April 12, 2012 | 4:28
This week, the President hosted a forum on Women and the Economy, welcomed the President of Brazil, traveled to Florida to urge the Senate to pass the Buffett Rule, and took part in the great annual White House tradition, the Easter Egg Roll. That's April 6th to April 12th or "You're Proof of Change."
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Continuing their close consultations on global issues of common concern, the President and French President Sarkozy held a video teleconference today to discuss Syria, Iran, and stability in the oil markets. On Syria, the President and President Sarkozy condemned the violence perpetrated by the regime against its own people and noted that the regime had yet to fully implement the agreement negotiated with Kofi Annan pursuant to the Annan plan. The two leaders called for the regime to fully implement the Annan plan, noting that the international community would judge the regime by its actions and not its words. On Iran, both leaders expressed hope that Iran would take advantage of the upcoming P5+1 talks to address the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. The President and President Sarkozy agreed to continue increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime through sanctions and other measures if Tehran remains unresponsive. Finally, the President and President Sarkozy agreed to continue their consultations about the tightness in global oil markets.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
The President and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone today to discuss several foreign policy issues of mutual concern, including Iran and Syria. Both leaders expressed the hope that Iran would take advantage of the upcoming P5+1 talks to address the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. They also reiterated their common resolve to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime through sanctions and other measures if it remained unresponsive. On Syria, the President and Chancellor shared the concern that the Assad government was not complying with the terms of the agreement negotiated by Kofi Annan and continued to engage in unacceptable brutality against its own people. They agreed that this underscored the need for the UN Security Council to come together to take more resolute action. The President told the Chancellor that he looked forward to hosting her at Camp David for the G-8 Summit next month and to continuing their regular consultations on these and other important issues.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, April 17, President Obama will welcome Tony Stewart and the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers to the White House to honor Tony Stewart’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. The President will also recognize the efforts by Tony Stewart and NASCAR to give back to their community as part of their visit, continuing the tradition begun by President Obama of honoring athletes and sports teams for their efforts on and off the field.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:
• Jay N. Anania – Ambassador to the Republic of Suriname, Department of State
• Gene A. Cretz – Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, Department of State
• Susan Marsh Elliott – Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, Department of State
• David J. Lane – Rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Department of State
• Charles P. Rose – Member, Board of Trustees of the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation
The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:
• Carol W. Greider – Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
President Obama said, “I am honored that these talented individuals have decided to join this Administration and serve our country. 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:
Jay N. Anania, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Suriname, Department of State
Jay N. Anania, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. From 2009 to 2011, he served at the State Department as Executive Director of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Anania was the Minister-Counselor for Management Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, where he served for seven months as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. Prior positions in Washington include Acting Chief Information Officer in the Bureau of Information Resource Management (2005-2006) and Director of the Office of Management Policy (2002-2005). Additional overseas posts include assignments at the U.S. Consulates General in Hong Kong and Tijuana, Mexico; U.S. Embassies in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and at the U.S Interests Section in Havana, Cuba. Mr. Anania holds a B.A. from Kenyon College and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Ambassador Gene A. Cretz, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, Department of State
Ambassador Gene A. Cretz, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Libya. In 2008, Ambassador Cretz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. From 2004 to 2007, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. From 2003 to 2004, he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus where he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’Affaires. From 2001 to 2003, he was Minister-Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt. Other overseas assignments include service in Beijing, New Delhi, and Islamabad. Assignments in Washington include State Department posts in the Bureau of International Organizations, the Operations Center, and in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. From 1975 to 1977, Ambassador Cretz served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan. He received a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a M.Sc. from the State University College at Buffalo.
Susan Marsh Elliott, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, Department of State
Susan Marsh Elliott, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Counselor, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Department of State. Prior to this role, Ms. Elliott served as Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (2009-2010) and as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Belfast (2007-2009). Other assignments have included Deputy Executive Secretary (2005-2007), Office Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff (2003-2005), Visa Section Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Athens (2001-2003), Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1999-2001), and Desk Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Regional Conflicts in the New Independent States (1994-1995). Ms. Elliott joined the Foreign Service in 1990 after serving as a nurse at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Ms. Elliott received a B.S. from Skidmore College, an M.S. from Russell Sage College, and a D.S.N. from Indiana University.
