Remarks by the First Lady at a Campaign Event

Standard Club
Chicago, Illinois

1:05 P.M. CDT

MRS. OBAMA:  Chicago!  (Applause.)  Well, look at you all.  Look at everybody.  (Applause.)  You all, sit down.  Don’t act like you don’t know me.  (Laughter.)

It is so, so good to be here.  It really is.  I think I teared up a few times on the rope line just seeing people I haven’t seen in years.  It is just wonderful to be home.  And it’s wonderful to be home with so many familiar faces, and so many wonderful new faces.

I want to start by thanking Jane for that very kind introduction, and for all that she has done to champion this campaign, and all her work throughout the nation.  I want to give another shout-out to aunt Marge (ph) -- (applause) -- who I got to meet -- of the Lynch family crew.  The only thing I will say, Jane, my only disappointment is that you didn’t wear your tracksuit today.  (Laughter.)  But maybe another time we can hang out in the tracksuit.

I also want to thank two of my dear, dear friends and partners in this endeavor -- Tina Tchen and Susan Sher.  (Applause.)  So I heard they did a job of firing you all up, getting you revved up.  But I want to thank them on behalf of myself, my family, the administration, for everything both of them have been doing to keep me standing up straight and to keep us on track to reach so many wonderful goals.  So let’s give them another round of applause -- very proud of them both.  (Applause.)

And finally, of course, I want to thank all of you for joining us here for today’s Women for Obama luncheon.  Yay for the women -- and a few good men.  (Applause.)  You’re always welcome.  And I’m grateful that you’re here because I know that you all are busy women and men and people.  I know that you all have plenty of things in your lives to do.  You have families to raise.  You’ve got jobs to do, careers to build.  You’ve got kids to get to camp, soccer, recitals -- you name it.

But I also know that there’s a reason why you all found the time to be here today.  And it’s not just because we all support an extraordinary President -– who happens to be my husband.  (Applause.)  Yes, I am biased.  I think the President of the United States is awesome.  I do.  (Laughter.)  And we’re not just here because we want to win an election -- although we do and we will.  Yes, we will.  We will do this.  (Applause.)

We’re here because of the values we believe in.  We’re here because of the vision for this country that we all share.  We’re here because we want all of our children, every single one of them, to have good schools -– those kind of schools that push them, and inspire them, and prepare them for wonderful jobs and endless opportunities.  We want our parents and our grandparents to be able to retire with dignity -– because we believe that after a lifetime of hard work, these wonderful men and women who have helped to raise us should be able to enjoy their golden years.  We believe that responsibility should be rewarded, and hard work should pay off.  We’re here because we want to restore that basic middle-class security for all our families -- because we believe that here in America folks shouldn’t go bankrupt because someone gets sick.  We believe that you shouldn’t lose your home because someone has lost a job.  We believe in a fair and just America where we all work to ensure that our daughters have the exact same opportunities as our sons.  (Applause.) 

And what I say time and time again, what I remind people:  These are basic American values.  These are the basics.  They’re the values that so many of us were raised with.  I know you all.  I know how you were raised.  And that includes me.  You all know my background -- my father was a blue-collar worker at the city water plant, and my family lived in a very small apartment on the South Side.  (Laughter.)  Yes, see, I know -- have a few -- you can do it here in this luncheon.  South Side!  It’s fine.  (Laughter and applause.)  It’s fine.  Just because I’m the First Lady -- I know where I’m from:  South Side, yes.  (Laughter.)

But my parents never had the kinds of educational opportunities that we had.  And growing up, I saw how they saved.  I saw how they sacrificed; how they poured everything they had into me and my brother.  They held us to the same high standards of excellence because they wanted both of us to have the kind of education they could only dream of.  And my parents did everything in their power to support my college education.  And while pretty much all of my tuition came from student loans and grants -- there are a few people in this room who can relate to that -- (applause) -- yes -- my dad still paid a small portion of that tuition himself.  And every semester, he was determined to pay that bill, and to pay it right on time.  Because he was so proud to be sending his kids to college, and he did all he could to lessen our financial burden by ensuring that neither me nor my brother ever missed that registration deadline because his check was late.

And like so many people in this country, my father took great pride in being able to earn the kind of living that allowed him to handle his responsibilities to his family; to pay all of his bills and to pay them on time.  That’s all he wanted. 

But what I want people to understand, that more than anything else, that is what’s at stake in this election.  That is really what we’re working for.  It’s that fundamental promise that no matter who you are or how you started out, if you work hard, you can build a decent life for yourself and, yes, an even better life for your kids.  And we have to understand, it is that promise that binds us all together as Americans.  It is what makes this country so special; it makes us who we are. 

But from now until November, Barack is going to need all of you out there telling everyone you know about our values and our vision, and about everything that’s at stake in this election.  That’s what we need you to do.

And when it comes to the economy, I want you to start by telling them how Barack fought for tax cuts for working families and small businesses -- because he understands that an economy built to last starts with the middle class and with folks who are creating jobs and putting people back to work.

I want you to remind people how Barack, when he first took office, this economy was losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month.  That’s what he inherited.  That’s what awaited him in the Oval Office after all that wonderful inaugural stuff we did.  (Laughter.)  But I also want you to tell them that for the past 27 straight months, we’ve actually been gaining private sector jobs -– a total of more than 4 million jobs in just two years.  (Applause.)

So while we do have a long way to go to rebuild our economy, today, millions of people are collecting a paycheck again; millions of people like my dad are able to pay their bills again. 

You can also remind people about how so many folks in Washington were telling Barack to let the auto industry go under, with more than a million jobs on the line.  Remember that?  But Barack had the backs of American workers.  He put his faith in the American people.  And as a result, today, the auto industry is back on its feet again and, more importantly, people are back at work, able to provide for their families again.  Make sure you tell people that.  (Applause.)

And when it comes to education and opportunities for our young people, tell people how Barack is working to raise standards in our public schools and make college more affordable for millions of young people -- like me -- so that they can be prepared for the good jobs of the future.

I want you to tell people how Barack has been fighting for the DREAM Act, because -- (applause) -- he believes that it is time to stop denying responsible young people opportunities in this country just because they’re the children of undocumented immigrants.  That’s who your President is.  (Applause.)   

When it comes to keeping our country safe, you can remind folks that Barack kept his promise to bring our troops home from Iraq.  Remind them about how our brave men and women in uniform finally brought to justice the man behind the 9/11 attacks.  (Applause.)

Tell them that our troops no longer have to lie about who they are to serve the country they love -– because Barack finally ended “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  (Applause.)

And when it comes to our Supreme Court, you can surely talk about those two brilliant justices he appointed, and how, for the first time in history, our daughters and sons watched three women take their seat on our nation’s highest court.  (Applause.)  Make sure people understand what’s at stake.

And when it comes to women and families in this country, you can tell folks how hard Barack has been fighting for us.  Make sure that women in your lives understand what health reform means to all of us.  Talk about how our kids can now stay on our insurance plans until they’re 26 years old -- thanks to health reform.  And that’s how 3.1 million more young people in this country are getting the health care they need.  Make sure they understand that.  (Applause.)

As you all know, because of this reform insurance companies will no longer be allowed to charge women more than men for the exact same coverage.  And they have to cover preventative care -- basic things like contraception, mammograms, prenatal care at no extra cost.  That’s what’s at stake.  (Applause.)

And you know that my husband knows that every single woman in this country needs access to the full range of health services.  More importantly, he has the wisdom and good judgment to understand why, as women, we must be able to make our own choices about our health care.  (Applause.)

And finally, don’t forget to tell people how Barack fought to make it easier for women to get equal pay for equal work in this country.  (Applause.)  That’s because of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- the very first bill Barack signed into law as President of the United States; the first thing he did. 

But people need to understand why he signed that bill.  He signed this bill because he knows that closing that pay gap can mean the difference between women losing $50, $100, $500 from each paycheck, or having that money in their pockets to buy gas or groceries or put school clothes on the backs of their kids.  He did it because when so many women are now breadwinners for our families, women’s success in this economy is the key to families’ success in this economy. 

Because, in the end, Barack understands that issues like equal pay and women’s health -– these aren’t just women’s issues.  They’re family issues.  They’re basic economic issues.  When a woman has to pay more for her health care, or she’s not getting paid what she deserves for the work she does, that means the entire family has less money every month.  That means that they have less money to spend, which means less money for our businesses, which affects the entire economy.  This is real stuff.

