Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney en route New Hampshire, 9/7/2012

Aboard Air Force One
En Route New Hampshire

10:50 A.M. EDT

MR. CARNEY:  Thank you for joining us as we make our way to New Hampshire first and then Iowa. 

MS. PSAKI:  And then Florida.

MR. CARNEY:  And then Florida.  That's right, all in one day.  I hope you all enjoyed both the Vice President and the President last night as much as we did -- at the end of a terrific convention, I think.  I'm sure Jen will have more to say about that.

Before I turn it over to Jen, I wanted to tell you, to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the President, the First Lady, and White House staff will gather on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday morning to observe a moment of silence.

Later that morning, the President and First Lady will travel to the Pentagon Memorial.  On Tuesday afternoon, the President will travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and visit with wounded warriors who are being treated at the hospital, and with their families.

Also on Tuesday, Vice President Biden will travel to Somerset County, Pennsylvania, to attend the Flight 93 National Memorial commemorative service to honor the passengers and crew who died there 11 years ago.

On Tuesday morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will travel to New York and attend a memorial service at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

MS. PSAKI:  I'll just say -- and I’m sure there will be, of course, questions about the convention -- but we were just chatting with the President before we came back here, and our collective view as a campaign and his view is that he did exactly what he came to the convention to do last night, which was to bring the choice into focus for the American people, to lay out the path forward, talk about not only where we’ve been and remind people of the challenges we’ve gone through, the tough choices we needed to make, the individual people who were impacted, but also lay out a path forward on. 

And we know now that for the next 60 days, the American people can look back at this speech and they’ll know this is what the President’s path forward is.

Also, for three days of this convention, you could feel a palpable enthusiasm in the convention hall, and that's something we came out -- I think we all came out, including the President, feeling really great about.  From the First Lady’s speech, where she made a personal and passionate pitch to the American people on why they should send her husband back, to President Clinton’s detailed rundown of why on policies that impact the middle class the President is better, to the President’s final homerun last night. 

So we feel great about it.  We’re energized and excited about it, and we hope that the people of North Carolina are as well coming out of it.

MR. CARNEY:  Questions.

Q    Jay, did the President see the jobs report last night before he spoke?  Does that -- might explain the more somber tone that he took for the speech?

MR. CARNEY:  Jim, we don't discuss private meetings and private conversations the President has.  We follow traditional  -- regular procedure in terms of having him informed about monthly economic data like the jobs numbers.  I can tell you that the speech was very much as it had been prepared prior to any information about economic data -- because the whole point that the President made and has been making as a matter of policy is that we need to continue to build on the progress that we have seen, progress that now amounts to 30 straight months of private sector job creation -- 4.6 million private sector jobs -- steady economic growth, more than half a million manufacturing jobs, and we've seen progress in areas like reducing our dependence on foreign oil, doubling our production of renewable energy.

But we're not there yet.  And that was the essence of the President's message -- we have to keep moving forward; we can't move backward.  And I think that the jobs numbers that we heard this morning reinforce what the President was discussing last night in his speech to the convention.

Q    Jay, those jobs numbers also show, though, that they're readjusted downward for June and July by, I believe, 43,000 jobs. That suggests that the trajectory wasn’t exactly what had been projected last month.  What does that say about where the numbers are going?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I can tell you two things.  One is, we just learned today that we've had 30 straight months of private sector job growth -- 4.6 million private sector jobs.  There are revisions to these figures, as you know.  The collection of economic data is an imperfect science and there are revisions all the time.  A year ago today, we received a jobs report saying that that month, in August in 2011, zero jobs were created.  After revisions, that figure is now closer to 85,000 jobs, positive, created.

So we look at trends.  We look at the progress we're making.  We look at the things that we need to do to continue to keep the economy growing.  It is just a simple statement of fact, according to economic analysts, experts on the outside, that if all of the provisions of the President's American Jobs Act, which he put forward to Congress a year ago tomorrow, had been approved and not blocked by Republicans in Congress, there would be 1 million more people at least working today -- 1 million more jobs, many of them teachers, firefighters, police officers.

And if you just focus on the teacher portion of that, think about the compound benefit of having those teachers back in the classroom for our children and for our economic growth.  And the President spoke passionately about that last night, too, when he talked about the foundational importance of education to our economy.
 
Q    Jay, what's the status of the sequestration report that was due to come out today?

MR. CARNEY:  I think I saw something here.  The President signed into law the Sequestration Transparency Act, as you know, which requires the administration to report to Congress on the cuts required by the sequester in the event that Congress fails to act on balancing deficit reduction.  Given the time needed to address the complex issues involved in preparing the report, the administration will be submitting that report to Congress late next week.

But let me just tell you that no amount of planning changes the fact that sequester would have devastating consequences.  And that's why it is time for Republicans in Congress to stop putting our nation at risk for these cuts because of their insistence on preserving a trillion-dollar tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.  It's just another example of -- in some ways, similar to what we experienced last summer -- where Republicans' insistence that millionaires get a tax cut blocks the kind of common-sense compromise, kind of common-sense progress that we can make if the Republicans would simply abandon their maximalist position, all of which is based on, as the President said last night, this notion that the singular prescription for any economic ill is more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Q    Do you have a date for late next week?

MR. CARNEY:  Late next week.  That's all I have.

Q    When you said it's complicated, isn't it complicated for -- isn't a month -- haven't you had a lot of time to put it together?  What is it that's so complicated that it requires an extra week?

MR. CARNEY:  There are a lot of factors involved in preparing a report like this, and that's why we'll be releasing it next week.

Q    Jen, can you talk about the Republican reaction to the jobs report?  I know, if it's not celebratory, they see validation for their argument that, okay, you can't blame the President for the recession, but you can blame him for the sluggishness of the recovery.

MS. PSAKI:  A couple things.  One is, Jay touched on the impact the American Jobs Act would have -- 1 million jobs -- if Congress would move forward and act; if Mitt Romney and his team would get behind ideas that have traditionally had support from Republicans in the past:  investing in infrastructure, helping small businesses grow and prosper, keeping teachers in their jobs.

Instead they've opposed that, as you know, and also they've put out a budget that private sector economists -- or they support -- that private sector economists have said would also -- could cost 1 million jobs.  So that leads us to the conclusion that in the next year alone, President Obama's plan would produce 2 million more jobs than Mitt Romney's plan.  So it's tough to see how they can be making the argument that they have a better plan.

I'll also say I noticed in their statement that they referenced last night was like a party and today is like a hangover -- I'm getting it a little wrong.  If you go with Mitt Romney's and his team's approach to the economy, their approach is like going back to the hair of the dog, as they say in the bar scenes, and going back to the same policies that led us to the crisis that we've been going through to begin with, that has not worked.  And we know they haven't worked because we've seen this movie before.  And he had the opportunity to lay out his plan last week and really just didn’t do that.

Q    Jen, are you saying the hair of the dog is not effective?

MS. PSAKI:  I think it's a personal thing.  It may work for you; it may not work for everyone.  (Laughter.)   

MR. CARNEY:  I think the point is if you find yourself with a problem you don't go back and do the thing that created the problem. 