David J. Lane, Nominee for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Department of State
David J. Lane currently serves as Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Chief of Staff at the White House. From 2007 to 2011, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of ONE. Prior to joining ONE, Mr. Lane was the Director of Public Policy and External Affairs and Director of the East Coast Office for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From 1993 to 2000, he served in a number of senior positions in the federal government, including Executive Director of the National Economic Council at the White House and Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Charles P. Rose, Nominee for Member, Board of Trustees of the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation
Charles P. Rose is a partner at the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, where he focuses on representing businesses, educational institutions, and Indian tribal governments in labor and employment matters, education law and regulatory compliance. Mr. Rose was General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education from 2009 until 2011, where he also served as the Secretary's designee to the Board of Trustees of the Udall Foundation. Before joining the Department of Education, he was a founding partner of Franczek Radelet PC in Chicago. Mr. Rose is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, and a member of the National and Illinois Councils of School Attorneys. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Advance Illinois and formerly served on the Chicago Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves. Mr. Rose received the Illinois Association of School Administrators Exemplary Service to Education Award in 2011 and Champion of Public Education Award from FED-ED in 2009. He was elected as Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers in 2008 and received the Vision in Education Award from ED-RED in 2006. Mr. Rose received a B.A. in Economics from Villanova University and a J.D. from DePaul University.
President Obama also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:
Dr. Carol W. Greider, Appointee for Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Dr. Carol W. Greider is the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2009, Dr. Greider won the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for their work on telomeres as well as telomerase, an enzyme that maintains chromosome ends, which Drs. Greider and Blackburn discovered in 1984. Before working at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Greider joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a Fellow in 1988 and served as an Investigator from 1994 to 1997. Dr. Greider received a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
President Obama met with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, Prince Salman bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud, today in the Oval Office. The President and Prince Salman affirmed the strong and enduring partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia and discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues. The President asked Prince Salman to convey his personal greetings to King Abdullah bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
The United States continues to be deeply concerned about the situation in Bahrain, and we urge all parties to reject violence in all its forms. We condemn the violence directed against police and government institutions, including recent incidents that have resulted in serious injuries to police officers. We also call on the police to exercise maximum restraint, and condemn the use of excessive force and indiscriminate use of tear gas against protestors, which has resulted in civilian casualties.
We continue to underscore, both to the government and citizens of Bahrain, the importance of working together to address the underlying causes of mistrust and to promote reconciliation. In this respect, we note our continued concern for the well-being of jailed activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and call on the Government of Bahrain to consider urgently all available options to resolve his case. More broadly, we urge the government to redouble its ongoing efforts to implement the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, and renew our call for the government, opposition parties, and all segments of Bahraini society to engage in a genuine dialogue leading to meaningful reforms that address the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis.
April 11, 2012 | 12:40 | Public Domain
President Obama explains why we need the Buffett Rule, which make our tax system more fair by ensuring that people who make more than $1 million a year pay at least the same share of their income in taxes as middle-class families.
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
10:25 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Everybody, please have a seat. Thank you. It is wonderful to see you. Lately, we’ve been talking about the fundamental choice that we face as a country. We can settle for an economy where a shrinking number of people do very, very well and everybody else is struggling to get by, or we can build an economy where we’re rewarding hard work and responsibility -- an economy where everybody has a fair shot, and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules.
The people who have joined me here today are extremely successful. They’ve created jobs and opportunity for thousands of Americans. They’re rightly proud of their success. They love the country that made their success possible, and most importantly, they want to make sure that the next generation, people coming up behind them, have the same opportunities that they had.
They understand, though, that for some time now, when compared to the middle class, they haven’t been asked to do their fair share. And they are here because they believe there is something deeply wrong and irresponsible about that.