So what we must understand, though, is that all of these gains we’ve achieved -- and there are so many more I could list -- all of these gains for ourselves and for our families, all of those battles we’ve won -- all of it -- all of it is on the line.  It’s all at stake.  That’s what we’re working for in November. 

And it all boils down to one simple question:  Will we continue the change we’ve begun and the progress we’ve made?  Or will we allow everything we’ve fought for -– not just over these past few years, but over these past few decades -– will we allow all of that to just slip away?  Is that what we’re going to do? 

AUDIENCE:  No!

MRS. OBAMA:  No!  We know what we need to do.  No, we can’t turn back now -- not with our daughters sitting here; not with our grandchildren sitting here.  We have to keep moving forward.

And more than anything else, that’s what we’re working for -– the chance to finish what we started; the chance to keep fighting for the values we believe in and the vision we all share.

That’s what my husband has been doing every single day as President.  And what I have shared with people, as First Lady, is over these past three and a half years I’ve had the chance to see up close and personal what being President looks like.  I’ve seen how the issues that come across a President’s desk are always the hard ones -– the problems with no easy solutions; the judgment calls where the stakes are so high and the margin for error absent.  And as President, you can get all kinds of advice and opinions from all kinds of people.  But in the end, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your life experiences.  All you have to draw on are your values, is your vision for where you want this country to go.  It all boils down to who you are and what you stand for.

And we all know who my husband is, especially all of us here in Chicago.  We all know what Barack Obama stands for.  He is the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills.  He’s the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn to catch a bus to her job at the bank.  And even though Barack’s grandmother worked hard to help support his family, and she was good at her job, like so many women, she hit that glass ceiling and watched men no more qualified than she was –- men she had actually trained –- be promoted up that ladder ahead of her. 

So believe me, Barack Obama knows what it means when a family struggles.  This is not a hypothetical for him.  He knows what it means when a woman doesn’t have a chance to fulfill her potential.  And today, as a father, he knows what it means to want your daughters to grow up with no limits on their dreams.  Those are the experiences that have made him the man –- and the President –- he is today. 

So when there’s a choice about our children’s future -- about investing in their schools, about helping them get to college without a mountain of debt -- you know where Barack stands.  That you never have to question.

When it comes time to stand up for workers and our families so folks can make a decent earning, and save for retirement, and see a doctor when they’re sick, you know what Barack Obama is going to do, don't you?  (Applause.)

When we need a President to protect our most basic rights, no matter who we love, or where we’re from, or what race or gender we are, and that includes women’s rights to make our own choices about our health care, you know you can count on my husband, because that’s what he’s been doing every single day as President of the United States.  (Applause.)  Every single day.  (Applause.)

But I have said this before -- I will keep saying it:  He cannot do this alone.  Because, as Barack has said, this election will be even closer than the last one.  So, yes, again he needs your help.  He needs you to make those phone calls -- yes, write checks -- but make those phone calls, organize those events, and write more checks.  (Laughter.)  But he needs you to multiply yourselves.  That's the concept I want people to get into.  Multiply yourselves.  He needs you to reach out to your friends and your family and your neighbors.  Direct them to barackobama.com -- wonderful website -- to find out how they can get involved and what they can to do help. 

And let me just say, if things look good where you are, things are feeling just so great for Barack Obama where you’re living, then pack a bag.  (Laughter.)   And spend some time in a battleground state like Iowa.  And there, that's where we need you to talk to those undecided voters, particularly women, and remind every single one of them of what we just discussed, what is at stake, because it’s not at stake just for us; it’s at stake for every woman, every child in this country. 

And he also needs your help to get involved with our neighborhood teams.  We’ve got some wonderful neighborhood team leaders here today.  These are groups of people all over the city, all over the country, who are giving just a little bit of their time and energy to make a difference to this campaign.  And everything that happens on the ground -- and let me tell you, this organization is well organized on the ground -- everything that happens runs through our team leaders.

So today, we have forms on your table.  This is an action day.  You have forms on your table to sign up for a neighborhood team.  We’ve got volunteers.  Raise your hands.  Who are our volunteers?  (Applause.)  In the back room -- all of whom can answer your questions and get you signed up.  I’m serious about this.  It is time for us to roll up our sleeves because if I -- what I just said doesn’t concern you, it should. 

And if you have any doubt about the difference that you can make, what I want you to remember is that in the end, this election could possibly come down to those last few thousand voters that we register to vote.  Think about that.  This election is going to be close.  It could all come down to those last few thousand folks we turn out on November the 6th.

So with every call that you make, with every single conversation that you have with a woman in your life who may or may not be following what's going on, who doesn’t understand the issues, who don't know what this President has done for women and girls, for education, and the economy, for health care, with every conversation, with every reminder, I want you to understand that this could be the one that makes the difference.  This could be the one.  It just takes one.  That is the kind of impact that each of us has.  And that's why Barack and I spend so much time on the ground recognizing those workers -- the people knocking on the doors, making those phone calls.  They are at the heart and soul of what will make this country great and what will determine this election.

And I’m not going to kid you, this journey is going to be long.  That's the only thing you can count on.  It is going to be hard.  And there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way.

But what I try to remind people everywhere I go is that is how change always happens in this country.  Real change is slow.  Real change is difficult and it’s painful.  There are many women in this room who I don't have to tell them about that.  But we know that if we keep showing up, and if we keep fighting the good fight and doing what we know is right, and reflecting in our actions and our hearts our values and our vision for this country, then eventually we get there.  We always do.  In this country, in my lifetime, we’ve never moved backwards.

Maybe not in our lifetimes we won’t get there, but maybe in our children’s lifetimes, maybe in our grandchildren’s lifetimes.  Because, in the end, that is what this is all about.  And that’s what I think about when I tuck my girls in at night, before I leave them to come out on the road.  I think about the world I want to leave for them.  I think about how I want to do for them what my father did for me.  I want to give them and all of our kids the kind of foundation for their dreams.  I want to give them, our girls, opportunities worthy of their promise.

And I want that not just for our daughters, but for all of our children, so that they have the same opportunities as our sons, and so that every young person growing up in America today has that sense of limitless possibility -- you know, that feeling that there is something in America always better out there if you’re willing to work for it.  That's what we want all our children to believe.  That is what we’re working for.  That's what's at stake.

So if you doubt for a second how important this election is, look at the children in your lives and ask yourselves what kind of world do you want to hand over to them.  So let me just say we cannot afford to turn back now.  No.  We have come so far, but we have so much more work to do.

So let me ask my group, my family, my friends, one last question:  Are you in?

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

MRS. OBAMA:  Oh, you all have to wake up better than that.  I need to understand, are you really in?  (Applause.)  And “in” for me means you are ready to roll up your sleeves with me; that you are ready to deliver the messages we talked about; that you’re ready to share with everyone you know, every woman within the sound of your voice -- help them understand what's at stake.  Because if you haven’t gotten the sense -- I am fired up about this and I am so ready to go.  And I need you with me; Barack needs you with him every step of the way.  And we will work hard to make this country as great as we know it can be.

Thank you all.  God bless.  (Applause.) 

END  
1:30 P.M. CDT

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event -- Atlanta, GA

Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia

1:07 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  It is good to see everybody here, back in Atlanta.  (Applause.)

A couple of people I want to acknowledge -- first of all, your outstanding Mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, is in the house.  (Applause.)  Former governor, Roy Barnes, is in the house.  (Applause.)  I want to thank all the members of the host committee who made this such an extraordinary event.  And then I've got to give a special shout-out to one of my favorite people.  He's a little bit of a troublemaker -- (laughter) -- he's a little bit erasable.  (Laughter.)  But he is a man of God and he's a man of the people, and he has been a great friend to me for a very long time -- so give it up for Reverend Joseph Lowery.  (Applause.)  Love that man. 

So, Atlanta, I am here not just because I need your help -- although I do.  But I'm here because your country needs your help. 

Back in 2008, we came together because we believed in a basic bargain that built this country -- the basic idea that in America, your life is not determined by the circumstances of your birth; the idea that here in America, if you are willing to work hard, then you can find a job that pays a living wage, that you can care for your family, that you can have a home, that you can send your kids to college and allow them to have experiences and opportunities you didn’t even dream of, that you can retire with dignity and respect -- that basic American idea that if you take responsibility for your own life, that you can go as far as your dreams can take you.  And it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you come from, what your last name is -- (applause) -- who you love, that basic American idea that you can make it if you try.

