The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 17, 2012

President Obama Takes Actions to Promote American Manufacturing and Increase U.S. Exports at Boeing

Today, the President will visit the Boeing assembly facility in Everett, Washington, to announce new steps aimed at promoting American manufacturing and increasing U.S. exports. Manufacturing represents nearly 60% of total U.S. exports, and Boeing is one of the country’s leading exporters of manufactured goods with more than $34 billion in total exports in 2011, up over 45% since 2006. Today’s announcement will follow through on the President’s commitment to provide sufficient export financing to put American manufacturers on an even footing with our foreign competitors, provide expanded support for small business exporters and take the next step in the President’s proposal to reorganize the trade and competitiveness agencies by expanding the responsibilities of the Export Promotion Cabinet.This is the most recent of a series of executive actions the President has announced to put Americans back to work and strengthen the U.S. economy.

“Two years ago, I set a goal of doubling U.S. exports over five years.” said President Obama. “Today, we’re on track to meet that goal – ahead of schedule. But we need to do more, which is why I’m pleased to announce several steps that will help more American businesses sell their products around the world, create jobs right here at home, and help us build an economy that lasts.”

In this year’s State of the Union Address, the President laid out a Blueprint for an America Built to Last, a blueprint that starts with American manufacturing. During the past two years, we have begun to see positive signs in American manufacturing – with the manufacturing sector adding more than 400,000 jobs, the first period of sustained job growth in manufacturing since the 1990s. The President recognizes the vital role manufacturing plays in our economy, and that is why the President’s plan encourages investment in manufacturing, supports U.S. innovation and the growth of U.S. exports. In his 2010 State of the Union Address, the President launched the National Export Initiative with the goal of doubling our nation’s exports in five years. After two years, we are on pace to meet the President’s goal. Exports are up nearly 34% over the level of exports in 2009, exceeding $2.1 trillion in total value in 2011.

Today’s announcements build on the Administration’s past efforts to open up markets for American goods and level the playing field for American companies. Over the past year, the President has signed into law a series of trade agreements that will provide a major boost to our exports by making it easier for American companies to sell their products in South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. In addition, record-setting efforts at the Export-Import Bank – through direct loans, credit guarantees, and credit insurance – have helped U.S. exports remain on target to meet the President’s goal. Building on these existing efforts, the Export-Import Bank is continuing to expand its offerings to help support business exporting.

The Administration has provided important support to Boeing’s export success. Currently, Boeing is building the world’s most advanced commercial airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, directly employing nearly 8,000 people across the country to do so. The company is also working with nearly 11,000 small, medium and large supplier businesses, spending $28 billion. Boeing has suppliers in all 50 states, providing goods and services like the airplane’s ground-breaking carbon fiber composite aircraft structure from Kansas, advanced jet engines from Ohio, wing components from Oklahoma, and revolutionary electrochromic windows from Alabama. Boeing has already received orders for 870 Dreamliners with over 80% of the current orders to be shipped around the world to at least 25 countries like Japan, Australia, China, France and Singapore. Over the past three years, financing from the Export-Import Bank has supported export sales of more than 460 U.S. manufactured Boeing commercial aircraft worth approximately $60 billion to qualified customers. Just this month, Boeing finalized the largest single order in aviation history with Lion Air, the largest airline in Indonesia, for 230 Boeing 737 aircraft, valued at over $21 billion. The Export-Import Bank played a critical role to support that deal coming together. Ethiopian Airlines, one of the strongest airlines in Africa, will take delivery of some of the first Boeing 787 aircraft later this year, made possible in part by support from the Administration.

Nationally, the Export Import Bank has had a tremendous impact. In FY 2011, the Bank set export financing records for the third-straight year, including overall financing exceeding $32 billion, a nearly 34% increase since 2010, and the highest level of financing in the Bank’s 77-year history. This financing has supported $41 billion in U.S. exports from over 3,600 U.S. companies and almost 290,000 export-related American jobs. In particular, the Bank is important for small and medium exporters, and its financing for smaller exporters has risen over 70% over the last three years, comprising more than 85% of the Bank’s transactions. And these programs come at no cost to U.S. taxpayers, as the Bank not only operates on a self-sustaining basis, but it has returned well over $3 billion to the U.S. Treasury since 2005.

Today the President will announce:

Financing to Put American Companies on an Even Footing: Right now, China and other global competitors often provide unfair advantages to help their companies win business overseas. In his State of the Union address, the President stated that the Administration would take action to level the playing field for U.S. companies and workers when our competitors don’t play by global export financing rules. Today, the President will announce that the Administration will actively employ its existing authorities so that the Export-Import Bank can provide U.S. firms competing for domestic or third-country sales with matching financing support to counter foreign non-competitive official financing that fails to observe international disciplines. The President will not allow U.S. companies and workers to lose out on valuable business due to unfair export financing – and will use the Administration’s full powers to ensure that they are competing on an even footing.

New Credit for Small Business Exporters: Today, the President will announce that the Export Import Bank will launch a pilot program, Global Credit Express, to help small business exporters access hard-to-find short term working capital lines of credit. Working with their existing lenders, small businesses will be able to apply directly to the Export-Import Bank for 6-12 month loans of up to $500,000. This year, the program could help small exporters access up to $100 million in much needed capital. At the same time, today Boeing committed to joining the Export-Import bank’s Supply Chain Financing Program, which helps firms, including Caterpillar and Case New Holland advance funds against export-related contracts, providing liquidity and working capital more quickly and on better terms. Through this partnership Boeing’s small business suppliers will be able to access over $700 million in short-term credit this year.

A Call to Reauthorize the Export-Import Bank: In December 2011, Congress extended the Bank’s authorization through the end of May 2012, at its current lending ceiling of $100 billion. However, due to unprecedented demands for export financing in recent years, the Bank estimates it will hit this lending ceiling at the end of March. Unless the Bank’s authorization is renewed, and its lending cap is raised to an appropriate level, the Bank will be forced into the unprecedented position of having to halt all new transactions. Re-authorization of the Bank is critical for U.S. exporters, particularly manufacturers, which account for almost 60% of all U.S. exports, so that they can compete with foreign companies that enjoy far more aggressive support from their countries’ export credit agencies. The U.S. trails countries like Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, and Italy in official export credit financing as a share of Gross Domestic Product – many times over. Failure to re-authorize the Bank will give competitors, like China, an unfair edge in global trade, with the costs of decreases in U.S. exports and good American jobs.