If I could add as a matter of economic policy and data, the current recovery, which is a recovery from the worst recession that we've seen in our lifetimes, from a cataclysmic economic free fall that was occurring when this President was sworn into office, has produced on average over the last 30 months, or during this period of recovery, 155,000 jobs per month on average.  The previous recovery under President George W. Bush produced on average 66,000 jobs per month.

We are not where we need to be.  The President made that clear last night; he makes it clear all the time.  The hole dug by the Great Recession is very deep and we're still pulling our way out of it.  But because of the President's policies, because of the actions that Congress took with saving the auto industry with the President, with passing the Recovery Act and other measures, because the President was able to work with Republicans and get extension of the payroll tax cut as well as other measures, we continue to move in the right direction.

And if Republicans would simply drop their insistence that millionaires and billionaires must have more tax cuts and must have them at the expense of the middle class and at the expense of seniors, we will be able to get a lot more done.  We'll put more people back to work.  We'll put more teachers in the classroom, more firefighters and police officers on the job, construction workers building schools, roads and bridges.

And I just think that that comparative is helpful.  It's not where we need to be, but under the previous administration, recovery -- another way of looking at it is, over the course of recovery under George W. Bush, at this stage in the recovery, there were 2 million fewer jobs created under Bush than have been created thus far under President Obama.

Q    Romney's campaign has 15 ads up in eight states now. What's the Obama's campaign's response to that?  Do you have anything comparable sort of going up now, post-convention?

MS. PSAKI:  I won't preview our ad strategy before we're ready to announce something.  So that's probably what I have to say.  We will be going up with new ads in the coming weeks, I'm certain, and as soon as we have details to share we'll let you know.

Q    So obviously today he has these two events, and tomorrow there's the Florida bus tour.  In Florida, is the focus going to be primarily on Medicare, or is it going to be more broad-based?  And can you talk a little bit about the decision apparently to have Charlie Crist campaigning with the President  -- what do you see as the advantages to that?

MS. PSAKI:  So let me take the first one.  I think you'll hear -- obviously what the President talked about last night was very consistent with what he's been talking about for months, but you will hear some themes weaved through his remarks over the next couple of days, so he does talk about health care.  He does talk about Medicare often.  But he will be continuing to make the broad pitch to the American people, to the people of Florida this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, as to why they should send him back for another four years.

Part of that is certainly health care.  But there are a number of other issues that they're focused on, and you should expect that he’ll touch on many of them that he touched on last night in his remarks this weekend.

Q    And then your second question was about Crist. 

MS. PSAKI:  For any of you who saw Charlie Crist deliver his remarks, I mean he made a very powerful case for why, politics aside, the President is the right person to lead the country moving forward in Florida.  He has a strong approval rating across Florida with a number of demographic groups, and he’s somebody who we expect will be out there.  I don't have any specific scheduling notes for you about that.

Q    And Sunday, with the President both days?

MS. PSAKI:  I don't know.  I will check that for you and let you know which -- I don't know for sure, so let me double-check what the plans are with his appearances, and I’ll get them back to you before the flight ends.

Q    Secretary Clinton released her decision about the Haqqani network.  What was the White House input on that?

MR. CARNEY:  I believe an announcement regarding that issue is forthcoming.  It has not been formally released.  I refer you to the State Department.

Q    It came out while she was in the air.

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I think it was coming out at 11:00 a.m. actually.  But -- what I can tell you -- what was the actual question, why the timing?

Q    What was the White House input on that particular decision?

MR. CARNEY:  The White House input -- well, the President makes foreign policy decisions, but this is a process that's run through the State Department.  The Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012 requires the Secretary of State to report to the Congress on whether or not the Haqqani network should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization.  That report is due by September 9th.  Today, as you know, is September 7th.  I would refer you to the Department of State for further questions on the status of the report.

Separate from the report, as you know, we’ve taken steps to degrade the Haqqani Taliban network’s ability to carry out its acts, including drying up their resources, targeting them with our military and intelligence resources, and pressing Pakistan to take action.

Q    Why are Iowa and New Hampshire the two states that you chose to focus on coming right out of the convention?  Should we read anything into these being the two specific stops today, not Ohio or Colorado?

MS. PSAKI:  Clearly, both Iowa and New Hampshire have important roles in the President’s journey to the White House, and we expect they’ll both have important roles in his journey back to the White House -- or his continued journey in the White House.

We’re obviously also spending time in Florida this weekend  -- two days in Florida.  As you know, there are a handful of states where we expect this election will be decided.  These are three of them.  I can promise you we’ll be back to Ohio in short order.  I don't have an exact day for you, but I’ll also say that they're all three places that we wanted to make we -- the President wanted to make sure he could come back to the states, give people the opportunity to hear from him directly on the choice they're facing, hear from him on some of the themes he talked about last night, and remind them of the pivotal time we are in the election, just less than two months out.

Q    Do you expect to do any campaigning in North Carolina? I think the last event he held there, aside from the convention, was April 24th.

MS. PSAKI:  I don't have a scheduling update for you on that or any specific announcements to make.  We have said, of course, that because of the unfortunate change we had to make with the stadium move, that when we’re there next we’re going to make sure we invite the people who were unable to attend to attend.  So we’ll look forward to that.  And as soon as we have a date, we’ll make sure you guys know.

Q    Do you have details on where President Clinton is going to appear for you next?  And how often do you think he’ll be on the trail for the President?

MS. PSAKI:  Well, judging from his amazing speech on Wednesday, which we knew he would deliver, and the incredible response that was well deserved, we’d love to have him out there as much as he’s available.  I believe he’s going to be in Ohio and Florida -- let me double-check this for you -- Ohio and Florida next week.  Beyond that I don't have any specific scheduling dates for him, but he’s been an incredible advocate for the President for quite some time.

Obviously, the speech he gave on Wednesday made a very powerful case to the American people and to the middle class as to why the President was a better choice.  It probably makes the Romney team feel a little bit sheepish that they’ve been holding him up as somehow being a validator of theirs given that he gave a speech reminding -- telling people how the President was a better choice. 

So we’re looking forward to having him out there.  I think he will be out there, and I think it’s clear people are looking forward to seeing him more.

Q    What was President Obama’s reaction to Clinton’s speech?  What did he say about it?

MS. PSAKI:  He thought he gave a great speech, that he made an incredibly strong argument, that you can hear, as I mentioned earlier, kind of the palpable, energy and enthusiasm in the hall that night.  That's something that's great to feel.  The President certainly felt that, as well. 

Q    Will we see the two of them on the trail together?

MS. PSAKI:  I don't have any specific dates for you on that, so I don't have any updates on that.  I do have two anecdotes we can tell you guys about, both from last night.  Before the President went out on stage, he was backstage with his family, and his daughters were kind of -- I had never seen this movie, but reenacting a Hannah Montana moment where they kind of said, go, get ‘em, baby, as he was going out on stage.  And I think that he really enjoyed that.  It made him laugh, and it just kind of reminded him of what’s important and what this is all about. 

And then he went back to the hotel last night after the speech, and a number of their friends and close friends had flown in from all over the country, and they were all there.  And so they stayed up for a while with them chatting.  And I think it was really a nice end to the evening.

Q    -- the friends and who was there?