And for almost a decade we had seen that dream that built the largest middle class in history, and the most successful economy in history -- we had seen that dream slipping away.  We had watched surpluses turned into deficits.  We had seen two wars fought on a credit card.  We had seen a few people at the top do really, really well while more and more folks were struggling to get by, dealing with higher costs of health care, higher costs of education, but weren’t seeing higher salaries or higher incomes. And this was all before the worst financial crisis in our lifetimes struck, and the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes hit. 

And so, over the last three and a half years, that journey that we began has been tough sometimes.  We've had a steep mountain to climb.  But slowly and surely, the American people have proved once again that they are tougher than tough times.  There were folks who said, let's let Detroit go bankrupt.  We said, let's invest in American workers and American businesses -- (applause) -- and now the American auto industry is back on top.

All across the country, folks who lost their jobs, they went back to school, retrained for the industries of the future.  All across the country, small businesses hung on no matter how tough it was, kept folks on payroll even if the owner sometimes couldn't take a salary, because they understood that families were depending on them.  And over time, what we've seen is steady progress and steady movement.  More than 4 million jobs created over the last 27 months; more than 800,000 created just in the last few months alone.

But of course, we understand we had a big hole that was created by that crisis, and it's going to take more than just a few months or a few years to dig our way out of that hole, because this is a challenge that's existed for over a decade now. And we recognize there's still too many of our friends who don't have work, and too many of our family members whose homes are underwater, too many folks struggling.  We've got more work to do.  We understand we've got so much more work to do.

And the question is not whether we need to put more folks back to work, or whether we need to see the economy growing faster, or whether we need to bring down our debt; the question is how do we do it.  The question is how do we do it.  (Applause.)

And in this election, all of you have the opportunity to choose between two fundamentally different visions of how you grow America -- two fundamentally different visions about who we are as a people and what makes this nation great.  On one side you’ve got Mr. Romney and his allies in Congress --

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Mr. Romney is a patriotic American.  He's got a beautiful family.  He's been very successful in his life.  (Laughter.)  No, he has.  But his basic vision is one in which if wealthy investors like him and folks at the very top are freed up from any kind of regulations, if they are maximizing their profits even if it means polluting more, or offshoring jobs, or avoiding taxes, or busting unions -- whatever the strategies -- if they're doing well then everybody else is automatically doing well.  That's their view. 

And that's basically their economic plan.  I'm not making this up.  It's on Mr. Romney's website.  Members of Congress have put forward this plan.  They voted for this plan.  Their basic idea is we're going to eliminate regulations on everything; we are going to provide a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans; and we're just going to let the market take care of the rest.  And the presumption is that everybody here, everybody around the country, will share in this newfound prosperity. 

Now, I don't doubt that they will execute this plan if they get elected.  Here is the problem:  We tried it.  (Applause.)  We tried it very recently, and it didn’t work.  That kind of top-down economics has never worked.  That's not how this country was built.  It's good for a few, but it doesn’t create that broad-based middle class, and folks having ladders to get into the middle class, that made this country great.

And so we've got an alternative vision -- because I believe we're all in it together.  I've got a vision that says the way we're going to grow our economy and put people back to work is to make sure every child in America has the best education possible. (Applause.)  I've got a vision that says the way we grow our economy is by making sure that we're bringing manufacturing back to the United States.  (Applause.)  I've got a vision that says the way we build our economy is to rebuild America -- our roads, our bridges, our runways, our ports, our airports -- putting people back to work.  (Applause.)

I've got a vision that says we'll grow our economy if we control our own energy sources so we're not dependent on what happens in the Middle East.  (Applause.)  And that's why we've got to double down on clean energy -- wind power and solar power. (Applause.)  And I've got a vision that says we grow best when our tax code makes sure that the wealthiest Americans are paying a little bit more in order to bring down our debt.  (Applause.)

It's the basic idea that everybody gets a fair share, and everybody does their fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules.  That's my vision for America.  And just like their vision has been tested, my vision has been tested as well.  When you look at the history of this country, the way we emerged as an economic superpower was doing it together. 

My grandfather’s generation was educated on the GI Bill.  We did that -- together.  We made a common investment in the common good.  The Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Interstate Highway System -- we did those things together, because we understood everybody would be more successful if we were making those common investments that gave each of us the capacity to do well.

Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, said it pretty well.  He said we should do for ourselves what we do best for ourselves, but we should also do together those things that we do better together.  (Applause.)  And so we made investments in science and technology, inventing the products that led to the Internet and GPS and Google, and amazing medical breakthroughs.  We did that because together, through our government, we made these investments in basic research.  (Applause.)  

We did all these things throughout our history not because they were good for one particular person, not because they were good for one particular group, but because they were good for all of us.  Because we understood we rise and fall as one people, as one nation.  (Applause.)  

That’s my vision for America.  That’s what I’ve been fighting for, for the last three and a half years.  That’s why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

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

THE PRESIDENT:  So let me break this down just a little bit more specifically, just because I want everybody to understand.  Let’s look for a moment at Mr. Romney’s -- the specifics of his plan.  I already indicated to you he wants to roll back regulations for polluters and for insurance companies and for the big banks, and he wants to get rid of the Wall Street reform that we did to make sure that we don’t have any more taxpayer bailouts.  All right, so that’s one big part of his plan.  Then he’s got this plan to cut taxes by another $5 trillion.  All right?  So what this would mean would be the average millionaire would see their taxes go down by 25 percent.

Now, you may be wondering, how is it that he can talk about cutting taxes by $5 trillion and, at the same time, say he's going to reduce our deficit -- because they always talk about the deficit and how terrible it is and we've got to get control of the deficit and the debt, and we can't pass this on to the next generation.  All right, so you're going to cut $5 trillion, giving folks like me or Mr. Romney a tax break.  How do the numbers work?  (Laughter.)   

Well, what Mr. Romney says, first of all, is we'll cut a trillion dollars out of that portion of the federal budget that finances everything from education to Head Start, to health care to environmental protection, to consumer protection -- all the things we think of -- food safety -- you name it, a trillion dollars gets cut out of that -- which means that a lot of people suddenly will not have the protections they were counting on.  A lot of folks around the country won't be getting services that we think are part of what makes America great. 

All right?  But that's only $1 trillion, so that doesn't get you everywhere you need to go.  So then the next step would be to have tens of millions of people no longer have health insurance.

AUDIENCE:  No!

THE PRESIDENT:  He'd roll back the Affordable Care Act and he'd block-grant Medicaid in such a way where vulnerable people all across the country, folks who may be disabled, seniors who are relying on those services -- that would be eliminated. 

But that doesn't pay for $5 trillion.  That's not enough.  So then what they'd have to do is eliminate a whole bunch of deductions that middle-class families count on to keep their taxes low.  And so what this adds up to is essentially you -- your family, your friends, middle-class people all across the country -- would end up seeing higher taxes to pay for tax cuts for Mr. Romney and me. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  It ain't right.

THE PRESIDENT:  It ain't right.  (Laughter and applause.)

Now, that's not a recipe for economic growth.  That's not going to make us stronger.  That's not going to make our young people more educated.  It's not going to make us more competitive in this global economy. 

So what I've said is, no, here is what we need to do.  We need to invest more in education.  I want to hire more teachers, especially in math and science.  (Applause.)  I want 2 million more people to have access to community colleges to get the skills and the training they need to get jobs from local businesses right now.  (Applause.)  I want to make college more affordable so young people don't have as much debt when they graduate.  (Applause.)  That's my vision for how we're going to move forward.

I want to stop giving subsidies to oil companies that have never been more successful, never made more profits.  I want to take that money and give subsidies to clean energy, to the energy of the future that's never been more promising -- fuel-efficient cars and solar power and wind power, biodiesel -- putting folks back to work creating homegrown energy, so we're less dependent on foreign oil.  (Applause.) 

I want to invest in science and technology all across the country, because that's always been what's maintained our cutting edge. 

And then, as you know I promised in 2008, I would end the war in Iraq -- we ended it.  (Applause.)  We're phasing down the war in Afghanistan.  And I want to take half of those savings, pay down the deficit, and take the other half and let's start doing some nation-building right here at home -- (applause) -- putting folks back to work rebuilding our infrastructure all across the country.  (Applause.)

I want to change our tax code, because I'm tired of seeing us give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.  I want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Georgia, right here in Atlanta, right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.) 

There was an article the other day in The Washington Post about how Mr. Romney's former firm -- this is what gave him all this amazing success -- was a "pioneer" in offshoring jobs to China and India.  And when they were asked about it, some of his advisors explained, no, there's a difference between offshoring and outsourcing.  (Laughter.)  I'm not kidding, that's what they said.  Those workers who lost their jobs, they didn't understand the difference.  (Applause.) 