A Simplified Process for Foreign Trade Zones: Today, the Department of Commerce will announce simplified processes and paperwork for Foreign Trade Zones, designated locations where companies can use special procedures to delay or reduce duty payments on foreign merchandise. There are over 250 zones and 500 subzones that help encourage manufacturing and investment in the US, in industries including automotive machinery and equipment and pharmaceuticals. The rule change will provide a streamlined, shorter and more effective process for manufacturers and exporters seeking FTZ authority that will help expedite decision making and reduce paperwork burdens. These simplifications will contribute to the National Export Initiative goal to double exports by the end of 2014 and the Administration’s goal of attracting and retaining manufacturing activity and manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Legislation to Make it Easier for America’s Businesses to Export: On Thursday, the Obama Administration sent Congress the Consolidating and Reforming Government Act of 2012, to reinstate the authority Presidents held for decades to reorganize and consolidate the Federal government, adding, for the first time, a requirement that any reorganization plan must save money or reduce the size of government. Earlier this year, the President announced that, if Congress gives him consolidation authority, his first action would be to make it easier for America’s job creators to access the services they need to grow and export. The President laid out a plan to bring together six agencies and a handful of other related programs into a single more efficient and effective department with a laser-like focus on promoting American business, exports and competitiveness, while saving taxpayers $3 billion dollars. Until Congress acts, however, we need to do everything we can administratively to enhance our trade and competitiveness programs.

A Presidential Memorandum to Strengthen the Export Promotion Cabinet: Today, the President will issue a Presidential Memorandum, Maximizing the Effectiveness of Federal Trade Investment and Functions, which directs the Export Promotion Cabinet to work across agencies to maximize combined effectiveness of their programs and initiatives in support of the Administration’s strategic trade and investment goals and priorities. The Memorandum gives the Export Promotion Cabinet stronger authority to align interagency efforts and directs the Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, Michael Froman, to coordinate its activities. The Memorandum also directs the Export Promotion Cabinet, in consultation with the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, to evaluate resource allocations, make recommendations for streamlining overlapping or duplicative programs, and create a unified Federal trade budget. The Presidential Memorandum also directs the Cabinet to take steps to ensure we are most efficiently using federal agencies’ domestic and foreign offices and distribution networks. Finally, the Presidential Memorandum directs the Cabinet to work with the National Economic Council to coordinate administrative initiatives to enhance programs that support American businesses, particularly small businesses, in order to help them innovate, grow, and increase exports. The Export Promotion Cabinet was established via executive order on March 11, 2010.

The Launch of BusinessUSA: Today, the Administration will officially launch BusinessUSA (http://business.usa.gov), a virtual one stop shop that makes it easier for America’s businesses to access the services and information they need to help them grow, hire and export. To strengthen America’s competitiveness in the global economy, the President believes businesses need to be equipped with the best tools and information available to support innovation and job growth in the 21st century. That’s why he directed his Administration to create BusinessUSA as the front door to all the government has to offer. BusinessUSA implements a “no wrong door” policy for small businesses and exporters by using technology to quickly connect businesses to the services and information relevant to them, regardless of where the information is located or which agency’s website, call center, or office they go to for help. To ensure that it is oriented towards the needs of the customer, BusinessUSA has been developed with the active feedback of U.S. businesses.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 17, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium
San Francisco, California

9:10 P.M. PST

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, San Francisco! (Applause.) Thank you! Thank you! (Applause.) Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. First of all, everybody, please give a huge round of applause to Patty for sharing her story. Thank you, Patty. We appreciate it. (Applause.)

I want to thank Chris Cornell for his wonderful performance. Give Chris a big round of applause. (Applause.) And I want to thank Vernon Davis for being here. (Applause.) If you want to come and play for the Bears, you are welcome to do it. Vernon had a great playoff. I mean, he had a great playoff. Unbelievable.

You guys can take a seat. Just relax. I'm going to be here a while. I'm going to be here a while. (Applause.)

So, San Francisco, I am here --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.) (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: You look great. Got the Statue of Liberty right here. (Laughter.) That is outstanding.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!

THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. (Applause.)

Now, I'm here not just because I need your help, San Francisco. I am here because this country needs your help. (Applause.) A lot of you worked very, very hard, worked your hearts out in 2008. And it wasn’t because you thought electing Barack Hussein Obama was a sure thing. (Laughter.) That wasn’t guaranteed. You didn’t need a poll to tell you that might be difficult. (Laughter.) The campaign was not about me; it was about you -- and the vision that we share for America.

A vision that doesn’t say we leave everything to the free market by itself, and everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. It’s a vision that says, yes, we believe in the free market and we believe in entrepreneurship and individualism. But we also believe that anybody who works hard should have the chance to get ahead -- not just a few. (Applause.) A vision that says we're greater together than we are on our own -- and that everybody should get a fair shot, everybody should do their fair share, and everybody should play by the same set of rules. And when we do that, then the entire country does better.

The market does better. Business does better. Workers do better. Our children do better. The future is brighter. That's the vision we shared. That’s the change we believed in. And we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I told you it wasn’t going to be easy. (Laughter.) I did. We knew it wasn’t going to come quickly. But think about the journey we've traveled over the last three years -- because of what you did in 2008, because of your effort, we're starting to see what change looks like. (Applause.)

Change is the first bill I signed into law -- the Lilly Ledbetter Act that says women deserve an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. That's what change is. (Applause.)

Change is the decision we made to rescue the American auto industry from collapse, even when it wasn’t popular and some people said we should let Detroit go bankrupt. With one million jobs on the line, I wasn’t going to let that happen. And today, GM is back on top as the world’s number-one automaker. (Applause.) It just reported the highest profits in the 100-year history of that company. (Applause.) With more than 200,000 new jobs created in the last two and a half years, the American auto industry is back. That’s change.

Change is the decision we made to stop waiting for Congress to do something about our oil addiction and go ahead and raise our fuel-efficiency standards for the first time in decades. (Applause.) And by the next decade, we’ll be driving American-made cars that get almost 55 miles to a gallon. That’s what change is. (Applause.)

