America is speaking, but Republicans aren’t listening

This week, the economists who officially decide when recessions start and end declared the recession of 2008 to be over, but if you’re one of the millions of Americans who lost your home, your job, or your savings as a consequence of the recession, this news is of little comfort or value.

Yes, the economy is growing instead of shrinking, as it was in 2008 and the beginning of 2009.

We’re gaining private sector jobs each month instead of losing 800,000, as we did the month I took office, but, we have to keep pushing to promote growth that will generate the jobs we need, and repair the terrible damage the recession has done.

That’s why I’ve proposed a series of additional steps: accelerated tax breaks for businesses who buy equipment now, a permanent research and development tax break to promote innovation by American companies, and a new initiative to rebuild America’s roads, rails, and runways that will put folks to work and make our country more competitive.

Taken together with the small business tax cut and lending plan we passed through Congress, these steps will help spur jobs in the short run, and strengthen our economy for the long run.

Now, the Republicans who want to take over Congress offered their own ideas the other day.

Many were the very same policies that led to the economic crisis in the first place, which isn’t surprising, since many of their leaders were among the architects of that failed policy.

It is grounded in same worn out philosophy.

Cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires.

Cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests, and cut the middle class loose to fend for itself.

That’s not a prescription for a better future.

It’s an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.

The Republicans in Washington claimed to draw their ideas from a website called “America Speaking Out.”

It turns out that one of the ideas that’s drawn the most interest on their website is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

Funny thing is, when we recently closed one of the most egregious loopholes for companies creating jobs overseas, Republicans in Congress were almost unanimously opposed.

The Republican leader John Boehner attacked us for it, and stood up for outsourcing, instead of American workers.

So, America may be speaking out, but Republicans in Congress sure aren’t listening.

They want to put special interests back in the driver’s seat in Washington.

They want to roll back the law that will finally stop health insurance companies from denying you coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition.

They want to repeal reforms that will finally protect hardworking families from hidden rates and penalties every time they use a credit card, make a mortgage payment, or take out a student loan, and for all their talk about reining in spending and getting our deficits under control, they want to borrow another $700 billion, and use it to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.

On average, that’s a tax cut of about $100,000 for millionaires.

Instead of cutting taxes for the wealthiest few, tax breaks we cannot afford, I’ve called for tax cuts for middle class families who saw their incomes shrink by five percent during the last, lost decade.

We’ve already cut 8 different taxes for small business owners to help them hire and grow, and we’re going to cut 8 more.

We’re challenging our states and schools to do a better job educating our kids and making college more affordable so America can once more lead the world in the proportion of our kids graduating from college, and we’re putting an end to the days of taxpayer-funded bailouts so Main Street never again has to pay for Wall Street’s mistakes.

America is a great country.

Our democracy is vibrant, our economy is dynamic, and our workers can outcompete the best of them, but the way for us to remain the greatest country on Earth isn’t to turn back the clock and put the special interests in charge.

It’s to make sure all our people are getting a fair shake.

It’s to make sure everyone who’s willing to work for it still has a chance to reach for the American dream, and that will remain my mission every single day so long as I have the honor of serving as President.

Have a nice weekend, everybody.
 
The other day, I was talking about education with some folks in the backyard of an Albuquerque home, and someone asked a question that’s stayed with me.

He asked, if we don’t have homes to go to, what good is an education?

It was a heartfelt question, one that could be asked by anyone who’s lost a home or a job in this recession, because if you’re out of work or facing foreclosure, all that really matters is a new job.

All that really matters is a roof over your head.

All that really matters is getting back on your feet.

That’s why I’m fighting each and every day to jumpstart job-creation in the private sector, to help our small business owners grow and hire, to rebuild our economy so it lifts up a middle class that’s been battered for so long.
 
But even as we focus on doing all that, even as we focus on speeding up our economic recovery, we also know that when it comes to jobs, opportunity, and prosperity in the 21st century, nothing is more important than the quality of your education.

At a time when most of the new jobs being created will require some kind of higher education; when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow, giving our kids the best education possible is an economic imperative.

That’s why, from the start of my administration, we’ve been fighting to offer every child in this country a world-class education, from the cradle to the classroom, from college through a career.

Earlier this week, I announced a new Skills for America’s Future initiative that will help community colleges and employers match what’s taught in the classroom with what’s needed in the private sector, so we can connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire.

We’re eliminating tens of billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies for banks to administer student loans, and using that money to make college more affordable for millions of students, and we’ve launched a Race to the Top in our states to make sure our students, all of them, are graduating from high school ready for college, so we can meet our goal of graduating a higher proportion of students from college than any other country in the world by 2020.

And yet, if Republicans in Congress had their way, we’d have a harder time meeting that goal.

We’d have a harder time offering our kids the best education possible.

Because they’d have us cut education by 20 percent, cuts that would reduce financial aid for eight million students, cuts that would leave our great and undervalued community colleges without the resources they need to prepare our graduates for the jobs of the future.

Now, it is true that when it comes to our budget, we have real challenges to meet, and if we’re serious about getting our fiscal house in order, we’ll need to make some tough choices.

I’m prepared to make those choices, but what I’m not prepared to do is shortchange our children’s education.

What I’m not prepared to do is undercut their economic future, your economic future, or the economic future of the United States of America.

Nothing would be more detrimental to our prospects for success than cutting back on education.

It would consign America to second place in our fiercely competitive global economy, but China and India aren’t playing for second.

South Korea and Germany aren’t playing for second.

They’re playing for first and so should America.

Instead of being shortsighted and shortchanging our kids, we should be doubling down on them.

We should be giving every child in America a chance to make the most of their lives, to fulfill their God-given potential.

We should be fighting to lead the global economy in this century, just like we did in the last, and that’s what I’ll continue fighting to do in the months and years ahead.

Thanks, everybody, and have a nice weekend.
 

This is very scary for Americans. But really great for Republicons and their foreign communist backers.

This map illustrates the results of 30 years of conservative ideology. You 'conservatives' are so brainwashed you can't see what your leaders and their radical and un-American economic policies done to this country. Or, this was your party's plan all along which is what I believe. Hey, who am I going to believe, Glenn Beck or my own lying eyes?
 
I find it amazing that someone who shoved through a massively expensive, complex, and utterly ridiculous government-expanding health care bill, against the desires of the majority, can then claim it is the REPUBLICAN party who is not listening to the people.

Not only a liar, but a hypocritical liar.
 
Back
Top