MS. PSAKI:  I mean I don't have a list, obviously, of his friends or a number, but several from around the country came -- a number of the friends you've seen out there traveling with him on the trail, close friends from Chicago. 

Q    Kind of a policy question on the speech last night.  You guys laid out a couple of new goals in the speech about a million jobs, manufacturing jobs, cutting tuition increases in half and so on.  But those basically build on policies that he has already enunciated.  Does the President feel that a convention speech is not a place to lay out new policy, or that he feels kind of boxed in by the politics not to be able to lay out new policy ideas?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I would just say that I -- I would argue that you heard a lot about policy from the President last night. As far as nomination acceptance speeches go, it was very focused on the policy areas where, as President, he put an emphasis on areas like energy and education, manufacturing, and he did lay out new goals related to some of these areas.

And I think that, judging from the response in the hall, and the response that we're told by your colleagues around the country, that hearing about those policy goals, the American people -- the American people, when they heard about those policy goals, welcomed them. 

It's certainly the case that the President believes we need to continue moving in the direction we're moving in terms of growing the economy and creating jobs.  So on energy, for example, being more aggressive about our goal in reducing our reliance on foreign imports is directly related to the successes that we have seen in the past three and a half years when it comes to reducing imports, when it comes to doubling our production of renewable energy and reaching levels of production of natural gas that we've never seen before in history, and most importantly, in a rule that was finalized just last week, new fuel-efficiency standards, which will save 12 billion barrels of oil -- all of these policies have created a foundation for energy security, which is economic security, which is national security -- that are extremely important to this country in the 21st century. 

MS. PSAKI:  And I'll just add -- I was just going to add that the President didn't want this to be a State of the Union address.  But at the same time, we're not going to throw out good ideas just because they're hard and we haven't been able to get them done yet. 

So you heard some ideas and some goals that you heard before last night that he remains doggedly committed to.  And you heard some new goals that, as Jay mentioned, we can -- he could put out there because of the progress we've made.  And Jay talked about why we can talk about reducing -- how we kind of upped our goal on reducing oil imports by half when the earlier one was by a third by 2025. 

But also, on manufacturing, we wouldn't be able to -- he wouldn't be able to set a goal of 1 million manufacturing jobs if he hadn't made the tough choices about the auto industry, if he hadn't made decisions to invest in worker retraining.  So these are goals that we know tough choices will need to be made to achieve them.  Even on the fiscal goals, obviously eliminating capital gains and getting rid of some of these tax loopholes we know is a challenging thing. 

But he is going to keep fighting for these goals.  And what he really wanted to come out of this evening was a path or an understanding -- to give the American people a path forward, an understanding of what his path forward was, so that when they say, okay, we know where we've been and what we've done, which you laid out, we know that tough choices need to be made, but how do we build on that and how will he build on that?  And that’s the question he wanted to answer. 

Q    A question on the jobs report, which is what is the President's message to the people who have sort of dropped out and taken themselves out of the running for now?  And how does he -- out of a job right now -- and how does he prevent the numbers -- I'm not saying that they should dampen people's enthusiasm, but how does he prevent them from dampening people's enthusiasm coming out of this convention?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, on the first question, I think that we've seen -- again, you have to look at trends.  And you have to look at the progress that we've made, which, while not fast enough, has been steady and in the right direction.  There are elements that go into the figure on participation in the labor market that if you're so inclined are worth looking into, including retirement and going back to school.  It's not all about discouraged workers.  In fact, I think the number -- I think I have this right -- the percentage or number of discouraged workers went down a little bit.

But, look, it points out the overall fact that we need to move forward, that the recession that we all experienced was unlike anything we've ever lived through and it's impact on American families across the country was in many cases very severe.  What we simply cannot do is go back to the policies that led to the problem in the first place -- this is the hair of the dog solution.  It's just not the right answer to our economic problems.  It's not -- whether it's deficit reduction, or economic growth, or job creation, or health security, the answer to all of those problems is most assuredly not more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. 

And one of the things that we heard President Clinton explain in a way that only he can, the kind of policies that were in place in the 1990s, including the tax rate for higher-income Americans that President Obama believes we should turn back to, produced a remarkable period of economic growth -- more than 23 million jobs, a situation where our deficits were eliminated and he passed on to his successor, George W. Bush, budget surpluses that were predicted to last as far into the future as we could see.

Eight years later, the President -- this President inherited from his predecessor the largest deficit in history, an economic calamity; the prospect of a great industry, the American automobile industry, liquidating; substantial more job loss associated with that; the potential for global collapse of the financial market.  I mean, I think it could not be clearer what  -- where we need to go and where we cannot go.

Q    Jay, those surpluses in the Clinton era were produced by higher taxes on everybody, not just the top earners.  The President still not -- doesn’t favor increasing taxes as Clinton did for all taxpayers?

MR. CARNEY:  That's exactly right.  The middle class has seen its economic situation worsen for a number of years prior even to the recession that the President talked about a lot in 2008.  Middle-class incomes were stagnating or declining.  And his goal, as he’s said all along, was not just to bring us back to where we were before the recession, but to extend the middle class, provide it more economic security, provide more avenues into the middle class for those striving to enter the middle class -- and that remains his goal.

But right now when you’re talking about a balanced economic policy, he believes firmly that we need to extend tax cuts for the middle class because they need it to help them make ends meet, and because the economy benefits from tax cuts for those middle-class wage earners; that every economist whose opinions are worth the paper that his Ph.D or her Ph.D is printed on will tell you that tax cuts that go disproportionately to the highest earners are not beneficial to the economy.  They do not promote economic growth because those earners are much less likely to pump that money directly back into the economy.

Q    Does that mean the President has decided to extend the current payroll tax cut as well?

MR. CARNEY:  The payroll tax cut originally and through its extension was a temporary measure.  And as you know, when it comes to the middle-class tax cuts, the President believes we should make them permanent -- on the so-called -- the tax cuts under President Bush for the middle class, for the 98 percent. 

The payroll tax cut was a temporary measure, and we’ll evaluate the question of whether we need to extend it at the end of the year when we’re looking at a whole range of issues, obviously, that will need to be worked on to ensure that we continue the progress that we’ve made.

Q    Speaking of the end of the year, you talked about sequestration earlier.  Is the White House initiating or holding talks with people on the Hill right now to try to avoid this becoming a last-minute, end-of-the-year crisis?

MR. CARNEY:  Jeff, as you know, bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress passed the Budget Control Act, which included within it the so-called sequester.  The sequester was designed to be so unsavory that neither side would ever want to see it become law.  And therefore, it was designed to be a forcing mechanism to force Congress to do its job.

Thus far, Congress has not done its job.  But you know as well as I do that the only obstacle to Congress doing its job has been the adamant refusal by Republicans, especially House Republicans, to accept the simple notion that we cannot afford additional tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires; that we need to deal with our fiscal challenges in a balanced way with the kind of balanced approach that the President put forward and that he recommitted himself to last night; an approach that’s modeled after the so-called Bowles-Simpson Commission that reflects the principles of every bipartisan commission and every bipartisan group of legislators that has addressed this problem.  The maximalist position of Republicans that they would rather see draconian cuts in domestic and defense spending than ask millionaires and billionaires to pay another dollar in taxes is simply unacceptable, I believe, the President believes, to the vast majority of the American people.  It’s bad economic policy. And we remain confident that we will be able to work this out, but it requires the Republicans acknowledging the simple fact that everyone has to do their fair share so that everybody gets a fair shot, and everyone has to play by the same set of rules.