Change is the fight that we won to stop handing out over $60 billion in taxpayer subsidies to banks that issue student loans. We said, let’s give that money directly to the students -- (applause) -- and that way we can increase the number of students that are getting loans and the amount of loans that they’re getting, so that millions of young people have opportunities they didn’t have before.

And, yes, change is the health care reform bill that we passed after a century of trying -- (applause) -- a reform that has already allowed 2.6 million young people to stay on their parent’s insurance. A reform that will ensure that in the United States of America, nobody is going to go broke just because they get sick. (Applause.) And Americans will no longer be denied or dropped by their insurance companies just when they need care the most. That’s what change is.

Change is the fact that for the first time in our history, you don’t have to hide who you love to serve the country you love. (Applause.) That’s what change is. “Don't ask, don't tell" is over. (Applause.) That’s change.

For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. That has changed. (Applause.) We refocused our efforts on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. And thanks to the brave men and women in uniform, al Qaeda is weaker than it has ever been, and bin Laden isn’t around anymore. That’s what change is. (Applause.)

Now, none of this change has been easy, and we still got a lot more work to do. There are still too many Americans out there that are looking for work. There are still too many families who can barely pay the bills, still see their homes underwater. We’re still recovering from the worst economic situation in our lifetimes.

But as tough as this economy is and has been, think about what’s changed the day I took office. That month we were losing 750,000 jobs. Over the past two years, businesses have added about 3.7 million new jobs. (Applause.) Our manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s. Our economy is getting stronger. The recovery is accelerating. America is coming back. And the last thing we can afford to do is go back to the same policies that got us back -- got us into this mess in the first place. (Applause.)

That’s what is at stake in this election. And that’s what the other candidates want to do, take us back --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Obama!

THE PRESIDENT: I told you I loved you already. (Laughter and applause.)

These other folks, they make no secret about where they want to go. They want to go back to the days when Wall Street played by its own rules. (Audience interruption.)

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: We’re okay. No, this is what San Francisco is always about. (Applause.) There’s always something going on in San Francisco. (Applause.) Folks are not shy about sharing their ideas in San Francisco. Yes, it’s fun. (Laughter.)

But here’s what’s at stake in this election. Look, the other folks -- these folks who are running for President -- (laughter) -- that’s what they’re doing -- (laughter) -- they want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage or jack up premiums without any reason. They want to spend trillions of dollars more on tax breaks for folks like me who don’t need it and aren’t asking for it, even if it means adding to the deficit or gutting things like education or clean energy or basic research or Medicare. Their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody fends for themselves and everybody plays by their own set of rules.

And I’m here to tell them they are wrong. They are wrong. (Applause.) Because in the United States of America, we are greater together than we are on our own. (Applause.) We’re better off when we keep that basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well -- you can raise a family, you can own a home, send your kids to college, put a little away for retirement -- and that that promise is open to everybody. If you’re born into tough circumstances, we’re going to give you ladders to climb up into that middle class. And if you’re in that middle class, then we’re going to make sure that you’ve got the tools to, even in a changing world, have some security and some stability in your life.

That’s what we’re fighting for. That’s the choice in this election. This is not just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time, a make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans and all those who are trying to get into it. And we can go back to an economy that’s based on outsourcing and bad debt or phony financial profits, or we can fight for an economy that is built to last -- an economy built on American manufacturing and American-made energy, and skills and education for American workers, and the values that have made America great -- hard work and fair play and shared responsibility. That is what we’re fighting for. That is what’s at stake in this election. (Applause.)

I want to make sure the next generation of manufacturing isn’t taking root just in Asia or Europe. I want it taking root in factories in Detroit and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and California. (Applause.) I don’t want this nation to be known just for buying and consuming stuff. I want to be known for building and selling products all over the world. (Applause.) And I want to stop rewarding businesses that are shipping jobs overseas. I want to reward companies that are investing here in the United States and creating jobs all throughout this country.

I want to make our schools the envy of the world -- (applause) -- and that starts with the men and women who are in front of the classroom. A good teacher -- we got some teachers here? (Applause.) I want to say thank you to you. (Applause.) A good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000. A great teacher can offer a path, an escape for a child who is born into really tough circumstances.

I don’t want to hear folks in Washington bashing teachers, but I also don’t want them just defending the status quo, because too many kids aren’t making it. So I want us to pull together and give schools the resources they need to keep good teachers on the job and reward the best ones. And in return, let’s grant schools the flexibility to teach with creativity and with passion, and not just teach to the test -- (applause) -- but also to say to teachers who aren’t doing the job, you know what, you got to improve or we’re going to find somebody else.

And when kids do graduate, you heard from Patty, the cost of college just keeps on going up and up and up. At a time when more Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress has to take some immediate steps. We got to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling in July, which it's scheduled to do. (Applause.) This Congress needs to keep in place the tuition tax credits we’ve already put into place.

But colleges and universities, they’ve got to do their part. And I said -- I said this at the State of the Union -- if you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding that you get from taxpayers needs to go down, because we’ve got to incentivize colleges and universities to do the right thing. Higher education can’t be a luxury. It is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford. That’s what we’re going to work for. (Applause.)

I want an economy that supports our scientists and our researchers who are trying to make sure the next breakthrough in clean energy happens right here in the United States of America. We have subsidized oil companies long enough. It’s time to end nearly 100 years of taxpayer subsidies to an oil industry that’s never been more profitable, and double down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising -- solar and wind and biofuels and electric vehicles. (Applause.) We can make progress and create jobs and get ahead of the curve, not be behind it.

We need to give our businesses the best access to newer roads and airports, and faster railroads, Internet access. I was telling somebody the other day -- I’m a chauvinist. I want America to have the best stuff. (Laughter.) I want us to have the best airports and the best roads. I want us to have the fastest broadband lines. And we can do that. It’s time to take the money we are no longer spending in Iraq, use half of that to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home. (Applause.)

And we’ve got to make sure we have a tax system that reflects everybody doing their fair share. (Applause.) I’ve talk about the Buffett Rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you shouldn’t pay a lower tax rate than your secretary. (Applause.) That’s a pretty simple concept to understand. Now, if, like 98 percent of American families, you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes shouldn’t go up. (Applause.)

