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President Obama: There’s Something Wrong with our Politics that We Need to Fix

Watch the President's full remarks at Johnson Control's Battery Plant here.

President Obama today urged Americans to use the current Congressional break as an opportunity to talk to their Representatives and tell them to take the necessary steps to grow our economy.

He was visiting an advanced battery manufacturing plant in Holland, MI to highlight the key role that innovative technologies will play in the future of the U.S. auto industry.  He sympathized with the frustration Americans are feeling over the inaction in Washington, and acknowledged that partisan politics are getting in the way of our nation’s ability to create jobs and erase the legacy of debt that is hanging over the economy. “There is nothing wrong with our country,” he told the audience of auto workers.  “There’s something wrong with our politics that we need to fix.”

The President outlined a series of things that can be done right now  to put more money in the pockets of American workers, and said that the best way to make sure they happen is to let Congress know “you’ve had enough of theatrics.” Among the steps Congress can take as soon as they return to Washington:

• Extend the payroll tax cut so that middle class families have more money in their paychecks next year.  If you've got more money in your paycheck, you're more likely to spend it, and that means businesses of all sizes will have more customers.  They'll be in a better position to hire.
• Extend unemployment benefits so that millions of workers who are still pounding the pavement looking for jobs can support their families.
• Pass a bipartisan road construction bill. There are over a million construction workers out of work after the housing boom went bust, just as a lot of America needs rebuilding.  We can put these workers back to work by rebuilding our roads and bridges and railways. 
• Pass the patent reform bill to help our innovators and entrepreneurs get their job-creating ideas to market faster. 
• Pass the trade agreements that will help businesses sell more American-made goods and services to Asia and South America, supporting tens of thousands of jobs here at home.
• We’ve got hundreds of thousands of bright, talented, skilled Americans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and the President recently proposed several initiatives to make sure our veterans are able to navigate this difficult labor market and succeed in the civilian workforce.  He proposed the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits, challenged the private sector to train or hire 100,000 Unemployed Veterans, and proposed programs to ensure the men and women in uniform are career ready and transition back to the private sector.

Conserving Our Resources, Securing Our Forces

The Honorable John McHugh, Secretary of the U.S. Army

Across the federal government, and certainly in the Department of Defense, we know that after a decade of war we're entering a new era of smaller, tighter, leaner budgets.

One of the areas we can look to save is on energy – whether by conserving existing resources or developing and utilizing renewable energies. But we can't do it alone. President Obama saw an important opportunity for the Federal Government to lead by example when he issued Executive Order 13514 directing agencies to meet ambitious sustainability goals in our operations that will improve the government's environmental, energy and economic performance, reduce pollution, and save taxpayer dollars in avoided energy costs.

President Obama has been committed to ensuring that the Federal Government, as the single largest energy consumer in the country, acts responsibly in leading our nation to the new clean energy future. At the Department of Defense, we are doing our part in support of this vision.

We're going to make it easier for the private sector to work with us to support the Army's Renewable Energy Program, by reducing private sector risk and streamlining the approval process.

That's why today at the GovEnergy forum in Cincinnati, OH, I announced the establishment of the Army's Energy Initiatives Office Task Force. The EIO Task Force will be a one-stop shop for the private sector, so we can better harness the expertise of those who can invest and build economically viable, large scale renewable energy infrastructure on Army Installations.

The use of renewable energy sources will decrease the Army's fossil fuel consumption, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and creating a more assured energy supply. Through the EIO Task Force, we believe we can attract and engage private industry in that effort.

The Huntsville Center Corps of Engineers last month released a Sources Sought request for Renewable and Alternative Energy Power Production. The goal is to establish a pre-qualified pool of private sector partners positioned to finance development of large scale renewable energy projects and re-coup their capital investment through the sale of energy to the Army, and excess energy back to the grid.  

With four-dollar-a-gallon fuel prices here at home, it's simple to just look at fuel consumption as a way to save a few dollars and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But for the military, it's something even more important. It's about reducing the threat to our nation's Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, fuel and water comprise about 70 to 80 percent of ground resupply weight. In Afghanistan, we suffer one casualty for every 46 resupply convoys. Less energy use means fewer convoys, and fewer convoys mean fewer casualties.

President Obama recently said that "our best opportunities to enhance our energy security can be found in our own backyard. Because we boast one critical, renewable resource that the rest of the world can't match: American ingenuity.  American know-how."

Let me say that while some energy sources may be running low, American ingenuity, American know-how are in abundant supply in the United States Army. We will meet, we will exceed this challenge.

John M. McHugh is Secretary of the Army at the U.S. Department of Defense