At a time when the share of national income flowing to the top 1 percent of people in this country has climbed to levels we haven’t seen since the 1920s, these same folks are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years. In fact, one in four millionaires pays a lower tax rate than millions of hardworking middle-class households. And while many millionaires do pay their fair share, some take advantage of loopholes and shelters that let them get away with paying no income taxes whatsoever -- and that’s all perfectly legal under the system that we currently have.
You’ve heard that my friend Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary -- because he’s the one who’s been pointing that out and saying we should fix it. The executives who are with me here today, not just behind me but in the audience, agree with me. They agree with Warren -- they should be fixed. They, in fact, have brought some of their own assistants to prove that same point -- that it is just plain wrong that middle-class Americans pay a higher share of their income in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires.
Now, it’s not that these folks are excited about the idea of paying more taxes. This thing I’ve always made clear. (Laughter.) I have yet to meet people who just love taxes. Nobody loves paying taxes. In a perfect world, none of us would have to pay any taxes. We’d have no deficits to pay down. And schools and bridges and roads and national defense and caring for our veterans would all happen magically.
We’d all have the money we need to make investments in the things that help us grow -- investments, by the way, that have always been essential to the private sector’s success, as well, not just -- they're not just important in terms of the people that directly benefit from these programs, but historically, those investments that we’ve made in infrastructure, in education, in science, in technology, in transportation, that's part of what has made us an economic superpower.
And it would be nice if we didn't have to pay for them, but this is the real world that we live in. We have real choices and real consequences. Right now, we’ve got significant deficits that are going to have to be closed. Right now, we have significant needs if we want to continue to grow this economy and compete in this 21st-century, hyper-competitive, technologically-integrated economy. That means we can’t afford to keep spending more money on tax cuts for wealthy Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them. And it’s time we did something about it.
Now, I want to emphasize, this is not simply an issue of redistributing wealth. That's what you’ll hear from those who object to a tax plan that is fair. This is not just about fairness. This is also about growth. This is also about being able to make the investments we need to succeed. And it’s about we as a country being willing to pay for those investments and closing our deficits. That’s what this is about.
Now, next week, members of Congress are going to have a chance to vote on what we call the Buffett Rule. And it’s simple: If you make more money -- more than $1 million a year, not if you have $1 million, but if you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle-class families do. If on the other hand, you make less than $250,000 a year -- like 98 percent of American families do -- your taxes shouldn’t go up.
That’s all there is to it. That’s pretty sensible. Most Americans agree with me, so do most millionaires. One survey found that two-thirds of millionaires support this idea. So do nearly half of all Republicans across America.
So we just need some of the Republican politicians here in Washington to get on board with where the country is. I know that some prefer to run around using the same reflexive, false claims about wanting to raise people’s taxes. What they won’t tell you is the truth -- that I’ve cut taxes for middle-class families each year that I’ve been in office. I’ve cut taxes for small business owners not once or twice, but 17 times.
As I said, for most of the folks in this room, taxes are lower than they’ve been, or as low as they’ve been, in 50 years. There are others who are saying, well, this is just a gimmick. Just taxing millionaires and billionaires, just imposing the Buffett Rule won’t do enough to close the deficit. Well, I agree. That’s not all we have to do to close the deficit. But the notion that it doesn’t solve the entire problem doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it at all.
There are enough excuses for inaction in Washington. We certainly don’t need more excuses. I’d just point out that the Buffett Rule is something that will get us moving in the right direction towards fairness, towards economic growth. It will help us close our deficit and it’s a lot more specific than anything that the other side has proposed so far. And if Republicans in Congress were truly concerned with deficits and debt, then I’m assuming they wouldn’t have just proposed to spend an additional $4.6 trillion on lower tax rates, including an average tax cut of at least $150,000 for every millionaire in America.
They want to go in the opposite direction. They want to double down on some of the inequities that already exist in the tax code. If we’re going to keep giving somebody like me or some of the people in this room tax breaks that we don’t need and we can’t afford, then one of two things happens: Either you've got to borrow more money to pay down a deeper deficit, or you've got to demand deeper sacrifices from the middle class, and you've got to cut investments that help us grow as an economy.