Q    Isn't it in the White House’s interest to be working on it now?  That’s my question.

MR. CARNEY:  I think the fundamental issue is -- we are working on it now.  We know what the proposals are and so do the Republicans.  I think the question ought to be addressed to leadership in Congress, Republican leadership in Congress:  Are you prepared to let the sequester take effect with the consequences of draconian cuts in national -- cuts far deeper than this President supports, and they say Republicans support, in the name of maintaining a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires?  That’s the question.

Because if they move off that position, compromise is possible.  And that has been the debate we’ve been having over our fiscal challenges for a year and a half at least now, as you know.  And the stumbling block has always been that refusal to accept the notion that we have to take a balanced approach. 

It was reflected during the Republican primaries when every would-be President in the Republican Party raised his hand and said, I would refuse a deal that called for just $1 in increased revenue for every $10 in tax cuts.  And that’s a wildly out-of-balance proposal, but they wouldn’t even accept that.

So that is so far out of the mainstream, it is so far from the Bowles-Simpson commission, the Domenici-Rivlin commission.  It’s irresponsible and it’s not supported by this President or by the majority of the American people.

Q    You talked about September 11th, and I know there’s some travel next week.  Do you have any other details on the week ahead?

MR. CARNEY:  I do, I do.  At least I think I do.  Yes, I do. On Monday, the President will attend meetings at the White House.

On Tuesday, to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as I said before, the President, the First Lady, and the White House staff will gather on the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday morning to observe a moment of silence.  Later in the morning, as I said, the President and First Lady will travel to the Pentagon memorial.  In the afternoon, the President will travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and visit with wounded warriors who are being treated at the hospital and with their families.

On Wednesday, the President will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Denver, Colorado, for campaign events.  The President will remain overnight in Jeff Mason’s home state.

On Thursday, the President will travel to Arvada, Colorado, again paying homage to our current Reuters pool member.  The President will return to the White House that evening.

On Friday, the President and First Lady will welcome the 2012 US Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House to honor their participation and remarkable success in this year’s Olympic Paralympic games in London -- Olympic games which were masterfully conducted by the British.

Q    Any travel next weekend?

MR. CARNEY:  I don't have any more scheduling information for you.

Thank you all very much.

END 
11:26 A.M. EDT

Remarks by the President and the Vice President at a Campaign Event -- Portsmouth, NH

Strawbery Banke Field
Portsmouth, New Hampshire

12:40 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi, everybody.  (Applause.)  Hello, New Hampshire and Portsmouth! 

AUDIENCE:  Hello!  Joe, Joe, Joe!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Folks, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Look, guys, I just want to say one thing you already know -- this woman is everything anyone could ever hope for a senator to be.  (Applause.)  And besides, she’s my friend.  I love you.  Thank you, Jeannie.  Thank you.

Billy, where are you?  Where’s Billy?  There he is.  Billy  -- I always kid with Billy.  If I got to be in a foxhole, I want him in it with me.  (Laughter.)

It’s good to be back.  Wasn’t the President incredible last night?  (Applause.)  Doesn’t it make you proud to be an American? (Applause.)

Folks, the President and I have become friends.  I know this guy.  He has courage in his soul.  He has compassion in his heart, and he has a spine of steel.  (Applause.)  And there’s not a day -- I can say this with all honesty -- there’s not a day that has gone by in the last four years that I haven’t been grateful -- not as a Vice President but as an American -- that this man has been our President.  (Applause.)

And there’s a simple reason why.  I was asked last night, after I spoke, offstage, why.  Because this guy has the courage to make the tough calls, and almost all the calls today are tough.

Ladies and gentlemen, whether it’s on education, or health care, or Medicare, ending the war in Iraq, bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan -- we need a man with a steady hand and good judgment.  Folks, the President is going to level the playing field and get the middle class back in the game.  (Applause.)

It’s already started because he knows -- he knows in his gut -- not just intellectually, he knows in his gut -- and this is not hyperbole -- the middle class is what built this country and what made it great.  (Applause.)  He knows.  And he knows something our opponents either have forgotten or never knew -- America is not in decline.  (Applause.)

And let me say again to our opponents, gentlemen, it’s never, never, ever been a good bet to bet against the American people.  (Applause.)

I’ve learned about this guy what you already know.  He only knows one speed.  He only knows one direction:  Forward.  And, ladies and gentlemen, speaking of a direction of moving forward, I want to introduce a friend of mine -- and he is a friend of mine -- a guy for whom I have an enormous amount of respect for his integrity and his ability because he also has had to make, knows how to make, and has made, the tough calls for New Hampshire, and New Hampshire is much better off because of him. 

Folks, the guy I’m about to introduce has a lot in common with the man that he’s going to introduce.  New Hampshire is better off because of the Governor, and America is better off because of the President.  (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you my friend, John Lynch, and the First Lady of New Hampshire, Dr. Susan Lynch.  Give it up for them.  (Applause.) 

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, New Hampshire!  (Applause.)  Oh, it is good to be back in Portsmouth!  (Applause.)  It is great to be with your outstanding Governor, John Lynch -- (applause) -- who, like me had the good judgment to marry up.  (Laughter.)  We love Susan as well.  (Applause.)  

One of the best Senators in the country, Jeanne Shaheen.  (Applause.)  Your Mayor, Eric Spear.  (Applause.)  And your next congresswomen, Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster.  (Applause.) 

It is good to see all of you.  And it's just great to be back in Portsmouth.  (Applause.)  I was telling John that --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

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

I was telling John that I will always have great memories of Portsmouth, because one of the things that happens as you're running for President is the bubble starts closing in on you, so I still remember some of the last places where I got to take a walk with nobody around.  (Laughter.)

And Portsmouth, in 2007, was one of those places.  It was a gorgeous day, like today.  And I actually -- we walked and we came right down here.  And there was a theater, an improv thing going on.  And I sat there, and I think -- I might have bought some ice cream.  (Laughter.) 

Which reminds me, by the way, Malia and Sasha love New Hampshire not only because this is where they go to camp, but it's also where they first campaigned with us.  And I think the first day of campaigning, they got ice cream four times in a row. (Laughter and applause.)  So they turned to Michelle and me, and they said, we love this campaigning thing.  (Laughter.)  We want to campaign with you all the time.  (Laughter.)

Now, I've just come from Charlotte, where we had a great convention.  (Applause.)  Folks down there could not have been more welcoming.  Michelle was amazing.  (Applause.)  President Clinton -- (applause) -- made the case in the way only he can.  Somebody emailed me after his speech -- they said, you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff.  (Laughter and applause.)  That was pretty good.  I like that -- the secretary of explaining stuff -- 'splanin.  (Laughter.) 

Joe Biden was fired up.  (Applause.)  And I meant what I said at the convention -- I could not have a better Vice President.  But, as importantly, I could not ask for a better and more loyal friend than Joe Biden.  He is a wonderful, wonderful man.  (Applause.) 

