There’s no quick fix

The problems facing working families are nothing new. But they are more serious than ever, and that makes our cause more urgent than ever.

For generations, it was the great American middle class that made our economy the envy of the world.

It’s got to be that way again.

It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today.

The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans, those cornerstones of middle class security that all bear the union label.

And it was that greatest of generations that built America into the greatest force for prosperity, opportunity and freedom the world has ever known.

Americans like my grandfather, who went off to war just boys, returned home men, and traded one uniform and set of responsibilities for another.

Americans like my grandmother, who rolled up their sleeves and worked in factories on the home front.

When the war was over, they studied under the GI Bill, bought homes under the FHA, raised families buttressed by good jobs that paid good wages with good benefits.

It was through my grandparents’ experience that I was brought up to believe that anything is possible in America.

But, they also knew the feeling when that opportunity is pulled out from under you.

They would tell me about seeing their fathers or uncles losing jobs during the Depression, how it wasn’t just the loss of a paycheck that stung. It was the blow to their dignity; their sense of self-worth.

I’ll bet a lot of us have seen people changed after a long bout of unemployment, how it can wear down even the strongest spirits.

So my grandparents taught me early on that a job is about more than a paycheck, as important as that is.

A job is about waking up every day with a sense of purpose, and going to bed each night fulfilled.

A job is about meeting your responsibilities to yourself, to your family, to your community.

I carried that lesson with me all those years ago when I got my start fighting for men and women on the South Side of Chicago after their local steel plant shut down.

I carried that lesson with me through my time as a state senator and a U.S. Senator.

I carry that lesson with me today.
 
Eight million Americans lost their jobs in this recession, and while we’ve had eight straight months of private sector job growth, the new jobs haven’t been coming fast enough.

Now, the plain truth is, there’s no silver bullet or quick fix to the problem.

Even when I was running for this office, we knew it would take time to reverse the damage of a decade’s worth of policies that saw a few folks prosper while the middle class kept falling behind, and it will take more time than any of us wants to dig out of the hole created by this economic crisis.

But on this Labor Day, there are two things I want you to know.

Number one. I’m going to keep fighting, every single day, to turn this economy around, to put our people back to work, to renew the American Dream for your families and for future generations.

Number two, and this I believe with every fiber of my being. America cannot have a strong, growing economy without a strong, growing middle class, and the chance for everybody, no matter how humble their beginnings, to join that middle class.

A middle class built on the idea that if you work hard and live up to your responsibilities, you can get ahead and enjoy some basic guarantees in life.

A good job that pays a good wage.

Health care that’ll be there when you get sick.

A secure retirement even if you’re not rich.

An education that’ll give our kids a better life than we had.

These are simple ideas.

American ideas.

Well, anyone who thinks we can move this economy forward with a few doing well at the top, hoping it’ll trickle down to working folks running faster and faster just to keep up, they just haven’t studied our history.
 
I was thinking about this last week.

On the day I announced the end to our combat mission in Iraq, I spent some time, as I often do, with our soldiers and veterans.

This new generation of troops coming home from Iraq has earned its place alongside that greatest generation.

Like them, they have the skills and training and drive to move America’s economy forward once more, and from the time I took office, we’ve been investing in new care, new opportunity, and a new commitment to their service that’s worthy of their sacrifice.

But, they’re coming home to an economy hit by recession deeper than any we’ve seen, and the question is, how do we create the same kind of middle class opportunity my grandparents’ generation came home to?

How do we build our economy on the same kind of strong, stable foundation for growth?

We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness.

We didn’t come this far by letting special interests run wild.

We didn’t do it by just gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street.

We did it by producing goods we could sell; we did it with sweat and effort and innovation.

We did it by investing in the people who built this country from the ground up, workers, and middle-class families, and small business owners.

We did it by out-working, out-educating, and out-competing everyone else.
 
I was thinking about this last week.

On the day I announced the end to our combat mission in Iraq, I spent some time, as I often do, with our soldiers and veterans.

This new generation of troops coming home from Iraq has earned its place alongside that greatest generation.

Like them, they have the skills and training and drive to move America’s economy forward once more, and from the time I took office, we’ve been investing in new care, new opportunity, and a new commitment to their service that’s worthy of their sacrifice.

But, they’re coming home to an economy hit by recession deeper than any we’ve seen, and the question is, how do we create the same kind of middle class opportunity my grandparents’ generation came home to?

How do we build our economy on the same kind of strong, stable foundation for growth?

We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness.

We didn’t come this far by letting special interests run wild.

We didn’t do it by just gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street.

We did it by producing goods we could sell; we did it with sweat and effort and innovation.

We did it by investing in the people who built this country from the ground up, workers, and middle-class families, and small business owners.

We did it by out-working, out-educating, and out-competing everyone else.

You lie!
 