You've got to tell seniors to pay a little bit more for their Medicare. You've got to tell the college student, we're going to have to charge you higher interest rates on your student loan or you're just going to get smaller student loans. You're going to have to tell that working family that’s scraping by that they're going to have to do more because the wealthiest of Americans are doing less.
That’s not right. The middle class has seen enough of its security erode over the past few decades that we shouldn't let that happen. And we're not going to stop investing in the things that create real and lasting growth in this country just so folks like me can get an additional tax cut. We're not going to stop building first-class schools and making sure that they've got science labs in them. We're not going to fail to make investments in basic science and research that could cure diseases that harm people, or create the new technology that ends up creating entire jobs and industries that we haven't seen before. In America, prosperity has never just trickled down from a wealthy few. Prosperity has always been built from the bottom up and from the heart of the middle class outward. And so it’s time for Congress to stand up for the middle class and make our tax system fairer by passing this Buffett Rule.
Let me just close by saying this. I’m not the first President to call for this idea that everybody has got to do their fair share. Some years ago, one of my predecessors traveled across the country pushing for the same concept. He gave a speech where he talked about a letter he had received from a wealthy executive who paid lower tax rates than his secretary, and wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why that was wrong. So this President gave another speech where he said it was “crazy” -- that's a quote -- that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary. That wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior was Ronald Reagan.
He thought that, in America, the wealthiest should pay their fair share, and he said so. I know that position might disqualify him from the Republican primaries these days -- (laughter) -- but what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing that we’re calling for now: a return to basic fairness and responsibility; everybody doing their part. And if it will help convince folks in Congress to make the right choice, we could call it the Reagan Rule instead of the Buffett Rule.
But the choice is clear. This vote is coming up. I’m asking every American who agrees with me to call your member of Congress, or write them an email, tweet them. Tell them to stop giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them. Tell them to start asking everybody to do their fair share and play by the same rules, so that every American who’s willing to work hard has a chance at similar success, so that we’re making the investments that help this economy grow, so that we’re able to bring down our deficits in a fair and balanced and sensible way. Tell them to pass the Buffett Rule.
I’m going to keep on making this case across the country because I believe that this rule is consistent with those principles and those values that have helped make us this remarkable place where everybody has opportunity.
Now, each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, felt responsibility not only for themselves, but also for their community and for their country. They felt a responsibility to us, to future generations. And now it’s our turn to be similarly responsible. Now it’s our turn to preserve that American Dream for future generations.
So I want to thank those of you who are here with me today. I want to thank everybody who is in the audience. And I want to appeal to the American people: Let’s make sure that we keep the pressure on Congress to do the right thing.
Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)
END
10:36 A.M. EDT
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Senior Officials to Highlight Commitment to Energy Security for America’s Warfighters
Today, the Obama Administration is announcing new steps to bolster energy security for America’s warfighters – underscoring the significant and inherent connection between energy independence and national security. In Michigan, the Army will open a new 30,000-square-foot lab to develop cutting edge energy technologies for the next generation of combat vehicles. This new lab will support the launch of the Army Green Warrior Convoy, which will test and demonstrate advanced vehicle technology including fuel cells, hybrid systems, battery technologies and alternative fuels.
In addition, today, the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency will launch a research competition to engage our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in improving the capability of energy storage devices that can be used in the battlefield and for civilian applications. And, building on President Obama’s State of the Union commitment, the Department of Defense (DoD) will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history, with a new goal to deploy three gigawatts of renewable energy – including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal – on Army, Navy, and Air Force installations by 2025 – enough to power 750,000 homes.
These new steps build on President Obama’s unwavering commitment to energy security for America’s warfighters, and to a sustained, comprehensive strategy to ensure a secure energy future for all Americans. Since the President took office, domestic oil and gas production has increased each year. At the same time, our reliance on foreign oil has decreased – a trend expected to continue thanks in part to the historic fuel economy standards established by President Obama, effectively doubling the efficiency of the cars we drive and saving consumers thousands at the pump. In 2011, U.S. crude oil production reached its highest level since 2003, increasing by an estimated 120,000 barrels per day over 2010 levels. Overall, oil imports have been falling since 2005, and net imports as a share of total consumption declined from 57 percent in 2008 to 45 percent in 2011 – the lowest level since 1995.