But the point is, we don’t need somebody who’s a pioneer in offshoring or outsourcing.  We need a President in the White House who’s going to, every single day, be fighting to bring jobs back to the United States, do some insourcing, put folks back to work here.  (Applause.)

And on this tax code, as I said, I do not think that a $250,000 tax break for me or Mr. Romney -- he’d get a little more, he’s got more -- (laughter) -- more than I do -- I don’t think that’s more important than us hiring outstanding teachers. (Applause.)  I don’t think that’s more important than us sending broadband lines into rural areas of Georgia and all across the country so that folks have access to the Internet.  I don’t think that’s going to help our economy grow more than us investing in cures for Alzheimer’s or cancer.  (Applause.) 

I want to bring down the deficit in a responsible, balanced way.  I’ve already put forward a plan -- $4 trillion in deficit reduction, spending cuts for things that we don’t need, strengthen Medicare and our health care system so that we get a better bang for our buck -- (applause) -- and asking the wealthiest to pay a little bit more.  And you know what, when you talk to folks around the country, successful Americans, they want to do a little more.  If it’s done right, they want to contribute to making America stronger. 

Now, that vision -- the good news is, is when you ask people, item by item, between these two visions, the American people have a sense of what makes sense.  They prefer our vision. But this is still going to be a close election because the economy is still tough and folks are still frustrated.  And what that means is that you’re going to have more money spent in this election than ever before by the other side on negative ads.  And their message will be simple.  They’ll say, the economy is bad and it’s Obama’s fault.  (Laughter.)  They suffer a little bit of amnesia so they don’t remember -- (applause) -- all the stuff that happened before I was sworn into office, but that’s going to be their message.

And because times are tough, and because they’re spending these ungodly sums, it’s going to be close.  But here’s the thing that all of you taught me from 2008.  When the American people decide that something is important, when ordinary citizens come together and they talk to their neighbors, they talk to their friends, they talk to their coworkers, they start getting organized, they knock on doors, they make phone calls -- amazing things happen.  Change happens. 

No matter how much money is spent on the other side, when people are engaged and involved, and they understand that our core values and who we are and what we’re giving to the next generation is at stake, the American people fight for what’s right.  (Applause.) 

And the American people understand that we’re not going to make progress by going backwards.  We need to go forwards.  (Applause.)  They understand we don’t need to refight this battle over health care.  It’s the right thing to do that we’ve got 3 million young people who are on their parent’s health insurance plans that didn’t have it before.  (Applause.)  It’s the right thing to do to give seniors discounts on their prescription drugs.  It’s the right thing to do to give 30 million Americans health insurance that didn’t have it before.  (Applause.)

They want to go forward.  They understand it’s the right thing to do to make sure that we don’t have to bail out Wall Street again and we’ve got some basic regulations to protect our consumers from unscrupulous lenders or mortgage brokers.  They understand that.  They don’t want to go backwards. 

They don’t want to go back to the days when women had a tough time getting access to birth control or Planned Parenthoods getting defunded.  They want women to have control over their own health care choices.  They don’t want to go backwards.
They don’t want to go backwards.  (Applause.)

They don’t want to go back to the days when you might not be able to fight for the country you love just because of who you love.  They don’t want "don't ask, don't tell" reinstated.  (Applause.)  They don’t want to go backwards to a day when young people, who as children were brought to the United States, and were raised with our kids and went to school with our kids -- are our kids -- are Americans through and through in everything except the papers -- that somehow they should be sent away instead of contributing to the United States of America.  (Applause.)  They don’t want to go back to that.  (Applause.)

So I have faith in the American people.  I know when we started this journey back in 2008, I didn’t have all this gray hair.  (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  You're looking good!

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  You look good!  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  But from traveling all across the country, my faith, my conviction in the strength and resilience and the goodness and decency of the American people, it is restored every single day.  I have so much confidence that even when we occasionally take the wrong turn, eventually the road straightens out.  We follow that right path.  I truly believe this is a blessed country.  (Applause.)  

And so we’ll see some cynicism and negativism and foolishness during the course of this campaign.  (Laughter.)  This campaign will have its ups and it will have its downs.  But I remind you of what I said in 2008:  I’m not a perfect man, and I’ll never be a perfect President.  But I told you I’d always tell you what I thought, I’d always tell you what I believed, and most importantly, I told you I’d wake up every single day and fight as hard as I knew how for you.  (Applause.)  That I’d fight as hard as I knew how for all those folks who are doing the right thing out there, all those people who kept the faith with this country.  And you know what, I’ve kept that promise.  I have kept that promise.  (Applause.)  

I believe in you.  I hope you still believe in me.  (Applause.)  I hope you’re ready to stand.  I hope you’re ready to fight.  I hope you’re ready to go out there and knock on some doors, and make some phone calls, talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors and get them to the polls.  And if you do, we will finish what we started in 2008.  (Applause.)  And we will rebuild this economy and rebuild our middle class.  And we will remind the world just why it is that we are the greatest nation on Earth.

God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.) 

END  
1:35 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Symphony Hall
Boston, Massachusetts

7:41 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Boston!  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you, Boston.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, Boston.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  Please, everybody have a seat.  Oh, it is -- (laughter) --

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

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Well, it is good to be back in Boston.  (Applause.)  Good to be back in Massachusetts. 

I want to make some acknowledgments here.  First of all, you’ve got one of the finest governors in the country in Deval Patrick.  (Applause.)  You’ve got one of the finest mayors in the country in the Tom Menino.  (Applause.)  You’ve got an outstanding state auditor in Suzanne Bump.  (Applause.) 

And I just want to thank Elizabeth for that introduction, and let you know how lucky all of you are to have a chance to vote for her in the next election.  (Applause.)  Nobody fought harder for Wall Street reform -- the reform that is now law and protecting consumers all across the country -- than Elizabeth, reform that will end taxpayer bailouts, make sure folks aren’t being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders and credit card companies.  She has been a fierce advocate since before I knew her for the middle class.  She has been advocating on core issues that matter to families her entire career.  She is going to be an outstanding senator from Massachusetts, and everybody here has got to turn out for her.  (Applause.) 

I want to thank Miri Ben-Ari for her outstanding talent.  (Applause.)  We appreciate her appearing here today.  I will not sing today, even though -- (laughter) -- when I’m in Symphony Hall, I’m tempted.  (Applause.)  I am tempted, but -- (laughter and applause) -- can’t do it.  We have some serious business to attend to.  (Laughter.) 

I also want to acknowledge former Governor Michael Dukakis, who is here, and his lovely wife Kitty.  (Applause.)  And finally, Bos, I just want to say thank you for Youkilis.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m just saying.  He’s going to have to change the color of his "sox."  (Laughter and boos.)  I didn’t think I’d get any “boos” out of here, but -- (laughter) -- I guess I shouldn’t have -- I should not have brought up baseball. I understand.  My mistake.

AUDICEN:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  My mistake.  You’ve got to know your crowd.  (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We still love you!  (Laughter and applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Now, Boston, I’m here not just because I need your help -- although I do.  I’m here because the country needs your help.

Now, in 2008, we came together not just to support a candidate -- it wasn’t just about me.  When you support a guy named Barack Obama, you’re not doing it because you thought it was a sure thing.  (Laughter.)  The reason we came together in 2008 was because we had a shared vision about what’s best in this country.  We wanted to reclaim the basic bargain that made America what it is, that built the largest middle class in history, that built the most prosperous nation on Earth -- that compact that binds us together as a people, that binds us together as citizens.  We believed that in America, your success shouldn’t be determined by the circumstances of your birth.  (Applause.) 

We believed that if you worked hard, you should be able to find a good job; if you meet your responsibilities, you should be able to support your family and own a home, maybe start a business, give your kids opportunities you could not have imagined -- no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter who you love, no matter what your last name is. 

It’s that basic bargain that allowed Michelle and I to succeed.  It’s that basic bargain that took a young kid from the South Side of Chicago to become the governor of the Commonwealth. It’s that basic bargain that brought a lot of your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents to these shores from countries where that ideal didn’t take root.  And it was that basic bargain, that simple dream, that we understood had been slipping away for too many Americans. 

We’ve gone through a decade in which surpluses were turned into deficits, in which two wars were fought on a credit card, in which a few people were doing very well but more and more people were having trouble just getting by, no matter how hard they worked -- all of which culminated in the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes.  And after that crisis, that dream seemed even more tattered, even more frayed.  