There are some folks in Washington who see things differently.

To steal a line from our old friend, Ted Kennedy, what is it about working men and women that they find so offensive?

They think it’s better to score political points before an election than actually solve problems.

So, they said no to help for small businesses.

No to middle-class tax cuts.

No to unemployment insurance.

No to clean energy jobs.

No to making college affordable.

No to reforming Wall Street.

Even as we speak, these guys are saying no to cutting more taxes for small business owners.

I mean, come on!

Remember when our campaign slogan was “Yes We Can?”

These guys are running on “No, We Can’t,” and proud of it.

Really inspiring, huh?
 
When we passed a bill earlier this summer to help states save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters that were about to be laid off, they said “no” to that, too.

In fact, the Republican who’s already planning to take over as Speaker of the House dismissed them as “government jobs” that weren’t worth saving.

Not worth saving?

These are the people who teach our kids.

Who keep our streets safe. Who put their lives on the line for our own.

I don’t know about you, but I think those jobs are worth saving.

We made sure that bill wouldn’t add to the deficit, either.

We paid for it by finally closing a ridiculous tax loophole that actually rewarded corporations for shipping jobs and profits overseas.

It let them write off the taxes they pay foreign governments, even when they don’t pay taxes here.

How do you like that?

Middle class families footing tax breaks for corporations that create jobs somewhere else!

Even a lot of America’s biggest corporations agreed the loophole should be closed, that it wasn’t fair, but the man with the plan to be Speaker is already aiming to open it up again.
 
When we passed a bill earlier this summer to help states save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters that were about to be laid off, they said “no” to that, too.

In fact, the Republican who’s already planning to take over as Speaker of the House dismissed them as “government jobs” that weren’t worth saving.

Not worth saving?

These are the people who teach our kids.

Who keep our streets safe. Who put their lives on the line for our own.

I don’t know about you, but I think those jobs are worth saving.

We made sure that bill wouldn’t add to the deficit, either.

We paid for it by finally closing a ridiculous tax loophole that actually rewarded corporations for shipping jobs and profits overseas.

It let them write off the taxes they pay foreign governments, even when they don’t pay taxes here.

How do you like that?

Middle class families footing tax breaks for corporations that create jobs somewhere else!

Even a lot of America’s biggest corporations agreed the loophole should be closed, that it wasn’t fair, but the man with the plan to be Speaker is already aiming to open it up again.
 
I’m not bringing this up to re-litigate the past.

I’m bringing it up because I don’t want to re-live the past.

It would be one thing if Republicans in Washington had new ideas or policies to offer, if they said, you know, we’ve learned from our mistakes.

We’ll do things differently this time.

But, that’s not what they’re doing.

When the leader of their campaign committee was asked on national television what Republicans would do if they took over Congress, he actually said they’d follow “the exact same agenda” as they did before I took office.

The exact same agenda.

So, basically, they’re betting that between now and November, you’ll come down with a case of amnesia.

They think you’ll forget what their agenda did to this country.

They think you’ll just believe that they’ve changed.

These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class and drive our economy into a ditch, and now they’re asking you for the keys back.

Do you want to give them the keys back?

Me neither, and do you know why?

Because they don’t know how to drive!

At a time when we’re just getting out of the ditch, they’d pop it in reverse, let the special interests ride shotgun, and hit the gas, careening right back into that ditch.
 
Well, I refuse to go backwards, And that’s the choice America faces this fall.

Do we go back to the policies of the past?

Or do we move forward?

I say we move forward. America always moves forward, and we are going to keep moving forward today.
 
I know these are difficult times.

I know folks are worried, and there’s still a lot of hurt out here. I hear about it, I read about it in your letters at night, and when times are tough, it can be easy to give in to cynicism and fear; doubt and division, to set our sights lower and settle for something less.

But, that is not who we are.

That is not the country I know.

We do not give up.

We do not quit.

We are a people that faced down war and depression, great challenges and great threats, and lit the way for the rest of the world.

Whenever times have seemed at their worst, Americans have been at their best.

Because it is in those times when we roll up our sleeves and remember that we will rise or fall together, as one nation, and one people.

That’s the spirit that started the labor movement.

The idea that alone, we are weak.

Divided, we fall. But united, we are strong.

That’s why we call them unions.

That’s why we call this the United States of America.

That’s the case I am going to make across the country this fall, yours.

I am asking for your help.

If you are willing to join me, we can strengthen our middle class and make our economy work for working Americans again.

We can restore the American Dream and deliver it safely to our children.

That’s how we built the last American century.

That’s how we’ll build the next.

We don’t believe in the words “No, we can’t.”

We are Americans, and in times of great challenge, we push forward with an unyielding faith that we can.

Yes, we can.

Thank you, God Bless You and the work you do, and God Bless the United States of America.
 
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