly and even painfully, but progress has always come, because we’ve worked at it and because we’ve believed in it, and most of all, because we remembered that our first allegiance as citizens is not to party or region or faction, but to country, because while we may be proud Democrats or proud Republicans, we are prouder to be Americans, and that's something that we all need to remember right now and in the coming months, and if we do, I have no doubt that we will continue this nation’s long journey towards a better future.
I think that there is no doubt that people’s number-one concern is the economy, and what they were expressing great frustration about is the fact that we haven’t made enough progress on the economy.
We’ve stabilized the economy.
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