And last night, I did my best to lay out the stakes in this election.  You see, now that both sides have made their argument, there's a big choice to make.  And I honestly believe this is the biggest choice, the clearest choice, of any time in our generation, because it's not just a choice between two candidates or two political parties.  It is a choice between two different paths for America -- (applause) -- two fundamentally different visions for how we move forward.

See, ours is a fight for that basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known -- the promise that hard work will pay off, that responsibilities will be rewarded, that everyone gets a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, everybody is playing by the same rules -- (applause) -- from Wall Street to Main Street to Washington, D.C.  That basic bargain is why I ran for President, and that's why I'm running again.  (Applause.)  That’s what this election is about.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  That is what this election is about. 

I mentioned last night I got my start in service because I worked with folks who had been laid off from the steel plants that had closed when jobs started getting shipped overseas.  And over the last 10 years, we’ve seen that happen more and more, and too many families struggling with costs that keep rising even when paychecks don’t.  So people are having to use their credit cards or home equity loans just to try to make the mortgage, or pay tuition, or put gas in the car, or food on the table.

And that debt is why this house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession -- millions of innocent Americans losing their jobs and their homes, folks losing their life savings.  And we are fighting to recover from that and it’s a long, tough journey. 
But our friends at the Republican Convention, they’ve talked a lot about what they thought was wrong with America; they didn’t tell you what was right.  (Applause.)  They didn’t tell you what they’d do to make it right.  They want your vote, but they don’t want to show you their plan. 

And that’s because they know their plan won’t sell.  That’s because all they’ve got to offer is the same prescriptions that they’ve had for the last 30 years -- tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations, oh, and more tax cuts.  (Laughter.)  Tax cuts when times are good; tax cuts when times are bad.  Tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds.  (Laughter.)  Tax cuts to improve your love life.  (Laughter.)  It will cure anything, according to them.  (Applause.) 

Now, let me tell you something.  (Applause.) Listen, I’ve cut taxes for people who need it -- (applause) -- middle-class families, small business owners.  In 2008, I promised I would cut middle-class taxes.  The typical family’s tax burden at the federal level is $3,600 less since I took office.  So I’ve kept that promise.  I’ve kept that promise.  (Applause.)  We’ve cut taxes for small businesses 18 times. 

But I do not believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires is what’s going to bring good jobs back to our shores, or pay down our deficit.  (Applause.)  I don’t believe firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid is going to grow our economy -- not when China is producing more engineers and more scientists, and we’ve got to compete with them.  (Applause.)

After we were on the brink of financial meltdown because of irresponsible decisions made on Wall Street, I don’t believe that rolling back regulations there is somehow going to help small businesswomen or businessmen expand or laid-off construction workers get back to work. 

We have been there.  We’ve tried what they’re selling.  It didn’t work then, it’s not going to work now.  We’re not going back.  We are moving forward.  That’s why all of you are here today.  (Applause.)

And I’m not going to pretend that this path is quick or easy.  And by the way, I never have.  As Bill Clinton reminded us on Wednesday night, it’s going to take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that were building up over decades.  We know that.  Today we learned that after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a row -– a total of more than 4.6 million jobs.  (Applause.)

But that’s not good enough.  We know it’s not good enough.  We need to create more jobs faster.  We need to fill the hole left by this recession faster.  We need to come out of this crisis stronger than when we went in. 

And there’s a lot more that we can do.  When Congress gets back to town next week, you need to send them a message -- go ahead and give middle-class families and small businesses the confidence of knowing that their taxes -- your taxes -- will not go up next year.  Everybody agrees we shouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class -- let’s go ahead and get that done.  Let’s get it done now.  (Applause.)

And by the way, if the Republicans are serious about being concerned about joblessness, we could create a million new jobs right now if Congress would pass the jobs plan that I sent to them a year ago -- (applause) -- jobs for teachers, jobs for construction workers, jobs for folks who have been looking for work for a long time.  We can do that.  (Applause.)

But I need your help, New Hampshire.  I need your voices.  You see --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  You’ve got them!

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We’re with you, man!

THE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate that.  Then I need you to get your cousins -- (laughter) -- and your friends, your co-workers. 

Look, I am not just asking for your vote.  I’m asking the entire country to rally around a set of goals for our country -- goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security and the deficit.  And these -- this is a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs and more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation.  That’s what we can do in the next four years.  That’s why I’m running for a second term as President -- to finish the job, to keep moving forward, to build up the progress we’ve made.  (Applause.) 

So let me be a little more specific.  First, I’ve got a plan to export more products, not outsource jobs.  (Applause.)  After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years.  (Applause.) We’ve reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back on top of the world.  (Applause.) 

And so now, Americans, we have a choice.  We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that are investing right here in New Hampshire, putting Americans back to work, selling products around the world.  (Applause.)  We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports.  We can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years.  You can make that happen -- but I’m going to need your help.

Second, I’ve got a plan to control more of our own energy.  After 30 years of inaction, we finally raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, your cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas.  That will save you money.  That will save you money.  (Applause.)  We’ve doubled our use of renewable energy -- solar, wind, biofuels.  (Applause.)  And tens of thousands of Americans have jobs today because they’re building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries.

The other side likes to talk about energy, but they don’t mention that the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in nearly two decades.  (Applause.) The other side wants to reverse that progress.  I want to build on it.  I’m not going to let oil companies dictate the country’s energy plan, and I don’t want them to keep collecting $4 billion a year in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.  We’ve got a better path.  (Applause.) 

We want to keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal technology.  We want to see farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and our trucks.  I want construction workers who are sitting at home right now -- I want them building homes and factories that waste less energy, and retrofitting those that are already built to save energy.  (Applause.)

And we can develop a hundred years’ supply of natural gas right beneath our feet.  If we choose this path, we can cut oil imports in half by 2020.  We can support 600,000 new jobs in natural gas development alone.  That’s how we move forward.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Let’s do it!

THE PRESIDENT:  Let’s do it.  (Applause.)  Let’s do it.  We can do this.  We can do this.

Look, third -- I’ve got even more -- (laughter) -- I’ve got a plan to give more Americans the chance to gain the skills that they need to compete.  Education -- I would not be standing here if I hadn’t gotten a great education.  (Applause.)  Michelle would not be where she is without the opportunities that were given.  And as she told you on Tuesday night, we didn’t come from wealth or fame or power, but in this country we’ve always made a commitment that if you’ve got talent and you’re willing to work hard, somebody is going to give you the opportunity to get a great education, and then you can go as far as your dreams can take you.  It is the gateway to a middle-class life in the 21st century.  (Applause.) 

So what have we already done?  Nearly every state has answered our call to raise standards for teaching and learning.  Some of the worst schools in the country have already seen real gains in math and reading.  Millions of students are paying less for college today because we took on a system where $60 billion was going to banks and lenders as middlemen for the student loan program.  We said, let’s cut out the middleman and give that money directly to students so that they get a better deal.  (Applause.) 