Army Opens a New Lab to Develop the Next Generation of Combat Vehicles
On April 11, the Army will open a new lab at Detroit Arsenal that will develop cutting edge energy technologies for the next generation of combat vehicles. Through a partnership with academia and industry, these advances may also hold promise for passenger and commercial vehicles. Shared access of this facility with industry and academia will facilitate the exchange of information and ideas to develop emerging energy technologies. Developing advanced technologies for tactical and non-tactical ground vehicles that support our military forces at home and abroad will make our forces more combat effective while helping save American families dollars at the pump.
The Ground Systems Power and Energy Lab (GSPEL)’s 8 state-of-the-art labs offer an unprecedented range of test and validation capabilities for emerging power, energy and mobility technologies at a single facility. The Army’s best and brightest ground vehicle research scientists, engineers and technicians combined with GSPEL’s unique facilities, will enable the Army to innovate tomorrow’s energy solutions.
Army to Road-Test Advanced Energy Technologies in Green Warrior Convoy
As part of required road-tests of advanced energy technologies and systems developed at the GSPEL, the Army will announce its plans to launch a Green Warrior Convoy of vehicles in 2013. The convoy will test and demonstrate the Army's advanced vehicle power and technology including fuel cells, hybrid systems, battery technologies and alternative fuels. These technologies will extend range and endurance of combat forces – helping them to defend the nation better. This convoy will stop at schools, colleges, communities and military facilities along the way to show members of the military and public the importance of energy improvements.
Defense Department Increases Commitment to Renewable Energy to 3 Gigawatts
DoD is making one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history, by developing a goal to deploy three gigawatts of renewable energy – including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal – on Army, Navy, and Air Force installations by 2025 – enough to power 750,000 homes. This effort furthers the commitment President Obama made during the State of the Union to develop 1 gigawatt of renewable energy on Navy installations by 2020. The Air Force goal of obtaining 1 gigawatt by 2016 and the Army goal of obtaining 1 gigawatt by 2025 support the broader DoD goal to meet 25 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2025.
Renewable energy is critical to making our bases more energy secure. Together with emerging microgrid and storage technologies, reliable, local sources of renewable power will increase the energy security of our nation’s military installations. By doing so, the DoD is better able to carry out its mission to defend the nation. To meet these goals at no additional cost to the taxpayer, DoD will leverage private sector financing through authorities such as Power Purchase Agreements, Enhanced Use Leasing, Utility Energy Savings Contracts, and Energy Savings Performance Contracts.
Energy Department Launches Competition to Make Energy Storage More Effective and Safe Through its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the Department of Energy is funding a $30 million research competition that will engage our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in improving the capability of energy storage devices, including batteries. ARPA-E’s new “Advanced Management and Protection of Energy-storage Devices” (AMPED) program will promote the development of next-generation energy storage sensing and control technologies, including enhancing the performance of hybrid energy storage modules being developed by the DoD for war-fighting equipment. Specifically, AMPED technologies have the potential to:
• Increase the fuel efficiency of military generators to help reduce the need for fuel-convoys on the battlefield;
• Improve the reliability of military aircraft generators to help to reduce operation and maintenance costs;
• Enable next generation high power weapons systems and fuel efficient operations for Navy ships;
• Create a new generation of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles; and
• Enhance the efficiency and reliability of the U.S. electricity grid.
To date, ARPA-E has hosted four rounds of competitions and attracted over 5,000 applications from research teams, resulting in approximately 180 cutting edge projects.