And so we went to work.  And over the last three-and-a-half years, step by step, we've tried to rebuilt the foundations of that dream, making sure that we reformed our financial system so that reckless bets didn’t always bring down our economy; making sure that people who are out there working hard don't have to worry about being bankrupt just because somebody in their family gets sick; making sure that young people are able to get the assistance they need to go to college and make something that approximates their dreams. 

And because of the incredible resilience and the incredible hard work, the toughness of the American people, we’ve begun to see progress -- created over 4 million jobs over the last three-and-a-half years -- (applause) -- 800,000 in the last few months alone.  (Applause.)  When some were saying let’s go ahead and let Detroit go bankrupt, we bet on the American worker and American industries.  (Applause.)  And today the U.S. auto industry is back on top and getting stronger.  (Applause.)  

But what we also understand is, is that there are way too many people out there who are still struggling, too many people whose homes are underwater, too many small businesses that are still finding it hard to get financing and keep their doors open.

And so the debate in this election is not whether we have more work to do.  Of course the economy is not where it needs to be.  Of course there are too many folks still struggling.  Of course we need to do better.  These challenges were built up over years.  They weren’t created overnight; they weren’t going to be solved overnight.  But the debate in this election is how do we grow the economy faster?  How do we create more jobs?  Moving forward, how do we create more opportunity?  How do we pay down our debt?  How do we reclaim that basic bargain that makes America the greatest nation on Earth?  How do we do it?

And this is not just your usual run-of-the-mill Washington Beltway argument.  This is the defining issue of our time.  It is a make-or-break moment for our middle class, and the next President and the next Congress will be setting the course on the economy, on deficits, on taxes, not just for today, not just for tomorrow, but the next decade, the next two.  This election will have an enormous impact on the country we live in today, but more importantly, it’s going to have an impact on the country we pass on to our children. 

Now, what’s holding us back from meeting these challenges -- as much progress as we’ve made -- what's holding us back still is not a lack of big ideas, it’s not a lack of technical solutions. All the options are out there.  Everybody knows what’s holding us back is a stalemate in Washington between two fundamentally different visions of which direction we should go.

And this election is your chance to break that stalemate.  This election is your chance to move this country forward. (Applause.)  This is your choice.  (Applause.) 

And let’s be clear about what these choices are.  Mr. Romney and his allies in Congress, they’ve got a very particular theory about how you grow the economy.  They believe we should go back to the top-down economic policies of the last decade.  You can sum them up fairly simply.  They believe that if we eliminate regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars, that will free up the marketplace and will solve all our problems.  That's the essence of their argument.  They argue if we help corporations and wealthy investors maximize their profits by whatever means necessary -- whether through layoffs or outsourcing or union-busting -- that that will automatically translate into jobs and prosperity that benefit all of us.  That's their theory. 

And that's not an exaggeration.  Just last week, it was reported that Governor Romney’s old firm owned companies that were "pioneers" -- this is not my phrase, but how it was described in the report -- "pioneers" in the business of outsourcing American jobs to places like China and India. Yesterday, his advisors tried to clear this up by telling us that there was a difference between "outsourcing" and "off-shoring."  (Laughter.)  Seriously.  You can’t make that up.  (Laughter and applause.) 

What Mr. Romney and his advisors don't seem to understand is this:  If you’re a worker whose job went overseas, you really don’t need somebody explaining you the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.  (Laughter.)  What you need is somebody who is going to wake up every day fighting to make sure that investments and jobs are happening here in Massachusetts, and here in the United States of America.  That's what you need. (Applause.)

And let me be clear.  We all believe in the free market.  We all believe that risk-takers and entrepreneurs need to be rewarded.  It's that dynamism that built this country.  But we also believe in shared prosperity.  I want to close the outsourcing loophole in our tax code.  I want to give tax breaks to companies who create jobs and manufacturing right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

And this particular commitment to outsourcing isn't just part of his record.  It's part of an overall economic theory that Republicans in Congress want to implement if they win this election.  It's been voted on in Congress.  It's right there on Governor Romney's website.  They promise to roll back all kinds of regulations on banks and polluters, insurance companies, oil companies.  They don't want to just keep all of the Bush tax cuts in place, including tax cuts for folks who don't need them and weren't asking for them; they want to add another $5 trillion in tax cuts on top of that, including a 25 percent tax cut for every millionaire in this country. 

Now, you may be wondering, how do they spend $5 trillion on new tax cuts and still keep a straight face when they say that their plan would reduce the deficit?  This is a good question that you're asking yourselves.  (Laughter.)  Boston has a lot of smart people in it.  (Laughter.)  And I'm sure that we probably have some MIT grads here.  (Applause.)  See -- math majors, they're thinking $5 trillion, all right, how does that add up?

Well, they start by proposing a trillion dollars in cuts to things like education and training, medical research, clean energy.  But that’s only a trillion dollars, so that's not enough.  So then they propose eliminating health care for about 50 million Americans and converting Medicare into a voucher program.  But that’s still not enough.  So then they also have to effectively raise taxes on the middle class by taking away tax deductions for everything from health care, college, retirement, homeownership -- which could cost families thousands of dollars.

Now, this is on their websites; they voted on these plans.  That's the entirety of their economic approach.  That's it.  There's nothing new there.  We've tried this, by the way.  When Mr. Romney tells us that he is some sort of financial wizard who can fix our economy, this is how he intends to do it. 

Now, if you're a person who thinks this plan sounds like a good idea, if we want to try the same policies that we just implemented in the last decade and did not work -- those folks should vote for Mr. Romney.  They should reelect the Republicans who have been running this Congress.  And together, I promise you this is the path they'll take America down.  They're more than qualified to do it.  (Laughter.)

But I believe their policies have been tested, and their policies have failed.  And that’s because in this country, prosperity hasn't come from the top down.  It's come from a strong and growing middle class.  It's come from people striving to get into that middle class.  It's come from successful, thriving small businesses that turned into medium-sized businesses and large businesses.  It comes from consumers who are seeing enough income and wage increases that they can afford to buy great products and services from businesses -- and the entire economy grows.

We do not need more top-down economics.  We need a plan for better education and training so that our young people can take advantage of the marketplace; for energy independence and innovation and infrastructure.  And we need a tax code that encourages companies to create jobs here in the United States, and a tax code that asks the wealthiest Americans to help pay down our deficit.  That's what we need.  (Applause.)  That's what we need.  (Applause.)  

There's nothing radical about that vision.  That’s the vision that built this country.  It was part of what used to be a bipartisan consensus.  We don’t expect government to solve all our problems.  This notion that somehow there's been some heavy tilt to the left on the part of the Democratic Party -- over the last three years, I cut taxes for the typical working family by $3,600.  I cut taxes for small businesses 18 times, eliminated billions of dollars in regulations that didn’t make sense and weren't making people healthier or safer.

I don’t believe we should be in the business of helping people who refuse to help themselves.  I don't think government can solve every problem.  But I do share this basic belief with our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who said that through government we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves, -- (applause) -- that there is a place for us to work on the common good, that there's a common good that we invest in together.   

That’s how we built this country -- together.  We built railroads and highways -- together.  We built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge -- together.  We sent my grandfather’s generation to college on the GI Bill -- together.  We invented -- we invested in basic science that led to unimaginable discoveries -- we did those things together.  Because we understood it made us all better off.  It gave us all opportunity -- because it created a platform where everybody could succeed. 

If you were willing to work hard, you could succeed -- in part, because we had great schools, and we had built great roads, and we had a system in place that made sure that investors weren’t cheated when they put money into the stock market, and bank deposits were guaranteed, and polluters didn’t run wild.  All those things made us, together, better off and allowed us to succeed as one people, as one nation.  (Applause.) 

That’s the true lesson of our past.  That is the right vision for our future.  And, Boston, that is why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States -- because I want to move that vision forward.  (Applause.)  I want to move that vision forward.  (Applause.)     

I’m running to make sure that every American has a chance to get the skills and training that today’s jobs require.  I want to recruit an army of new teachers.  (Applause.)  I want to pay them better.  I want to hire more in areas like math and science.  I want to give 2 million more Americans the chance to go to community colleges and learn skills that local businesses are looking for right now.  (Applause.)  And I want to make higher education affordable for every American who’s willing to work for it -- not just by offering more loans and financial aid, but by bringing down the cost of college tuition -- (applause) -- because this is no longer an economic luxury.  Every young American needs the skills and the training to succeed in the 21st century economy.  (Applause.) 