So now you’ve got a choice.  We can gut our commitment to education like the other side’s budget would end up doing.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Or we can decide, here in America, no child should give up her dreams because a classroom is overcrowded, or a school is crumbling.  No family should set aside that college acceptance letter because they figure they just can’t afford it; and no company should be looking for the workers they need overseas because they can’t find them here at home.  (Applause.) 

So, New Hampshire, I need you to help me recruit 100,000 math and science teachers, and improve early-childhood education, and give 2 million workers the skills they need at community colleges, and help colleges and universities cut tuition growth in half over the next 10 years.  We can meet these goals together.  That’s the America that we want for our kids.  (Applause.) 

Forward.  Forward!  I need four more years and we’re going to move forward.  (Applause.)

Fourth, my plan would reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class.  Now, the debt and the deficit are real medium- and long-term problems, and we’re going to have to address it.  And I want to get working.  Independent analysis shows that my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion -- that's with a T.  And I’ve worked with the Republicans in Congress already to cut $1 trillion in spending, and I’m prepared to do more. 

I want to reform the tax code so that it is simple and fair and so it asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000.  So even well-to-do folks would still keep their tax break up to $250,000, but after that, we want to go back to the same rates we had when Bill Clinton was President. Our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs then; we had the biggest surplus in history; we created a whole lot of millionaires to boot.  We didn't punish success.  We created an environment for greater success all across the economy.  That's what we’re fighting for.  (Applause.)

My opponent says he wants to reduce the deficit, too.  But as was pointed out at the convention, there’s a basic component missing from his plan:  Math.  (Laughter and applause.)  Arithmetic.

When Governor Romney and his allies tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks skewed towards the wealthy, the math doesn't work.  You can't dig yourself a deeper hole.  You can't take $5 trillion out of the Treasury and then say you’re going to close it.

And when you ask them, well, how are you going to do it, well, they won’t answer real clearly, but there are only a few ways of doing it and most of them involve sticking it to the middle class.  I refuse to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising kids just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut.  (Applause.)

I refuse to ask students to pay more for college, or kick children out of Head Start programs, or eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor or elderly or disabled -- all so folks like me and Mitt Romney can pay less. 

I won’t turn Medicare into a voucher system.  (Applause.) You shouldn’t have to spend your golden years at the mercy of insurance companies after a lifetime of work.  You should be able to retire with dignity and respect.  You’ve earned it.  (Applause.)

And so, yes, we need to reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we’ve got to do it by reducing the actual cost of health care -- not by dumping those costs on to seniors who end up paying thousands of dollars more.  (Applause.)  That's not how we're going to do it.  (Applause.) 

And we will keep the promise of Social Security by taking responsible steps to strengthen it.  But we're not going to privatize it.  We're not turning it over to Wall Street.  We're not going to do that.  (Applause.)  

Now, rebuilding the economy is essential.  But our prosperity at home is linked to what we do abroad.  Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq -- and we did.  (Applause.) I said we’d wind down the war in Afghanistan -- and we are.  (Applause.)  A new tower rises above the New York skyline.  (Applause.)  We have decimated al Qaeda's leadership and Osama bin Laden is dead.  (Applause.) 

So now, moving forward, as Commander-in-Chief, I will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.  We are going to make sure that we've got a strong Navy -- and what goes on here in the Yard and all across the country where we've got people not only in uniform, but also folks who are working -- we've got to make sure that they've got the support. 

And when our troops take off their uniform, we're going to serve them as well as they’ve served us.  (Applause.)  Because nobody who fights for this country should ever have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads or the care they need when they come home.  (Applause.)  

My opponent said it was "tragic" to end the war in Iraq.  I disagree.  He won't tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan.  I have, and I will.  (Applause.) 

And while my opponent would spend more money on military programs that our Joint Chiefs even say won't make us safer and we don't need, I’m going to use that money that we’re no longer spending on war to help pay down our debt, and put more people back to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our schools and our runways.  Because after a decade of war, it's time to do some more nation-building right here at home, right here in New Hampshire.  (Applause.)

So that's the choice that we now face and that's what this election comes down to.  We keep on getting told that bigger tax cuts, fewer regulations -- that that's the only path to prosperity, and that government, because it can’t do everything, somehow should almost do nothing.  I don't believe that. 

I don't believe that if you can’t afford health insurance, you're on your own; that if companies release toxic pollution into the air that your children breathe, that somehow that's a requirement for economic growth.  I don't believe that if you can't afford to go to college, that the best we can do is tell you to borrow money from your parents.  (Applause.)  That's not who we are.  That's not what this country is about.  

We insist on personal responsibility.  We insist on individual initiative.  We know we're not entitled to success; we know we've got to earn it.  We honor entrepreneurs and businesspeople and strivers and dreamers and risk-takers.  We know that that's the driving force behind our free enterprise system. 

But we also know that this country is built on an idea of citizenship, the idea that we have some obligations to each other and that when we work together we all do better.  (Applause.)   We’ve got obligations to future generations -- (applause) -- that America is not just about what can be done for us, it's about what can be done by us, together, as one nation and one people.  (Applause.)

New Hampshire, the election four years ago wasn’t about me. I told you that last night.  It was about you.  And it sounds like maybe you were listening because you’re here.  (Applause.)  You were the change.  You’re the reason that there’s a little girl with a heart disorder who will get the surgery she needs because now the insurance companies can’t limit her coverage.  (Applause.)

You’re the reason some young person out there is going to be able to go to medical school -- because now they can actually afford it.  You made that possible.  You’re the reason that a young immigrant, who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag, is not suddenly going to be deported from the only home they’ve ever known.  (Applause.)

You’re the reason why we were able to end "don’t ask, don’t tell."  (Applause.)  You’re the reasons why thousands of families have been able to welcome brave troops, saying, "Welcome home."  (Applause.)  You did that. 

And so now you can’t turn away.  We can’t turn away now.  You can’t buy into the cynicism that change that we fought so hard for is impossible.  You can’t give up on the idea that your vote makes a difference -- because if you do give up then the lobbyists and the special interests, they’ll fill the void:  The folks who are writing the $10 million checks, the folks running all these Super PAC ads, the folks who want to tell you who you can marry, or tell women that they can’t make decisions about their own health care.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s who will fill the void if you’re not in this, if you’re not engaged, if you’re not focused, if you’re not fighting.  We’re going to have to work because this is going to be a close election.  Only you can make sure that we don’t go backwards.  Only you have the power to move us forward.  (Applause.)

But I’m asking you to use that power.  I’m asking you to use that power.  I’m asking you for your help.  New Hampshire, I need you to make some phone calls for me.  (Applause.)  New Hampshire, I need you to knock on some doors for me.  (Applause.)  New Hampshire, I need you to tell your friends and neighbors and coworkers what’s at stake in this election. 

If you’re not registered to vote, I need you to register right now.  And I need you to turn out in November -- because if you do, we’re going to finish what we’ve started.  (Applause.)  We will create more good jobs.  We’ll generate more homegrown energy.  We’ll hire more good teachers.  We’ll send more young people to college.  We’ll bring more troops home.  We’ll take care of more of our vets.  We’ll open up the doors of opportunity to everybody who’s willing to work hard.  (Applause.)  