Administration Announces Progress on Advanced Biofuels Initiative
High global oil prices affect every part of our economy – from middle class families, to small businesses, to the Department of Defense. DoD estimates that for every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, we incur an additional $130 million in fuel costs. That is why, as part of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, President Obama challenged the Departments of Navy, Energy and Agriculture to partner with private industry to accelerate the commercialization of drop-in biofuels for military and commercial use. The three departments developed a plan to spur private industry and financiers to construct or retrofit multiple integrated biorefineries capable of producing millions of gallons of fuel annually from domestic feedstocks and at a competitive price. On March 29, the Department of Defense’s Defense Production Act Executive Agent published advanced notice of a broad area announcement (BAA) soliciting proposals for the advanced drop-in biofuel production project. The project’s goal is to establish commercial-scale biorefineries in different regions of the U.S. producing jet and naval biofuels from diverse feedstocks via different processes. A Biofuel Industry Roundtable will be held on May 18 in Washington D.C. and will bring together the market and industry expertise necessary to develop a domestic biofuel market capable of producing alternative fuel that is cost-competitive with traditional fuel.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
10:25 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Everybody, please have a seat. Thank you. It is wonderful to see you. Lately, we’ve been talking about the fundamental choice that we face as a country. We can settle for an economy where a shrinking number of people do very, very well and everybody else is struggling to get by, or we can build an economy where we’re rewarding hard work and responsibility -- an economy where everybody has a fair shot, and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules.
The people who have joined me here today are extremely successful. They’ve created jobs and opportunity for thousands of Americans. They’re rightly proud of their success. They love the country that made their success possible, and most importantly, they want to make sure that the next generation, people coming up behind them, have the same opportunities that they had.
They understand, though, that for some time now, when compared to the middle class, they haven’t been asked to do their fair share. And they are here because they believe there is something deeply wrong and irresponsible about that.
At a time when the share of national income flowing to the top 1 percent of people in this country has climbed to levels we haven’t seen since the 1920s, these same folks are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years. In fact, one in four millionaires pays a lower tax rate than millions of hardworking middle-class households. And while many millionaires do pay their fair share, some take advantage of loopholes and shelters that let them get away with paying no income taxes whatsoever -- and that’s all perfectly legal under the system that we currently have.
You’ve heard that my friend Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary -- because he’s the one who’s been pointing that out and saying we should fix it. The executives who are with me here today, not just behind me but in the audience, agree with me. They agree with Warren -- they should be fixed. They, in fact, have brought some of their own assistants to prove that same point -- that it is just plain wrong that middle-class Americans pay a higher share of their income in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires.
Now, it’s not that these folks are excited about the idea of paying more taxes. This thing I’ve always made clear. (Laughter.) I have yet to meet people who just love taxes. Nobody loves paying taxes. In a perfect world, none of us would have to pay any taxes. We’d have no deficits to pay down. And schools and bridges and roads and national defense and caring for our veterans would all happen magically.
We’d all have the money we need to make investments in the things that help us grow -- investments, by the way, that have always been essential to the private sector’s success, as well, not just -- they're not just important in terms of the people that directly benefit from these programs, but historically, those investments that we’ve made in infrastructure, in education, in science, in technology, in transportation, that's part of what has made us an economic superpower.
And it would be nice if we didn't have to pay for them, but this is the real world that we live in. We have real choices and real consequences. Right now, we’ve got significant deficits that are going to have to be closed. Right now, we have significant needs if we want to continue to grow this economy and compete in this 21st-century, hyper-competitive, technologically-integrated economy. That means we can’t afford to keep spending more money on tax cuts for wealthy Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them. And it’s time we did something about it.
Now, I want to emphasize, this is not simply an issue of redistributing wealth. That's what you’ll hear from those who object to a tax plan that is fair. This is not just about fairness. This is also about growth. This is also about being able to make the investments we need to succeed. And it’s about we as a country being willing to pay for those investments and closing our deficits. That’s what this is about.
Now, next week, members of Congress are going to have a chance to vote on what we call the Buffett Rule. And it’s simple: If you make more money -- more than $1 million a year, not if you have $1 million, but if you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle-class families do. If on the other hand, you make less than $250,000 a year -- like 98 percent of American families do -- your taxes shouldn’t go up.
That’s all there is to it. That’s pretty sensible. Most Americans agree with me, so do most millionaires. One survey found that two-thirds of millionaires support this idea. So do nearly half of all Republicans across America.