Boston understands this.  Massachusetts understands this.  That's what we're fighting for.  That’s the choice in this election.  That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.  (Applause.)  

I’m running so that we have a future where we control our own energy.  That’s good for our economy, it's good for our national security, it's good for our planet.  (Applause.)  We need to end subsidies for oil companies that are making plenty of money on their own, and double down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising -- in wind power and solar power, and biofuels and fuel-efficient cars.  (Applause.)   

I’m running to make sure that the United States becomes -- continues to be the best place on Earth for innovation and discovery. 

And I'm proud that I kept the promise I made to you in 2008 -- we have ended the war in Iraq.  (Applause.)  We are transitioning out of Afghanistan. 

So I want to start doing some nation-building here at home. (Applause.)  I want to take half the money we’re no longer spending on war, use it to put people back to work rebuilding our roads, rebuilding our runways, rebuilding our ports, building wireless networks, building high-speed rail.  (Applause.)  Investing more in research, investing more in science -- all those ingredients that made us an economic superpower.  That’s the choice in this election. 

I’m running because we need to reduce our deficit, we need to manage our debt, and so I've put forward a plan -- $4 trillion of deficit reduction that is balanced and responsible, that allows us to cut spending we can’t afford, strengthens programs like Medicare for the long haul, and, yes, reforms our tax code so that the wealthiest Americans pay a little bit more -- (applause.) 

And just as Mr. Romney's theories and the Republicans in Congress, their theories have been tested, well, my theories have been tested as well, because that tax code that I described happened to be the tax code that was around when Bill Clinton was President, and we created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history.  (Applause.)  We created a whole lot of millionaires to boot.  Businesses did just fine.  (Applause.)    And you know there are plenty of patriotic, successful Americans all across the country -- I meet them every day -- who'd be willing to make this contribution again because they understand there is such a thing as the common good.  They understand that we’re in this thing together.

Mr. Romney disagrees with this vision.  His allies in Congress disagree with this vision.  Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes.  That’s the reason why we haven’t reached an agreement to lower our deficits.  That’s the reason my jobs bill that independent economists say would put 1 million more people back to work has been voted down time and time again.  It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington for the last three years. 

Which brings me back to where I started.  The only way we’re going to break that gridlock is through you.  Very rarely do you see such a stark choice in an election, with so much at stake.  On every challenge we face, you have the final say about where do we go from here. 

You can decide whether we keep our brave men and women in Afghanistan indefinitely, as Mr. Romney proposes, or whether we stick to the timeline that I established that allows us to finally bring our troops home.  That’s your decision.  (Applause.) 

You can decide whether we should restrict access to birth control or de-fund Planned Parenthood, or we can make a decision that in this country, women control their own health choices.  That’s a decision for you to make.  (Applause.) 

You can decide whether ending taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street banks was the right thing to do; whether protecting consumers from unscrupulous practices -- like Elizabeth fought for -- whether that's the right thing to do; whether preventing insurance companies from discriminating against people who are sick is the right thing to do; or allowing over 3 million young people to stay on their parent's health insurance plan, whether that's the right thing to do; or bringing down prescription drug costs for seniors was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)

I think it was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)  I know it was the right thing to do.  And it’s your choice whether we keep moving forward.  (Applause.)

You can decide whether we go back to the days where you could be kicked out of the United States military just because of who you are or who you love.  I know where I stand on this.  (Applause.)

You can decide whether it’s time to stop denying citizenship to responsible young people just because they were brought here as children of undocumented immigrants.  I know where I stand on this.  I know the choice I make.  (Applause.)

And you can decide whether we continue to have elections where multi-million-dollar donations, $10 million checks speak louder than the voices of ordinary citizens.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  No!

THE PRESIDENT:  This is going to be up to you.

This election will be close.  It will be close because there are a lot of folks who are still going through a tough time.  And even if they don't buy what the other side is selling, it’s hard [sic] in this environment sometimes for people to feel discouraged, for cynicism to creep in. 

And the other side, they feed on that.  They will spend more money than we have ever seen in American history, and their message is very simple.  They will just tell you that the economy is not where it needs to be, the economy is bad, and it’s all my fault.  (Laughter.)  They’ll tell you, Obama can't fix it because he thinks government is always the answer; or because he didn't make a lot of money in the private sector, so he’s in over his head; or because Obama thinks everything is -- everybody is doing just fine.  You’ll just hear those messages over and over and over again.  Scary voices in the ads.  (Laughter.)  Flashing at you.  (Laughter.)  That's what Mr. Romney will say.  That's what the Republicans in Congress will say. 

And I understand their approach.  I mean, it’s a plausible plan to win an election.  But it’s not a plan to create jobs.  It’s not a plan to grow the economy.  It’s not a plan to give all the people I meet around the country who are working so hard and struggling every day -- it’s not a plan to give them a handle on achieving their dreams.  It’s not a plan to rebuild our middle class. 

And ultimately, that's what we have to have.  We’ve got to have a plan that goes back to that basic bargain that we were fighting for in 2008, that basic compact between citizens that says, I’ve got a stake in your success.  (Applause.)  And that kid over in Dorchester who didn't have all the opportunities, or in South Boston who didn't have all the chances that I had, you know what, I’ve got a stake in his success.  I think I’ll be better off, my kids will be better off, if that kid gets an education.  (Applause.) 

That sense that you know what, I don't put on a hard hat every day when I go to work, but if I’m seeing the skyline rising and those construction workers out there building, you know somehow that's going to make my life better.  It’s going to help secure the future of my kids and my grandkids. 

And if I see an elderly couple strolling through the park and they're holding hands, and I know that they’ve got the security and dignity of a retirement that eases their anxieties, yes, that makes me feel better about my country.  It’s good for my life.  (Applause.)

We are not there yet.  This is hard work.  It’s always been hard.  Progress in this country has always been hard.  It’s never come easy.  There have been episodes, moments in our history where it looked easy, but it always involved struggle.  And what we started in 2008, I never promised you it was going to be easy. I told you then I wasn’t a perfect man and I wouldn’t be a perfect President.  But what I told was also that I promised you that every single day, I would tell you what I thought, I would tell you where I stood, and I’d wake up in the morning and I’d go to bed at night thinking about how I could make your lives better.  I would fight for you as hard as I could.  (Applause.)

And I’ve kept that promise.  I’ve kept that promise, Boston.  (Applause.)  I believe in you.  And if you believe in me, and if you agree with me about how we’ve got to give everybody a fair shot and we want everybody to do their fair share and we want everybody to play by the same rules, then I need you to stand with me for a second term as President.  (Applause.)

I need you to knock on doors with me.  I need you to make phone calls with me.  I want all of you to understand that if you share this belief -- and I believe a vast majority of the American people do -- and, in fact, I think there are Republicans out there who do.  (Laughter.)  They just can't admit it right now.  (Laughter and applause.)  I’ll work with anyone of any party who believes that we are in this together and believes that we will rise and fall as one nation, as one people.  That's what we’re fighting for right now.

Don't let anybody tell you we don't have the capacity to solve our challenges.  We do.  We’ve got the opportunities.  We are Americans, and we’ve never shied away from these kinds of fights.  But we’ve got to fix our politics, and you guys are the ones who are going to help fix it.  (Applause.)

So I hope you’re ready.  I hope you’re ready.  I hope you’re still fired up.  (Applause.)  And if anybody asks you what this campaign is about, you tell them it’s still about hope, and it is still about change, and we’re going to finish what we started in 2008.  (Applause.)  We’re going to move this country forward and remind the world why America is the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.)

END
8:24 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Hillsborough Community College
Tampa, Florida

4:18 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, it is good to be back in Tampa, Florida! (Applause.)  I was so fired up I missed a stair.  (Laughter.)  I couldn't wait to get out here.  (Applause.)  Well, how is everybody doing today?  (Applause.)

A couple of people I want to acknowledge -- first of all, the outstanding Mayor of your fair city, Bob Buckhorn is in the house.  (Applause.)  Florida's own, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Shultz is here.  (Applause.)  And the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Rod Smith is in the house.  (Applause.)

And all of you are here.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Fired up, ready to go!  Fired up, ready to go!  Fired up, ready to go!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you. 