This is not class warfare. It has nothing to do with envy. It’s simple math. If somebody like me is getting a tax break that I don’t need, then two things can happen -- either the deficit goes up further, our debt increases, or alternatively, we are balancing our budget on the backs of seniors who are paying more for Medicare, or students who are paying more for their student loans, or a veteran who really needs help, or a family trying to get by. Why would I ask them to sacrifice and I do nothing when this country has blessed me like no other country could ever do? That’s not right. That’s not who we are.

We’re only here because somebody, somewhere felt a responsibility to each other and to our country’s future. Our story has never been about what we do alone. It’s about what we can do together. (Applause.) That’s why we won’t win the competition for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security, we will not be as competitive as we need to be in the 21st century economy, the market will not work as well if we just respond to these same economic challenges with the same old you’re-on-your-own economics.

It just doesn’t work. In fact, it’s never worked. It didn’t work in the decade before the Great Depression. It didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. Why do we think it would work now? It’s not as if we didn’t try it. (Applause.) We tried it. It didn’t work. And middle-class families lost more and more ground. And those folks trying to get in the middle class saw those ladders to success erode. We saw it.

That’s part of what our campaign in 2008 was about. That’s what we’re trying to reverse. And we’ve begun to make progress, but we’ve got a lot more work to do. We got to build an economy that lasts because we’ve all got a stake in each other’s success.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Four more years! (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Look, think about it this way -- if we attract an outstanding teacher to the teaching profession by giving her the pay she deserves and the support that she needs, and that teacher goes on and educates the next Steve Jobs, we all benefit -- America is stronger. That was a good investment. We get a good return. If we provide faster Internet service to some rural part of America that doesn’t have it right now and suddenly there’s a store owner there who is able to connect with the global economy and start selling their stuff around the world -- that benefits us. It makes our country stronger. If we build a new bridge that saves a shipping company time and money, workers and customers all over the country end up doing better.

This is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. It was a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, who launched the Transcontinental Railroad, the National Academy of Sciences, the first land grant colleges in the midst of a civil war. Republican Teddy Roosevelt called for a progressive income tax, carved out land to conserve for future generations. (Applause.) It was a Republican, Dwight Eisenhower, who built the Interstate Highway System. And with the help of Republicans in Congress, FDR was able to give millions of returning heroes, including my grandfather, the chance to go to college on the G.I. Bill. (Applause.)

This is an American idea, And sometimes the other side seems to have lost its way. It doesn’t seem to remember these are American ideas. That sense of common purpose and that spirit of common purpose still exists today. In Washington, sometimes the political rhetoric, it’s all about us and them. And the notion is if it wasn’t for them, everyone would be okay. And then, the circle of who is us gets smaller. (Laughter.) But that’s Washington. In America, that spirit is still there. It’s there when you talk to people on main streets and town halls, if you go to VFW halls. It’s there when you talk to our members of the Armed Forces. It’s there in places of worship.

Our politics may be divided, but if you watched cable TV you’d think we’re all tearing at each other’s throats. But most Americans, they still understand we are greater together, that no matter who we are, no matter where we come from -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, rich or poor -- we rise or fall as one nation and one people. That’s what people understand. (Applause.) That’s the politics that we built in 2008. That’s what’s at stake right now. That’s what this election is all about.

I know these last three years have been tough. I know the change that we fought for in 2008 has come in fits and starts and sometimes it hasn’t come as fast as folks wanted. We’ve had setbacks. I’ve made mistakes. After all that’s happened in Washington, I know it’s tempting sometimes to believe that maybe what we imagined isn’t possible. But remember what we used to say during the campaign, that real change, big change is hard and it takes time. And it takes more than a single term. And it takes more than a single President. What it requires is ordinary citizens who come together with a shared vision and who are committed and persistent and just stay at it and keep fighting and keep pushing, and inching this country closer and closer and closer to our highest ideals.

And I said in 2008 I’m not a perfect man and I will not be a perfect president. But I promised you then that I would always tell you what I thought, I would always tell you where I stood, and I would wake up every single day fighting for you as hard as I know how. And I have kept that promise. (Applause.)

And so if you’re willing to stand with me and keep pushing and keep fighting and keep believing and, yes, keep hoping, then change will come. If you’re willing to work even harder than you were in 2008, then we’re going to finish what we started. (Applause.) Stand with me. Walk with me. Organize with me. Hope with me. And we will remind the world just why it is that America is the greatest nation on Earth.

God bless you and God bless this country of ours. (Applause.)

END
9:40 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 17, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Private Residence
San Francisco, California

7:26 P.M. PST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.) Ah, I've got a little blues track going on here. I like that. Please, everybody have a seat. Instead of "Ruffles and Flourishes," we might have to get this crew every time I come on stage. It sounded smooth. (Laughter.)

I want to -- first of all, obviously, I want to thank Robert and Nicole and all the kids for letting us crash their house. They have been extraordinary friends and supporters for so long, and for them to help to organize this is something that means so much to me. So I want to thank them.

In addition, I want to thank Reverend Al Green for taking the time to be here. (Applause.) I took a chance at the Apollo -- (laughter) -- and I'm not going to take a chance again.

AUDIENCE: Awwww!

THE PRESIDENT: No. No, I'm sorry. Now, what is possible is after reelection -- (laughter) -- I might go on tour with the good Reverend. (Applause.) Be his opening act. But I don't want to lose any further votes because of my singing voice. But we are greatly honored to have you here. Thank you so much.

To Booker T. Jones, Les Claypool, Charlie Musselwhite, thank you so much, gentlemen, for being here. (Applause.) We are all big fans. (Applause.) We are all huge fans of your music, and it is a great honor to have you guys here. As Robert and Nicole know, the arts are part of what brings us together, what binds us together as a people. And one of the things -- we're actually having a Blues Night next week, which is going to be part of our effort at the White House to lift up the importance of the arts in our lives and make sure that our kids understand the power of expression.

And then, finally, I just want to acknowledge -- those of you who are going to come down to North Carolina for our outstanding convention, we've got the person who will be our host -- the Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, Anthony Foxx is here. (Applause.)