We will win Rockingham County.  We will win New Hampshire.  (Applause.)  We will finish what we started, and we’ll remind the world why the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you.  God bless you and God bless America.

END 
1:25 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at the Democratic National Convention

Time Warner Cable Arena
Charlotte, North Carolina

September 6, 2012

10:24 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA:  I am so thrilled and so honored and so proud to introduce the love of my life, the father of our two girls, and the President of the United States of America -- Barack Obama.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you so much.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much, everybody.  Thank you.

Michelle, I love you so much.  A few nights ago, everybody was reminded just what a lucky man I am.  (Applause.)  Malia and Sasha, we are so proud of you.  And, yes, you do have to go to school in the morning.  (Laughter.)

And, Joe Biden, thank you for being the very best Vice President I could have ever hoped for, and being a strong and loyal friend.  (Applause.)
 
Madam Chairwoman, delegates, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.  (Applause.)

Now, the first time I addressed this convention in 2004, I was a younger man, a Senate candidate from Illinois, who spoke about hope -- not blind optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty; that dogged faith in the future which has pushed this nation forward, even when the odds are great, even when the road is long.
 
Eight years later, that hope has been tested by the cost of war, by one of the worst economic crises in history, and by political gridlock that’s left us wondering whether it’s still even possible to tackle the challenges of our time.
  
I know campaigns can seem small, even silly sometimes.  Trivial things become big distractions.  Serious issues become sound bites.  The truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising.  If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I.  (Laughter and applause.)
 
But when all is said and done -- when you pick up that ballot to vote -- you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation.  Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington on jobs, the economy, taxes and deficits, energy, education, war and peace -- decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and on our children’s lives for decades to come. 
   
And on every issue, the choice you face won’t just be between two candidates or two parties.  It will be a choice between two different paths for America, a choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.

Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known  -- (applause) -- the values my grandfather defended as a soldier in Patton’s Army, the values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly line while he was gone.

They knew they were part of something larger -- a nation that triumphed over fascism and depression; a nation where the most innovative businesses turned out the world’s best products. And everyone shared in that pride and success, from the corner office to the factory floor.
 
My grandparents were given the chance to go to college, buy their own home, and fulfill the basic bargain at the heart of America’s story -- the promise that hard work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, that everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, D.C.  (Applause.)
 
And I ran for President because I saw that basic bargain slipping away.  I began my career helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill at a time when too many good jobs were starting to move overseas.  And by 2008, we had seen nearly a decade in which families struggled with costs that kept rising but paychecks that didn’the; folks racking up more and more debt just to make the mortgage or pay tuition, put gas in the car or food on the table.  And when the house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their life savings -- a tragedy from which we’re still fighting to recover.
  
Now, our friends down in Tampa at the Republican Convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America.  But they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right.  (Applause.)  They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.  And that’s because all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they’ve had for the last 30 years -- Have a surplus?  Try a tax cut.  Deficit too high?  Try another.  Feel a cold coming on?  Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning.  (Applause.)
 
Now, I’ve cut taxes for those who need it -- middle-class families, small businesses.  But I don’t believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores or pay down our deficit.  I don’t believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow the economy, or help us compete with the scientists and engineers coming out of China.  (Applause.)

After all we’ve been through, I don’t believe that rolling back regulations on Wall Street will help the small businesswoman expand or the laid-off construction worker keep his home. 

We have been there.  We’ve tried that and we’re not going back.  We are moving forward, America.  (Applause.)
  
Now, I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have.  You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear.  You elected me to tell you the truth.  (Applause.)

And the truth is it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.  It will require common effort and shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one.  (Applause.)  And, by the way, those of us who carry on his party’s legacy should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from Washington.
 
But know this, America -- our problems can be solved.  (Applause.)  Our challenges can be met.  The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.  And I’m asking you to choose that future.  (Applause.)
 
I’m asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country -- goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit -- real, achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation.   That’s what we can do in the next four years -- and that is why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.  (Applause.)
  
AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs.  After a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we’re getting back to basics, and doing what America has always done best:  We are making things again.  (Applause.) 

I’ve met workers in Detroit and Toledo -- (applause) -- who feared they’d never build another American car.  And today, they can’t build them fast enough, because we reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back on the top of the world.  (Applause.)   

I’ve worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America -- not because our workers make less pay, but because we make better products.  Because we work harder and smarter than anyone else.  (Applause.) 

I’ve signed trade agreements that are helping our companies sell more goods to millions of new customers -- goods that are stamped with three proud words:  Made in America.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  U.S.A!  U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!

THE PRESIDENT:  And after a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years. 

And now you have a choice:  We can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports, and if we choose this path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years.  You can make that happen.  You can choose that future.

You can choose the path where we control more of our own energy.  After 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas.  (Applause.)  We have doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries.  In the last year alone, we cut oil imports by 1 million barrels a day -- more than any administration in recent history.  And today, the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two decades.  (Applause.)

So now you have a choice -- between a strategy that reverses this progress, or one that builds on it.  We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more.  But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.  We’re offering a better path.  (Applause.)  
We’re offering a better path, where we -- a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal; where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and trucks; where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy; where we develop a hundred-year supply of natural gas that’s right beneath our feet.  If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone.  (Applause.) 

And, yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet -- because climate change is not a hoax.  More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke.  They are a threat to our children’s future.  And in this election, you can do something about it.  (Applause.)

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have.  Education was the gateway to opportunity for me.  It was the gateway for Michelle.  It was the gateway for most of you.  And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life. 

For the first time in a generation, nearly every state has answered our call to raise their standards for teaching and learning.  Some of the worst schools in the country have made real gains in math and reading.  Millions of students are paying less for college today because we finally took on a system that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on banks and lenders.  (Applause.)

And now you have a choice -- we can gut education, or we can decide that in the United States of America, no child should have her dreams deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school.  (Applause.)  No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don’t have the money.  No company should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn’t find any with the right skills here at home.  That’s not our future.  That is not our future.  (Applause.)   

And government has a role in this.  But teachers must inspire; principals must lead; parents must instill a thirst for learning.  And, students, you’ve got to do the work.  (Applause.) And together, I promise you, we can out-educate and out-compete any nation on Earth.  (Applause.)   

So help me.  Help me recruit 100,000 math and science teachers within 10 years and improve early-childhood education.  Help give 2 million workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that will lead directly to a job.  (Applause.) Help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next 10 years.  We can meet that goal together.  You can choose that future for America.  (Applause.)  That’s our future.

In a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven.  Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq.  We did.  (Applause.)  I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.  And we have.  (Applause.)  We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war will be over.  (Applause.) 

A new tower rises above the New York skyline; al Qaeda is on the path to defeat; and Osama bin Laden is dead.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!

THE PRESIDENT:  Tonight, we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm’s way.  We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer and more respected.  We will never forget you.  And so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.  (Applause.)  When you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us -- because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their heads, or the care that they need when they come home.  (Applause.)

Around the world, we’ve strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.  We’ve reasserted our power across the Pacific and stood up to China on behalf of our workers.  From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings -- men and women; Christians and Muslims and Jews.  (Applause.)