Listen, Tampa, I'm here not only because I need your help.  But I’m also here because the country needs your help.  For the last three years, we've been battling our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Not only are we digging out of a hole that’s 9 million jobs deep, we’re digging out of an entire decade where manufacturing left our shores; where costs rose but incomes weren’t going up; where middle-class families fell further and further behind.  It was a decade where two wars and trillions of dollars in tax cuts were put on our nation’s credit card, turning a record surplus into a record deficit.

Now, today, our economy is growing again, but it needs to grow faster.  Our businesses have created over 4 million jobs in the last 27 months.  (Applause.)  But we need to create more, and they need to pay better.  I signed a law that will reduce our deficit by $2 trillion, but we've got to do more work on our deficit.  One of the most urgent tasks is recovering from this immediate crisis -- but the economy won’t be truly healthy until we reverse that much longer erosion of the middle class -- (applause) -- until we restore the basic American bargain that says if you work hard in this country, you can get ahead, and own a home, and send your kids to college, and retire with dignity and respect.  (Applause.)   

Now, here's the thing, Florida.  What’s holding us back from meeting these challenges is not the lack of big ideas, it's not the lack of technical solutions.  By now, just about every policy and proposal has been laid out there on the table.  What is holding us back is a stalemate between two fundamentally different views in Washington about which direction we should go in.

This isn’t just one of the run-of-the-mill political arguments you hear about in Washington sometimes.  This is the defining issue of our time.  We're in a make-or-break moment for the middle class.  And the next President and the next Congress will face a set of decisions -- on the economy, and on the deficit, and on taxes -- that will have an enormous impact on this country not just today but the country that we pass on to our children. 

And you know what, the outcome of this decision, this choice, is entirely up to you.  It's up to you -- the people of Tampa, the people of Florida, the American people.  (Applause.)  
Now, Governor Romney and his allies --

AUIDENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  They're patriotic Americans.  They've got wonderful families.  But they believe that we should go back to the top-down economics of the last decade.

AUDIENCE:  Nooo --

THE PRESIDENT:  They figure that if we simply eliminate regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars, then the market will solve all of our problems.  (Baby cries.)  You see?  You heard that?  (Applause.)  I'm just saying.  (Laughter.)   

No, wait, wait, that's their argument.  They argue that if we help corporations and wealthy investors maximize their profits by whatever means necessary -- whether through layoffs or outsourcing or union-busting -- that it will automatically translate into jobs and prosperity that benefit all of us.  That's their theory.  That's their theory. 

But I believe they’re wrong.  (Applause.)  I think they're wrong.  I believe we should do everything we can to help our entrepreneurs succeed.  (Applause.)  I want our companies to be as profitable as they can be.  But that alone is not enough.  Because the central challenge we face right now -- the challenge that we’ve faced for over a decade -- is that bigger profits haven’t led to better jobs.  Bigger profits haven’t led to higher incomes.

And the reason is, in this country, in America, prosperity has never come from the top down -- it comes from a strong and growing middle class, and all those people who are striving and working to get into the middle class.  (Applause.)  It comes from successful, thriving small businesses that grow into medium-sized businesses, and then large businesses. 

We don’t need more top-down economics.  What we need is some middle class-out economics, some bottom-up economics.  (Applause.)  We need a plan for better education and for better training, for energy independence, for innovation, for infrastructure that can rebuild America.  (Applause.)  What we need is a tax code that encourages companies to create jobs and manufacturing here in the United States -- (applause) -- and that asks the wealthiest Americans to help pay down our deficit, to do their fair share.  (Applause.) 

Tampa, that’s the way forward.  That’s where I want to take this country over these next four years.  And that’s why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Now, listen, there’s no mystery about where the other side will take us if they win the election.  I mean, their economic plan has been voted on in Congress.  Governor Romney has it right there on his website.  So, look, first, they promise to roll back all kinds of regulations on banks and polluters and insurance companies and oil companies. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s the first part of their plan.  The second part of their plan -- they don’t just want to keep all the Bush tax cuts in place, the ones for the wealthiest Americans, they want to keep those in place; then they want to add another $5 trillion in tax cuts on top of that --

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  -- including a 25 percent tax cut for every millionaire in the country.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Now, I can tell this is a sophisticated group, so -- (laughter) -- so you might be wondering, how do they spend $5 trillion on new tax cuts and then, with a straight face, say that their plan would reduce the deficit?  How do they do that?  It's a good question.  Well, let me tell you, they start by proposing $1 trillion in cuts to things like education and training and medical research and clean energy.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  But that’s not enough.  That’s only $1 trillion; they’ve got all this -- $4 trillion to go.  So then they propose eliminating health care for about 50 million Americans --

AUDIENCE:  Nooo --

THE PRESIDENT:  And then they propose turning Medicare into a voucher program.  But you know what, that’s still not enough.  So, as it was reported in the newspaper just this week, they’ll also have to raise taxes on the middle class by taking away tax deductions for everything from health care to college, to retirement, to homeownership --

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  And that could cost some families thousands of dollars.  So think about that.  To pay for another $250,000 tax cut for the average millionaire, they want you to foot the bill.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Let me see a show of hands:  Is there anybody here who can afford to pay thousands of dollars to give people like me and Mr. Romney another tax cut?

AUDIENCE:  No!

THE PRESIDENT:  Come on, go ahead and raise your hand, don’t be shy.  (Laughter.)

Now, look, that’s their entire economic plan.  That’s it.  When Mr. Romney tells us he’s some sort of financial wizard who can fix our economy, that’s how he intends to do it.

And Bill Clinton has pointed out that this Republican agenda, it’s nothing new.  It’s nothing more than the same thing we tried during the last administration, except on steroids.  (Laughter and applause.)

Now, here’s the thing.  I have not seen a single nonpartisan expert say that the other side’s economic plan would actually reduce the deficit in the long term.  I haven’t seen a single independent economist say it would create jobs in the short-term. In fact, one said that it would push us even deeper into recession.

But, you know what, if people still think their plan sounds like a good idea -- (baby cries) -- see, somebody is depressed about this plan.  They're hearing about it -- (laughter.)  I know, it’s heartbreaking.  (Laughter.) 

But if somebody out there thinks that's a good idea, if they want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then they should vote for Mr. Romney.  That's how our democracy works. They should reelect the Republicans who've been running for Congress.  That's what our democracy is all about.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  And together, Mr. Romney and a Republican Congress will take America back down this path that we’ve tried, and it didn’t work the last time.

But if you believe we need a better plan -- (applause) -- if you believe we need a middle-class plan -- (applause) -- that grows our economy and shrinks our deficit -- (applause) -- then we need to win this election.  (Applause.)  We need to move this country forward.  (Applause.) 
 
Despite what you’ll hear from the other side, my plan isn’t based on some belief that government has the answer to all our problems.  Over the last three years, I’ve cut taxes for the typical working family by $3,600.  (Applause.)  I’ve cut taxes for small businesses 18 times.  (Applause.)  I want a government that is leaner and smarter, one that's designed for the 21st century, more responsive to the American people.

So, look, I don’t believe every regulation is smart, or that every tax dollar is spent wisely.  I don’t believe that we should be in the business of helping people who refuse to help themselves.  But I do share the belief of our first Republican President, a guy from my home state named Abraham Lincoln -- (applause) -- who said that through government, we should do together what we can’t do as well for ourselves.  (Applause.) 

That’s how we built this country -- together.  Sure, Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed on certain policies and programs.  But throughout our history, at least our modern history, there’s been a shared belief that we’re a great market economy, but the market can’t solve all its problems on our own. 

So that’s why FDR worked with Republicans and Democrats to send a generation of returning veterans to college on the GI Bill –- (applause) -- an investment that led to the largest middle-class, the most prosperous economy in our history.  (Applause.)  They understood that people succeed when they have a chance to get a decent education and learn new skills -- and the businesses that hire those people benefit, as well, and the companies they start benefit, as well.  That was not just a Democratic belief.  That was an American belief.  (Applause.) 

President Eisenhower, a Republican, he launched the Interstate Highway System and a new generation of scientific research.  He understood that for companies to grow and hire, they need access to the best transportation, and the fastest communication, the most cutting-edge innovation.  

Ronald Reagan worked with Democrats to save Social Security and pay down the deficit by, yes, asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more in taxes.  (Applause.)  They understood that our economy is stronger when we don’t balance our budget on the backs of middle-class and poor Americans.  We do it best when everybody does their fair share.  (Applause.) 