As I look around the room, I've got some new friends and I've got some folks who have supported me since I had just been elected to the U.S. Senate and who I've known for quite some time. All of you have been doing good work, separate and apart from my campaign, for a lot of years, making this community better, making sure that folks who are vulnerable got the help they need, making sure that our kids have a chance to excel in this globalized world, helping to promote understanding. And so we've got a lot of do-gooders in this room and I'm grateful for everything that you guys do, day in, day out.

I am not going to speak long at the top, because usually in a setting like this, what I love to do is take questions and bounce things around. But I just want to reflect a little bit on where we've been over the last three years.

We've gone through the toughest economy, the worst financial crisis, worst economic crisis, since the Great Depression -- since our lifetimes -- in our lifetimes. And things are still tough. There are a lot of people here in California and all across the country who are still struggling each and every day. Their homes may be underwater. They may be out of work. If they've got work, they're struggling to pay the bills. And what was true before 2008 is still true for too many today, which is the sense that their concept of the American Dream, what it means to be an American, feels like it's slipping away from them; that idea that if you work hard, if you're responsible, if you're looking out for your family and a good citizen, that you can make it, you can afford to buy a house, and send your kids to school, and retire with some dignity and respect -- that sense was slipping away from too many people far before this economic crisis, and this economic crisis made it that much tougher.

Having said that, three years from when I took office, America is moving on the right track. We are stronger than we were. (Applause.) The month that I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs; last month we gained 250,000. That's a turnaround of a million jobs in this country. (Applause.) We've seen 3.7 million jobs created over the last 23 months, the strongest job growth in a long time -- since 2005 -- and the strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s.

An economy that was in danger of tipping into a Great Depression is starting to heal and rebuild itself. And our challenge right now is not just to settle for getting back to where we were in 2008. Our challenge is, how do we address all those accumulated problems that helped to lead to the crisis, and how do we restore a sense for folks in the middle class and those aspiring to the middle class or beyond that they've got a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share, and fair play reigns across the country, and our core values as Americans are being respected and honored. That’s what’s at stake.

And so even as we were dealing with the economic crisis, we tried not, over the last three years, to take our eye off the larger purpose of rebuilding an economy that has a firmer foundation. And that meant making sure, for example, that people in this country don’t go bankrupt when they get sick. And as tough as it was for us to be able to pass universal health care that had alluded previous Presidents, and 2.6 million young people already have health insurance now because of that law that didn’t have it before, and millions of seniors across the country are seeing the cost of prescription drugs going down for them, and us setting the stage so that in my second term we will have fully implemented this law and 30 million people will have coverage that didn’t have it before -- (applause) -- and prevention is covered, and insurance companies can’t drop people because of the fine print right when they need it the most -- that’s part of building an economy that’s built to last.

We wanted to make sure that at a time when education has never been more important, that we made sure that we started digging in and figuring out how do we guarantee every child has a decent education. And that meant taking on our friends and not just our enemies, and saying, yes, we’re going to put more money into the system, but we’re also going to insist on reform, and we’re going to do a better job training our teachers and giving them the support that they need, but also demanding some accountability, and instead of just teaching to the test, making sure that we have a way of measuring outcomes so that our young people can compete in math and science but also the arts and the humanities.

And 40 states now across the country have made significant education reforms because of our efforts -- unprecedented effort at school reform over the last several years. It doesn’t get a lot of notice.

And then we realized, you know, it’s not enough for them just to get through high school these days, they’re going to have to go college. But the barriers of college costs, tuition costs have been so great we decided let’s stop sending $60 billion in subsidies to the banks and let’s channel that money directly into student loans and increase Pell grants, so that now you’ve got millions of students who are less burdened by debt and have greater opportunity not just to go to four-year colleges but also to go to two-year colleges, or, in some cases, adults who have the capacity now to go and get retrained so that they can get back into the workforce with the new skills that they need. (Applause.)

And we decided that if we’re going to have economy built to last that we’ve got to finally take on energy. But it’s not enough for us to just drill our way out of the problem. We recognize that we’re not going to immediately transition off of fossil fuels and we’ve got to increase American energy production. But it can’t just be oil and natural gas. We also have to make sure that we’re investing in the energies of the future.

And so we’ve doubled clean energy because of the investments that we’ve made -- created entire industries here in the United States in things like advanced battery manufacturing. Because we understand that we can’t keep on going every spring -- we basically, like clockwork, say to ourselves, well, gas prices are going up and the economy is now going to be held hostage. Not to mention our concern about the planet that we’re going to be leaving our kids and our grandkids.

And we decided, although the global economy shifted, and because manufacturing has become more efficient, we are going to have to recognize that a bigger and bigger portion of the economy will be service-based, we still want America to have the best manufacturing capacity in the world -- which is part of the reason why at a time when it was unpopular not just with the Republicans but also Democrats to save the auto industry, we decided to go in there and restructure and force workers and management to work together. (Applause.) And GM, which was on the verge of liquidation, is now once again the number-one automaker in the world, with the highest profits that they have ever seen. (Applause.)

And part of our commitment to that economy of the future was making sure that we restored science to its rightful place. And so we increased our investments in NIH and NSF, and made sure that stem cell research could proceed. (Applause.) And insisted that we place the highest priority on technology and innovation, in government, through our research -- because nobody understands better than this region of the country and how important that is to our economic future.

And then, finally, we had to make sure that fair play meant something. And so the first bill I signed said, equal pay for equal work, because I want my daughters to have the same opportunities that anybody’s sons have when they go out into the job market. (Applause.)

And we determined that your capacity to fight for the country you love shouldn’t be contingent on who you love, and we ended “don’t ask, don’t tell.” (Applause.) Because there was something quintessentially American about treating everybody equally and judging them on the merits.

And there were great predictions that this was going to be impossible to do, but we did it. And you know what, I was in Marine Base Kaneohe in Hawaii during vacation, and while I was working out at the Marine base -- which is a bad idea because they’re all in much better shape than you are -- (laughter) -- on three different occasions people came up and said, thank you for doing that. And I don’t know whether they were directly impacted or they just had a fellow Marine that was impacted, but they understand this makes us stronger. It doesn’t make us weaker.

And then, as Robert mentioned, we recognize that our strength at home has to be matched with strength abroad. But that strength is not just defined by our military might. It’s also defined by our values and our diplomacy and our respect for rule of law, which is why we ended torture, and why we kept our commitment to responsibly end that war in Iraq.