But for all the progress that we’ve made, challenges remain. Terrorist plots must be disrupted.  Europe’s crisis must be contained.  Our commitment to Israel’s security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace.  (Applause.)  The Iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions.  The historic change sweeping across the Arab world must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights that we celebrate here today.  (Applause.)

So now we have a choice.  My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy -- (laughter and applause) -- but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.
After all, you don’t call Russia our number-one enemy -- not al Qaeda -- Russia -- unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp.  (Applause.)  You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.  (Applause.) 

My opponent said that it was "tragic" to end the war in Iraq.  And he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. Well, I have -- and I will.  (Applause.)

And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways.  Because after two wars that have cost us thousands of live and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation-building right here at home.  (Applause.)

You can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class.  Independent experts say that my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion.  And last summer I worked with Republicans in Congress to cut a billion [trillion] dollars in spending -- because those of us who believe government can be a force for good should work harder than anyone to reform it so that it’s leaner and more efficient and more responsive to the American people.  (Applause.)

I want to reform the tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 -- the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was President; the same rate when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history and a whole lot of millionaires to boot.  (Applause.)

Now, I’m still eager to reach an agreement based on the principles of my bipartisan debt commission.  No party has a monopoly on wisdom.  No democracy works without compromise.  I want to get this done, and we can get it done.  But when Governor Romney and his friends in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy, well, what did Bill Clinton call it -- you do the arithmetic.  (Applause.)  You do the math.  (Applause.)

I refuse to go along with that and as long as I’m President, I never will.  (Applause.)  I refuse to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their kids just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut.  (Applause.)
I refuse to ask students to pay more for college, or kick children out of Head Start programs, or eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor and elderly or disabled -- all so those with the most can pay less.  I’m not going along with that.  (Applause.)

And I will never -- I will never -- turn Medicare into a voucher.  (Applause.)  No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.  They should retire with the care and the dignity that they have earned.  Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we’ll do it by reducing the cost of health care -- not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more.  (Applause.)

And we will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to Wall Street.  (Applause.)

This is the choice we now face.  This is what the election comes down to.  Over and over, we’ve been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way -- that since government can’t do everything, it should do almost nothing.  If you can’t afford health insurance, hope that you don’t get sick.  If a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that’s the price of progress.  If you can’t afford to start a business or go to college, take my opponent’s advice and borrow money from your parents.  (Laughter and applause.)

You know what, that’s not who we are.  That’s not what this country’s about.  As Americans, we believe we are endowed by our Creator with certain, inalienable rights -- rights that no man or government can take away.  We insist on personal responsibility and we celebrate individual initiative.  We’re not entitled to success -- we have to earn it.  We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world’s ever known.

But we also believe in something called citizenship.  (Applause.)  Citizenship:  a word at the very heart of our founding; a word at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. 

We believe that when a CEO pays his autoworkers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company does better.  (Applause.)  We believe that when a family can no longer be tricked into signing a mortgage they can’t afford, that family is protected, but so is the value of other people’s homes and so is the entire economy.  (Applause.)  We believe the little girl who’s offered an escape from poverty by a great teacher or a grant for college could become the next Steve Jobs or the scientist who cures cancer or the President of the United States, and it is in our power to give her that chance.  (Applause.)

We know that churches and charities can often make more of a difference than a poverty program alone.  We don’t want handouts for people who refuse to help themselves and we certainly don’t want bailouts for banks that break the rules.  (Applause.)  We don’t think that government can solve all of our problems, but we don’t think that government is the source of all of our problems -- any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles.  (Applause.)

Because, America, we understand that this democracy is ours. We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which asks only "what’s in it for me," a freedom without commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals and those who died in their defense.  (Applause.)

As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us; it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government.  That’s what we believe.  (Applause.)

So, you see, the election four years ago wasn’t about me.  It was about you.  (Applause.)  My fellow citizens, you were the change.  (Applause.)  You’re the reason there’s a little girl with a heart disorder in Phoenix who will get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can’t limit her coverage.  You did that.  (Applause.) 

You’re the reason a young man in Colorado who never thought he’d be able to afford his dream of earning a medical degree is about to get that chance.  You made that possible.  (Applause.)

You’re the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she’s ever called home
-- (applause) -- why selfless soldiers won’t be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love; why thousands of families have finally been able to say to the loved ones who served us so bravely: “Welcome home."  "Welcome home.”  You did that.  You did that.  You did that.  (Applause.) 

If you turn away now -- if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen.  If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void -- the lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves.  (Applause.)

Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen.  Only you have the power to move us forward.  (Applause.)   

I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention.  The times have changed, and so have I.  I’m no longer just a candidate.  I’m the President.  (Applause.) 

And that means I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return.  I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs. 

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.  (Laughter.)  And while I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved together, I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, "I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go."  (Applause.)

But as I stand here tonight, I have never been more hopeful about America.  Not because I think I have all the answers.  Not because I’m naïve about the magnitude of our challenges.  I’m hopeful because of you. 

The young woman I met at a science fair who won national recognition for her biology research while living with her family at a homeless shelter -- she gives me hope.  (Applause.)

The autoworker who won the lottery after his plant almost closed, but kept coming to work every day, and bought flags for his whole town, and one of the cars that he built to surprise his wife -- he gives me hope.  (Applause.)

The family business in Warroad, Minnesota, that didn’t lay off a single one of their 4,000 employees when the recession hit, even when their competitors shut down dozens of plants, even when it meant the owner gave up some perks and some pay because they understood that their biggest asset was the community and the workers who had helped build that business -- they give me hope. (Applause.)  

I think about the young sailor I met at Walter Reed hospital, still recovering from a grenade attack that would cause him to have his leg amputated above the knee.  Six months ago, we would watch him walk into a White House dinner honoring those who served in Iraq, tall and 20 pounds heavier, dashing in his uniform, with a big grin on his face, sturdy on his new leg.  And I remember how a few months after that I would watch him on a bicycle, racing with his fellow wounded warriors on a sparkling spring day, inspiring other heroes who had just begun the hard path he had traveled -- he gives me hope.  He gives me hope.  (Applause.)  

I don’t know what party these men and women belong to.  I don’t know if they’ll vote for me.  But I know that their spirit defines us.  They remind me, in the words of Scripture, that ours is a "future filled with hope." 

And if you share that faith with me -- if you share that hope with me -- I ask you tonight for your vote.  (Applause.)  If you reject the notion that this nation’s promise is reserved for the few, your voice must be heard in this election.  If you reject the notion that our government is forever beholden to the highest bidder, you need to stand up in this election.  (Applause.)  

If you believe that new plants and factories can dot our landscape, that new energy can power our future, that new schools can provide ladders of opportunity to this nation of dreamers; if you believe in a country where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules -- then I need you to vote this November.  (Applause.)  

America, I never said this journey would be easy, and I won’t promise that now.  Yes, our path is harder, but it leads to a better place.  Yes, our road is longer, but we travel it together.  We don’t turn back.  We leave no one behind.  We pull each other up.  We draw strength from our victories, and we learn from our mistakes, but we keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon, knowing that Providence is with us, and that we are surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.  

Thank you.  God bless you.  (Applause.)  And God bless these United States.  (Applause.)

END
11:04 P.M. EDT