So Governor Romney and the Republican leaders in Congress, they’ve rejected what used to be this bipartisan tradition.  They’ve opted for top-down, on-your-own economics that has never succeeded in this country.  And I've got a different view.  I have an economic plan based on the shared vision that’s always worked for America’s middle class and all those striving to get there -- (applause) -- a plan focused on education and energy and innovation and infrastructure, and a tax code that is fair and responsible.  (Applause.)  That's how we’re going to build this country.  That's why I’m running for President of the United States.  (Applause.) 

So first, we’re going to make sure that every American has a chance to get the skills and training that today’s jobs require. My plan would recruit an army of new teachers -- (applause) -- pay them better, hire more teachers in areas like math and science.  (Applause.)  I want to give 2 million more Americans the chance to go to community colleges like this one, and learn skills that local businesses are looking for right now.  (Applause.)  I want to make higher education affordable for every American who’s willing to work for it -- (applause) -- not just by offering more loans and financial aid, but also by getting schools to hold down the cost of college tuition.  (Applause.)  

Second, under my plan, we’re going to move towards a future where we control our own energy.  That’s something that’s good for our economy, good for our environment, good for our national security.  (Applause.)  So we need to end government subsidies to oil companies -- they’re making a lot of money on their own.  Let’s double -- (applause) -- on wind power and solar power, biofuels and fuel-efficient cars.  (Applause.)  I want to put in place a new standard that makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for every business in America. 

Number three -- we’re going to make sure the United States of America is the best place on Earth for innovation and science and discovery.  (Applause.)  So my plan would give companies a permanent tax credit for research and development that they do here in America.  We’ll double down on public research that laid the foundation for the Internet and GPS and Google, and all the companies and jobs that followed.  That’s who we are.  We are innovators.  We create things.  We don’t just buy things from other countries.  (Applause.)  We create things here in America, and build them here in America.  

And then we’re going to take half the money we’re no longer spending on war -- (applause) -- and we’re going to use it to do some nation-building here at home.  (Applause.)  If we want businesses to thrive here, we've got to put people back to work rebuilding our roads and our runways, our wireless networks, our ports.  And what I’m pushing for is an independent fund that will attract private dollars and issue loans for new construction projects just based on two criteria:  how badly are they needed and how much good will they do for the economy.  We don’t need bridges to nowhere.  We need bridges to help businesses move goods and services and people all across the country and all around the world.  (Applause.)

And fifth, we’re going to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion. I have a detailed plan.  We’ll cut spending we can’t afford.  We’ll strengthen programs like Medicare for the long haul.  We can reform our tax code in a way that is fair and responsible -- which, by the way, means let’s stop giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs and factories overseas.  (Applause.)  Let’s reward companies that create jobs in manufacturing right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  

My plan will stop giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs and factories overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs and manufacturing right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  

Now, Mr. Romney disagrees with this.  Today, it was reported in The Washington Post that the companies his firm owned were "pioneers" in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Pioneers.  Let me tell you, Tampa, we do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)  We need a President who will fight for American jobs and fight for American manufacturing.  That’s what my plan will do.  That's why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States. (Applause.)

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

THE PRESIDENT:  And, look, to get our deficit under control without sacrificing all the investments I’ve talked about -- everything that we need to grow the economy -- my plan, yes, will ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more -- just like they did when Bill Clinton was President -- (applause) -- just like they did when our economy created 23 million new jobs, and the biggest budget surplus in history, and a whole lot of millionaires to boot.  And there are -- look, there are plenty of patriotic, very successful Americans who’d be willing to make this contribution again.  (Applause.)  Because they believe in this country.  

So this is about choices.  I don’t believe that giving millionaires and billionaires a $250,000 tax cut is more valuable to our future than hiring transformative teachers, or providing financial aid to kids who need it to go to college.  (Applause.) I don’t believe that kind tax cut is more likely to create jobs than providing loans to new entrepreneurs, or tax credits to small businesses who hire veterans.  (Applause.)  I don’t think it’s more likely to spur economic growth than our investments in clean energy and medical research, in building new roads and bridges and expanding our ports and our runways.  

So Governor Romney disagrees with my vision.  And his allies in Congress disagree with my vision.  Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes.  Not a penny more.  It’s the reason -- that's the reason we haven't reached an agreement on how to reduce our deficit.  That's the reason my jobs bill that would put a million more people back to work has been voted down by Republicans in Congress time and time again.  It is the biggest source of gridlock in Washington, and has been over the last three years. 

So, Tampa, here's the thing.  Only you can break that stalemate.  (Applause.)  In this election, you have the final say about where we go.  After a decade of war that’s cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, you can decide whether we keep our brave men and women in Afghanistan indefinitely, like Mr. Romney wants to do, or whether we stick to the timeline that will finally bring our troops home.  (Applause.)
 
You can decide -- did something just fall down there?  That's why we need infrastructure, right there.  (Applause.)

You can decide whether we're going to have another political fight about ending a woman’s right to choose, and getting rid of Planned Parenthood, and taking away access to birth control.  Or you can decide that women should control their own health care choices.  (Applause.) 

You can decide, you choose whether to re-fight the battles we just had over financial reform and health care reform.  Or you can decide that ending taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street banks was the right thing to do, and that allowing 3 million young people to stay on their parent's health insurance is the right thing to do, and that preventing insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions is the right thing to do.  (Applause.)  You can decide.   

You can decide whether we’re going back to the days when you could be kicked out of the United States military just because of who you are and who you love.  (Applause.) 

You can decide whether it’s time to stop denying citizenship to responsible young people just because they’re the children of undocumented immigrants.  (Applause.)

You can decide that this is -- becomes the last election where multi-million dollar donations that are undisclosed somehow speak louder than the voices of ordinary citizens.  (Applause.) 

So you know what, Tampa, this is up to you.  This is up to you.  From now until November, the other side will spend more money than we have ever seen in the history of the Republic.  And all that money is going to be spent on ads telling you that the economy is bad, it’s all my fault, and I can’t fix it because government is always the answer, according to me.  (Laughter.)  Or because I didn’t make a lot of money in the private sector, or because I’m in over my head, or because I think everybody is doing just fine.  (Laughter.)  They will have ad after ad after ad, and all them will have scary voices.  (Laughter.)  They’ll have pictures of me looking all old and -- (laughter) -- broke down.  You’ve seen those ads.  You’ve seen them.  That’s what Mr. Romney is going to say.  That’s what the Republicans in Congress will say. 

And that may be their plan to win an election, but it’s sure not a plan to create jobs.  (Applause.)  It’s not a plan to grow the economy.  It’s not a plan to pay down the debt.  It’s not a plan to restore the middle class and restore the American Dream. (Applause.)   

You deserve better than that.  (Applause.)  At such a big moment in our history, at a time when so many people are struggling, you deserve a real debate about the economic plans we’re proposing.  And then, make a choice -- if there’s anybody who believes the best way to grow our economy and create jobs is eliminating regulations and cutting $5 trillion worth of taxes, they should vote for Governor Romney and the Republicans who run Congress.  God bless them.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Because those folks -- because that’s what they’re proposing.  They are more than qualified to take us in that direction. 

But if you believe we need a plan for education and energy, and innovation and infrastructure -- (applause) -- if you believe this economy grows best when everybody has got a fair shot, and everybody does their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same rules; if you believe that everybody should be able to succeed, if they’re working hard, no matter where they come from or what they look like, what their last name is or who they love -- then I ask that you stand with me for a second term as President of the United States.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  In fact, I ask everybody -- I want you guys -- vote for anybody else -- Democrat, independent, or a Republican who shares this belief in how we grow an economy that is good for everybody and not just some.  I will work with anybody of any party who believes that we’re in this together -- (applause) -- who believes that we rise or fall as one nation and one people.  (Applause.)

Don’t let anybody tell you we lack the capacity to meet our challenges.  We’re Americans.  The only thing lacking right now is our politics.  And we can solve that.  That’s what your vote is for. 

So I need you to hit the doors.  I need you to make some phone calls.  (Applause.)  I need you to register your friends, get your family members going.  Get on Facebook, get on Twitter. (Applause.) 

I know since the last time I ran that my hair is a little grayer -- (laughter) -- and I know that we’ve been through some tough times together.  But I promised you back in 2008 that I would always tell you what I thought and I’d always tell you where I stood.  And I promised you that I would wake up every single day thinking about you and fighting for you.  (Applause.) And, Tampa, I have kept that promise.  (Applause.)  I have kept that promise.  I still believe in you.  I need you to sill believe in me.  (Applause.) 

And if we’re out there working together, we can finish what we started and remind the world how a strong economy is built, and why the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth. 

God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.)

END
4:52 P.M. EDT