That didn’t make us weaker. It gave us the capacity to refocus our attention on those who had attacked us on 9/11. And there is a direct line between the strategic decisions we made there and our ability to begin dismantling al Qaeda, and to restore a sense of respect for America all around the world that has huge dividends over the long term -- so that when I took a trip to Asia, rather than feeling neglected or feeling America was no longer relevant, people were hungry for American leadership. People recognized that we remain the one indispensable nation, not just because we’re big and powerful, but also because we have this idea that there are certain universal principles and universal rights and international norms that have to be observed and that we are perhaps the only superpower in history that obviously is looking out for our own self-interest, but also thinks about what’s good for everybody. And that is part of our power.

So we’ve been busy these last three years. And for all the difficulties, and all the challenges, and all the political twists and turns that this journey has taken, I’m here to report to you that all that work you did back in 2008, it's paid off. And you should feel pride and confidence in the fact that change remains possible if you’re persistent, if you’re focused.

But I’m also here to report that you shouldn’t feel complacent, because we’ve got a lot more to do. We’ve got to fully implement health care reform. We’ve got to fully implement financial reform. We’ve got to make sure that our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is protecting consumers for the first time isn’t rolled back.

We’ve still got to get immigration reform done, because we are a nation of immigrants and we’re a nation of laws, and those two things don’t contradict each other.

We have to have an even more robust energy policy if we’re going to create the kind of jobs in this new energy sector that are needed and we’re going to deal with climate change in a serious way.

We’ve still got to follow through on the education reforms that we’re doing, and that’s going to require enormous effort. And we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for all this stuff. And part of fair play and everybody doing their fair share is making sure that we have an economy in which we’re getting rid of programs that don’t work and we’re making government more efficient. But it also means people like those of us in this room that have been unbelievably blessed can do a little bit more to make sure that kid around the corner has a chance like we did, and to make sure that that senior is protected -- (applause) -- make sure that student can get a loan that doesn’t leave them broke after they graduate, and to make sure that senior is able to live with dignity and respect after they retire.

All these things can be accomplished, but we’re going to have to feel as determined, we’re going to have to be as focused as we were in 2008. And that’s not going to be easy because, first of all, I’m older and I’m grayer. (Laughter.) So it’s not as new, it’s not as trendy to be part of the Obama campaign -- although some of you still have your posters, I’m sure. (Laughter.) And part of it is we’ve gone through three tough years and so people want to hope, but they’ve been worn down by a lot of hardship.

But as I travel around the country, I have to tell you, there’s a core decency to the American people. There is a resilience to the American people. There is under all the cynicism, a basic optimism to the American people. That’s what we tapped into in 2008 and it’s still there. It’s still there.

And if we pull together and if we work just as hard, I guarantee you that five years from now we’re going to be able to look back and say, you know what, that change we believed in we delivered.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.)

END
7:44 P.M. PST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

Statement by the President

Leaders of both parties have done the right thing for our families and for our economy by reaching an agreement that will prevent a tax hike on 160 million working Americans. I urge Congress to pass this agreement so that the payroll tax cut we put in place last year will not expire at the end of this month. The typical American family will still see an extra $40 in every paycheck, keeping nearly $1,000 of their hard-earned money this year. And millions of Americans who are out pounding the pavement looking for new work to support their families will still be able to depend on the vital lifeline of unemployment insurance.

I thank the many Americans who lent their voices to this debate in recent months. You made all the difference. This is real money that will make a real difference in people’s lives. It includes important reforms that I proposed in the American Jobs Act to help discourage businesses from laying off workers and to connect workers with jobs. It includes a critical element in the plan I outlined in the State of the Union to out-innovate the rest of the world by unleashing mobile broadband, investing in innovation, and building a nationwide public safety network. It will mean a stronger economy and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. And as soon as Congress sends this bipartisan agreement to my desk, I will sign it into law right away. But this must be only the start of what we do together this year. There’s much more the American people need and expect from us – to help our businesses keep creating jobs, to help restore security for middle class families, and to leave an economy that’s built to last.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Elissa F. Cadish, of Nevada, to be United States District Judge for the District of Nevada, vice Philip M. Pro, retired.

Paul William Grimm, of Maryland, to be United States District Judge for the District of Maryland, vice Benson Everett Legg, retiring.

Jill A. Pryor, of Georgia, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, vice Stanley F. Birch, Jr., retired.

Mark E. Walker, of Florida, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Florida, vice Stephan P. Mickle, retired.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Erica L. Groshen – Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor
Jeffrey D. Levine – Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia, Department of State
Peter Mahurin – Member, Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
Major General John Peabody – President, Mississippi River Commission

President Obama said, “These individuals have demonstrated knowledge and dedication throughout their careers. I am grateful they have chosen to take on these important roles, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Dr. Erica L. Groshen, Nominee for Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor
Dr. Erica L. Groshen is Vice President and Economist in the Regional Analysis Function of the Research and Statistics Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a position she has held since 2010. Dr. Groshen joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1994 and has held a number of positions prior to her current role, including Vice President and Director of Regional Affairs in the Communications Group (2006 - 2010); Assistant Vice President in the Microeconomic and Regional Studies Function (2000 - 2006); Head of Domestic Research (1997 - 1999); and Head of International Research (1994 -1997). From 1999 to 2000, she was also a Visiting Economist at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. From 1993 to 1994, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Barnard College at Columbia University. Dr. Groshen began her career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where she served as an Economic Advisor from 1991 to 1993 and as an Economist from 1986 to 1991. She is a Member of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data Users’ Advisory Committee and serves on the editorial board of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. Dr. Groshen earned her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Jeffrey D. Levine, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia, Department of State
Jeffrey D. Levine, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, has served as the State Department’s Office Director of Recruitment, Examination and Employment since September 2010. Prior to this position, he was Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Hungary from 2007 to 2010. From 2003 to 2006, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Sofia, Bulgaria. Other overseas positions include: Management Counselor in Brasilia, Brazil (1999-2002); Management Officer in Nicosia, Cyprus (1995-1998); Consular/General Services Officer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1988-1990); and Consular/Political Officer in Lima, Peru (1985-1987). In Washington, Mr. Levine served as Special Assistant in the Office of the Under Secretary for Management (1994-1995), Hungary Desk Officer in the Office of Eastern European Affairs (1993-1994), and Watch Officer in the State Operations Center (1992-1993). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Humboldt State University and a Master’s Degree from National Defense University.