So we just need some of the Republican politicians here in Washington to get on board with where the country is. I know that some prefer to run around using the same reflexive, false claims about wanting to raise people’s taxes. What they won’t tell you is the truth -- that I’ve cut taxes for middle-class families each year that I’ve been in office. I’ve cut taxes for small business owners not once or twice, but 17 times.
As I said, for most of the folks in this room, taxes are lower than they’ve been, or as low as they’ve been, in 50 years. There are others who are saying, well, this is just a gimmick. Just taxing millionaires and billionaires, just imposing the Buffett Rule won’t do enough to close the deficit. Well, I agree. That’s not all we have to do to close the deficit. But the notion that it doesn’t solve the entire problem doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it at all.
There are enough excuses for inaction in Washington. We certainly don’t need more excuses. I’d just point out that the Buffett Rule is something that will get us moving in the right direction towards fairness, towards economic growth. It will help us close our deficit and it’s a lot more specific than anything that the other side has proposed so far. And if Republicans in Congress were truly concerned with deficits and debt, then I’m assuming they wouldn’t have just proposed to spend an additional $4.6 trillion on lower tax rates, including an average tax cut of at least $150,000 for every millionaire in America.
They want to go in the opposite direction. They want to double down on some of the inequities that already exist in the tax code. If we’re going to keep giving somebody like me or some of the people in this room tax breaks that we don’t need and we can’t afford, then one of two things happens: Either you've got to borrow more money to pay down a deeper deficit, or you've got to demand deeper sacrifices from the middle class, and you've got to cut investments that help us grow as an economy.
You've got to tell seniors to pay a little bit more for their Medicare. You've got to tell the college student, we're going to have to charge you higher interest rates on your student loan or you're just going to get smaller student loans. You're going to have to tell that working family that’s scraping by that they're going to have to do more because the wealthiest of Americans are doing less.
That’s not right. The middle class has seen enough of its security erode over the past few decades that we shouldn't let that happen. And we're not going to stop investing in the things that create real and lasting growth in this country just so folks like me can get an additional tax cut. We're not going to stop building first-class schools and making sure that they've got science labs in them. We're not going to fail to make investments in basic science and research that could cure diseases that harm people, or create the new technology that ends up creating entire jobs and industries that we haven't seen before. In America, prosperity has never just trickled down from a wealthy few. Prosperity has always been built from the bottom up and from the heart of the middle class outward. And so it’s time for Congress to stand up for the middle class and make our tax system fairer by passing this Buffett Rule.
Let me just close by saying this. I’m not the first President to call for this idea that everybody has got to do their fair share. Some years ago, one of my predecessors traveled across the country pushing for the same concept. He gave a speech where he talked about a letter he had received from a wealthy executive who paid lower tax rates than his secretary, and wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why that was wrong. So this President gave another speech where he said it was “crazy” -- that's a quote -- that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary. That wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior was Ronald Reagan.
He thought that, in America, the wealthiest should pay their fair share, and he said so. I know that position might disqualify him from the Republican primaries these days -- (laughter) -- but what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing that we’re calling for now: a return to basic fairness and responsibility; everybody doing their part. And if it will help convince folks in Congress to make the right choice, we could call it the Reagan Rule instead of the Buffett Rule.
But the choice is clear. This vote is coming up. I’m asking every American who agrees with me to call your member of Congress, or write them an email, tweet them. Tell them to stop giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them. Tell them to start asking everybody to do their fair share and play by the same rules, so that every American who’s willing to work hard has a chance at similar success, so that we’re making the investments that help this economy grow, so that we’re able to bring down our deficits in a fair and balanced and sensible way. Tell them to pass the Buffett Rule.
I’m going to keep on making this case across the country because I believe that this rule is consistent with those principles and those values that have helped make us this remarkable place where everybody has opportunity.
Now, each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, felt responsibility not only for themselves, but also for their community and for their country. They felt a responsibility to us, to future generations. And now it’s our turn to be similarly responsible. Now it’s our turn to preserve that American Dream for future generations.
So I want to thank those of you who are here with me today. I want to thank everybody who is in the audience. And I want to appeal to the American people: Let’s make sure that we keep the pressure on Congress to do the right thing.
Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)
END
10:36 A.M. EDT