Peter Mahurin, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
Peter Mahurin is Chairman of Hilliard Lyons Financial Services, a position he has held since 2008. Mr. Mahurin has worked for Hilliard Lyons since 1968 in various capacities. In addition to his work at Hilliard Lyons, Mr. Mahurin serves as a board member for Houchens Industries, Albany Bancorp, Cecelia Bancorp, Gray Construction, Jackson Financial, and the Governors Scholars of Kentucky. Prior to his time at Hilliard Lyons, Mr. Mahurin was a high school math and science teacher. Mr. Mahurin earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Western Kentucky University.

Major General John Peabody, Nominee for President, Mississippi River Commission
Major General John Peabody is Commander and Division Engineer of the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Major General Peabody directs all U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water resources development in the Mississippi River basin, an area of over 370,000 square miles including all or parts of 12 states. He entered military service in 1980 upon commissioning as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, and has spent most of his career as a combat engineer, with operational deployments to Somalia, Kuwait, and Iraq. Major General Peabody is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, the Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College with a master's degree in Strategic Studies. He also received an M.P.A from Harvard University and studied as an Olmsted Scholar at El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

President Obama Nominates Three to Serve on the US District Court

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Judge Elissa F. Cadish, Judge Paul William Grimm and Judge Mark E. Walker to serve on the United States District Court.

“Throughout their careers, these nominees have displayed unwavering commitment to justice and integrity,” said President Obama. “Their records of public service are distinguished and impressive and I am confident that they will serve the American people well from the United States District Court bench. I am honored to nominate them today.”

Judge Elissa F. Cadish: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
Judge Elissa F. Cadish has been a district court judge on the Eighth Judicial District Court of Nevada, based in Las Vegas, since 2007. Previously, she spent twelve years at the law firm of Hale Lane Peek Dennison & Howard, beginning as an associate in 1995 and becoming a shareholder in 2000. From 1991 to 1995, Judge Cadish worked as an associate at the law firm of Jolley Urga Wirth & Woodbury. She began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Philip M. Pro of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Judge Cadish received her J.D. in 1989 from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.A. magna cum laude in 1986 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Judge Paul William Grimm: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
Judge Paul William Grimm has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Maryland since 1997 and has served as the Chief United States Magistrate Judge since 2006. Previously, Judge Grimm spent approximately thirteen years in private practice handling primarily commercial litigation. During this time, Judge Grimm also served as Commissioner for the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. From 1981 to 1984, Judge Grimm served as Chief of Litigation and Administration for the Maryland Department of Licensing and Regulation. He is also a former Assistant State’s Attorney for Baltimore County, having served in that position from 1980 to 1981. Judge Grimm began his career as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps with the United States Army, later serving for more than twenty years in the same position with the Army Reserve. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1976 from the University of New Mexico School of Law and his B.A. summa cum laude in 1973 from the University of California at Davis.

Judge Mark E. Walker: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida
Judge Mark E. Walker has been a Florida Circuit Judge in Tallahassee since 2009. Previously, he spent ten years in private practice, specializing in civil litigation and criminal defense. From 1997 to 1999, Judge Walker served as an Assistant Public Defender for Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit. Judge Walker began his legal career with three clerkships. From 1996 to 1997, he clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Hinkle of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida; from 1994 to 1996, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen H. Grimes of the Florida Supreme Court; and from 1993 to 1994, he clerked for the Honorable Emmett Ripley Cox of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Walker received his J.D. with high honors in 1992 from the University of Florida and his B.A. in 1989 from the University of Florida, graduating first in his class.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

President Obama Nominates Jill A. Pryor to Serve on the US Court of Appeals

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Jill A. Pryor to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

“Jill A. Pryor has displayed exceptional dedication to the legal profession through her work and I am honored to nominate her to serve the American people as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals,” President Obama said. "She will be a diligent, judicious and esteemed addition to the Eleventh Circuit bench."

Jill A. Pryor: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Jill A. Pryor is a partner at the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia, where she specializes in complex business litigation at both the trial and appellate levels.

Pryor was born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in 1985 from the College of William & Mary, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. She then attended Yale Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Journal and obtained her J.D. in 1988. After graduating from law school, Pryor clerked for the Honorable J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She joined Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore as an associate in 1989, becoming a partner at the firm in 1997. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants in the areas of business torts, corporate governance and shareholder disputes, class actions, trade secrets, intellectual property, fraud, and the Georgia and federal RICO laws.

Throughout her career, Pryor has been actively involved in the Atlanta legal community. She currently serves on the State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors and on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Legal Services Program. She has also served as President of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers and as Chair of the State Bar of Georgia’s Appellate Practice Section. Additionally, Pryor was formerly a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Private Residence
Corona del Mar, California

9:52 A.M. PST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. (Applause.) Thank you, Orange County! Thank you. Thank you. Everybody, please have a seat. It is great to be here on such a spectacular day. This is what California weather is supposed to look like. (Applause.) I have to say, yesterday, up in LA, I could see my breath when I was speaking. (Laughter.) I was a little concerned. But today you guys are living up to your billing.

I want to thank everybody who's here, but obviously I want to, first of all, thank Janet for the wonderful introduction, but also being such a powerhouse in terms of helping making this thing happen. Janet Keller, thank you. (Applause.) As well as Bernie -- thank you so much for letting Janet spend all this time on this. (Laughter.)

I want to thank Jeff and Nancy and their entire family for opening up their spectacular home to us. Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thanks for your hospitality.

To Wylie and Bette and so many other who've helped to pull this together -- you guys have been with me through thick and thin, so thank you so much. We love you guys.

And a couple of wonderful elected officials -- one, your own representative, Loretta Sanchez, is in the house. (Applause.) But we also have an import here. He is going to be hosting us at the Democratic National Convention. He’s the mayor of Charlotte -- Anthony Foxx is here. (Applause.) Charlotte, North Carolina. (Applause.)

Now, usually in these things what I like to do is be brief at the top and then I have some time to answer questions and take comments and suggestions, and so it ends up being a little more informal.

But picking up on something that Janet said -- we’ve obviously gone through three of the toughest years that America has seen in our lifetime: the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Four million people losing their jobs in the six months before I took office, 4 million more in the six months after I was sworn in, but before our economic policies had a chance to take effect. An auto industry on the brink of collapse. Layoffs all across the country, state and local governments struggling, at the same as we faced enormous global challenges, from two wars to a global economy that was shrinking.

And as we look back over these last three years, I think we can all say that we’re not yet where we need to be, we haven’t solved every challenge, but what we’ve been able to accomplish -- in part because of you, in part because of your support and your voices -- has been remarkable.

The month I took office we were losing 750,000 a month. Last month we created 250,000. That’s a million-job swing. And that’s representative of the progress that the economy has made. We now have more manufacturing jobs being created than any time since the 1990s. And although unemployment is still too high, over the last 23 months we’ve created 3.7 million jobs, and people are starting to get a sense that the economy is on the rebound. (Applause.)

Even as that has been our singular focus, we recognize that there are a whole bunch of issues and a whole bunch of challenges that faced us even before this recession hit. That’s what led me to get in this race in the first place -- the sense that folks who were working hard were treading water, that we were becoming a country where just a few did well and so many others were struggling to get by. Problems like health care that had been escalating for decades. A lack of an energy policy that had put us in a vulnerable position every time there was turmoil in the Middle East. Issues that had been lingering, but we kept on kicking down the road because we didn’t have enough political will and political courage to do something about it.

So even as we were grappling with this enormous economic crisis, we did not forget those challenges that led us to start that campaign in 2008 in the first place.

And so, yes, we pushed and pushed and pushed, until we finally were able to pass legislation that ensures that every American is going to be able to get health care in the country, and nobody is going to go bankrupt when they get sick. And already we've got 2.6 million young people who have coverage who did not have it before because of this law -- (applause) -- seniors all across the country benefiting from lower prescription drug plan -- (applause) -- and the promise not only of making sure health care is affordable, and preventive care and mammograms and other things are available, and people aren't being dropped from their health insurance when they get sick because they now have the Patient's Bill of Rights, but it also promises to actually, over time, lower health care costs, which will help reduce our deficits, and help businesses and families well into the future.

We kept on focusing on energy, even though we were grappling with this economic crisis, and have doubled the production of clean energy in this country from wind and solar and biodiesel. And even as we have said that we're going to have to continue to develop American energy and traditional energy sources like oil and gas, we've also said we're not going to compromise on making sure that there are strong environmental controls in place, because we want our kids having clean air and clean water. We want them growing up in the kind of country -- (applause) -- the kind of country that protects and preserves its natural resources, and conserves our land and this incredible bounty that God has given us.

Even as we were focusing on the economy, we said, we want an America where everybody is treated fairly. So first bill I passed -- equal pay for equal work. I want my daughters to be treated just like somebody else's sons when it comes to a job. (Applause.)

And we said, given the incredible sacrifices that our military makes, we don’t want your capacity to serve the country you love to be dependent on who you love. And we ended "don't ask, don't tell," because that’s part of fairness. That’s part of who we are as Americans. (Applause.)

Whether it was doubling fuel efficiency standards on cars -- probably the most significant environmental action that’s been taken in two or three decades -- to making sure that student loans were more accessible to folks who are going to college, to trying to revamp our job training system so that our workers are getting the best skills in the world and can compete in this 21st century -- even as we were dealing with the immediate crisis, the immediate emergency, we’ve tried to keep our eye on our long-term goal, which is restoring an America where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules -- an America where everybody feels a sense of responsibility not only to themselves, but also to the larger community and the larger country.

And we’ve done all this obviously with some fairly vocal opposition. (Laughter.) And we’ve done this even as the weight of the economic crisis made it more difficult. We did this at a time when changes around the world were taking place more quickly than we’ve ever seen before. And so, even as I was managing two wars, we also had to deal with an Arab Spring in which suddenly millions of people, especially young people, said, we want a different way of life.

And there have been setbacks. There have been times where progress was not as fast as we wanted. And there’s so much more work that remains to be done. We still have a broken immigration system that has to be reformed so that we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We still have more work to do on energy, because the fact of the matter is that, for example, if America simply matched the energy efficiency of a country like Japan, we would lower our overall energy utilization by 20 or 25 percent. Nothing could be more important in terms of our economy and the long-term health of this planet. That’s more work to do.

We are going to have to make sure that we close this deficit and reduce our debt in a responsible and balanced way, which means that we get rid of programs that don’t work and we evaluate carefully our spending to make sure we’re getting a good bang for the buck. And we say to those who can afford to do a little bit more, like me, that you’ve got to be part of the solution in terms of lowering this deficit. It can’t be just done on the backs of seniors or students in the forms of higher loans or more expensive Medicare.

So we’ve still got a lot of work to do. And that’s, hopefully, why all of you are here today. I always joke that back in 2008, if you got behind my campaign it wasn’t because you thought it was a sure thing. (Laughter.) Electing Barack Hussein Obama was not the -- (laughter) -- easy route to take. So you got involved because you had a sense of possibility, a sense of how this country could be brought together and start moving in a new direction.

We’ve begun that process, but the journey is not complete. And although I’m a little grayer now than I was, a little dinged up -- (laughter) -- and some of the newness and excitement that possessed us in 2008 naturally will have dissipated. That sense of urgency and determination, and the values that are at stake are no less today than they were back in 2008. (Applause.) If anything, it’s more urgent and we have to be more determined and more energized and work even harder. And if we do, we’re going to have four and a half more years to change America.

Thank you. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)

END
10:04 A.M. PST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 16, 2012

President Obama Announces Presidential Delegation to the Holy See to Attend a Ceremony Elevating Two American Archbishops to Cardinals

President Barack Obama today announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Holy See to attend the consistory at which two American Archbishops will be elevated to Cardinals. On February 18, Pope Benedict XVI will elevate Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore to the College of Cardinals.

The Honorable Miguel H. Díaz, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, will lead the delegation.

Member of the Presidential Delegation:

Mr. Kenneth F. Hackett, President Emeritus, Catholic Relief Services