Remarks by the President Before Meeting with Congressional Leadership

Cabinet Room

11:13 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:   Well, I want to welcome the congressional leadership here to the White House.  Harry Reid is absent because he is still convalescing a little bit from the mishap in the gym, but I know he’ll be back strong next week and I’ve had a chance to talk to him.  I want to thank the Speaker and Leader McConnell as well as Dick Durbin filling in for Mr. Reid and Nancy Pelosi and all the leadership that is here today.

First of all, some of these folks I haven’t seen so I haven’t had an opportunity to wish them Happy New Year.  To the Speaker, I just want to point out -- I said there are going to be some things that we agree on -- having a college football playoff is clearly something that we can agree on.  I called for it when I came into office, I think it turned out pretty well, particularly for Ohio -- (laughter) -- so I want to congratulate the Ohio State Buckeyes for their outstanding victory, and commend Oregon as well for fielding a great team because their quarterback is from my original home state of Hawaii.

And I also want to just talk to all this leadership about how we can keep the progress going that we’re seeing, particularly in our economy.  The latest job report indicates that the recovery continues to move in a robust fashion.  We’ve now created 58 straight months of private-sector job growth, about 11 million jobs created in the private sector.  Unemployment rate has come down faster than any time in several decades.  We now are seeing the strongest job growth overall, as well as in manufacturing, since the 1990s.  We are producing more energy than ever before.  The deficit has been cut by two-thirds.  And we’re finally starting to see some movement last year in wages going up at a time when families are also enjoying some lower gas prices.

So we’re in a position to make sure that 2015 is an even stronger year, and relative to our competitors, we are holding much better cards.  The key now is for us to work as a team to make sure that we build on this progress.  Obviously there are disagreements around the table on a whole range of issues, but there are also areas where we can agree, and that’s where we’re going to be focused. 

Just to cite a few examples, I’ve got a State of the Union next week.  One of the things we’re going to be talking about is cybersecurity.  With the Sony attacks that took place, with the Twitter account that was hacked by Islamist jihadist sympathizers yesterday, it just goes to show how much more work we need to do, both public and private sector, to strengthen our cybersecurity to make sure that families’ bank accounts are safe, to make sure that our public infrastructure is safe.  I’ve talked to both the Speaker as well as Mitch McConnell about this and I think we agree that this is an area where we can work hard together and get some legislation done, and make sure that we are much more effective in protecting the American people from these kinds of cyber attacks.

I think that there’s going to be opportunities for us to work together on trade.  There’s going to be opportunities for us to work together on simplifying the tax system and making sure everybody is paying their fair share.  There are going to be opportunities for us to streamline government so it’s more responsible.  And on each of these issues, I’m going to be listening to everybody around this table and I’m hopeful that in the spirit of cooperation and putting America first, we can be in position where, at the end of this year, we’ll be able to look back and say we’re that much better off than we were when we started the year.

So I just want to thank everybody for being here, and I’m very much looking forward to not just this discussion but some real collaboration over the course of the next several months.

Thank you very much, everybody.

END
11:18 A.M. EST

Remarks by the President at the Federal Trade Commission

Federal Trade Commission
Constitution Center
Washington, D.C.

12:15 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you. Everybody have a seat.  Well, thank you, Edith, for your introduction.  Edith and I go a long way back.  In law school we served on the law review together.  I will not say who edited who.  (Laughter.)  I will say she looks exactly the same.  (Laughter.)  And I do not.  (Laughter.)  And it's upsetting.  (Laughter.) 
 
Edith, in your career, you’ve stood up for citizens and communities.  I was proud to nominate you -- first as a commissioner, and then as chairwoman of the FTC.  You are doing an outstanding job, as are your fellow commissioners, and we very much appreciate your outstanding efforts.   

And Edith’s story, from the daughter of Mexican immigrants to the head of the FTC, we see a central part of the American story.  And that's worth remembering at a time when those are issues that we're debating all the time.  It's a reminder that what makes this country special is the incredible talent that we draw from all around the world and somehow it all merges into something unique:  America. 

To Edith, to the fellow commissioners, to all of you who work at the FTC -- thanks for welcoming me.  I’m told I may be the first President to come to the FTC in nearly 80 years, since FDR in -- (applause) -- first time apparently since FDR in 1937, which is a little surprising.  I mean, you’d think like one of the Presidents would just come here by accident.  (Laughter.)  They ended up in the wrong building, we're already at the FTC.  (Laughter.) 

Anyway, I figured it was time to correct that.  Plus, I know sometimes your name confuses folks.  They don’t always understand what your mission is.  One person who does understand is David Letterman.  (Laughter.)  A few months ago he thanked you for standing up to the companies that were trying to pitch a new weight-loss product -- “caffeine-laced undergarments.”  (Laughter.)  I’m actually not making this up.  (Laughter.)  You ruled that these products were “not substantiated by scientific evidence.”  (Laughter.)  So, thank you for saving America from caffeine-laced undergarments.  (Laughter.)  These companies owed consumers a refund. 

And that was just the latest example, because, as Edith said, you recently celebrated your 100th anniversary.  And I want to thank you for 100 proud years of protecting American consumers.  I also want to thank some of the members of Congress who are here today and many of our partners from not just government but the private sector, and consumer and privacy and advocacy groups. 

Next week, just up the street, I will deliver the State of the Union address.  And it will be a chance to talk about America’s resurgence, including something we can all be proud of, which is the longest stretch of private sector job growth in American history -- 58 straight months and more than 11 million new jobs.  (Applause.)  In the speech, I’m going to focus on how we can build on that progress and help more Americans feel that resurgence in their own lives, through higher wages and rising incomes and a growing middle class. 

But since I’ve only got two years left in this job, I tend to be impatient and I didn’t want to wait for the State of the Union to start sharing my plans.  So I’ve been traveling across the country rolling out some of the ideas that we’ll be talking about, a little bit of a sneak preview. 

And in the 21st century -- in this dizzying age of technology and innovation -- so much of the prosperity that we seek, so many of the jobs that we create, so much of the opportunity that’s available for the next generation depends on our digital economy.  It depends on our ability to search and connect and shop and do business and create and discover and learn online, in cyberspace.  And as we’ve all been reminded over the past year, including the hack of Sony, this extraordinary interconnection creates enormous opportunities, but also creates enormous vulnerabilities for us as a nation and for our economy, and for individual families.  

So this week, I’m laying out some new proposals on how we can keep seizing the possibilities of an Information Age, while protecting the security and prosperity and values that we all cherish.  Today, I’m focusing on how we can better protect American consumers from identity theft and ensure our privacy, including for our children at school.  And then tomorrow, at the Department of Homeland Security, I’ll focus on how we can work with the private sector to better defend ourselves against cyber-attacks.  And final, on Wednesday, in Iowa, I’ll talk about how we can give families and communities faster, cheaper access to broadband so they can succeed in the digital economy.

But I wanted to start here, at the FTC, because every day you take the lead in making sure that Americans, their hard-earned money and their privacy are protected, especially when they go online.  And these days, that’s pretty much for everything:  managing our bank accounts, paying our bills, handling everything from medical records to movie tickets, controlling our homes -- smart houses, from smart phones.  Secret Service does not let me do that.  (Laughter.)  But I know other people do. 

And with these benefits come risks -- major companies get hacked; America’s personal information, including financial information, gets stolen.  And the problem is growing, and it costs us billions of dollars.  In one survey, 9 out of 10 Americans say they feel like they’ve lost control of their personal information.  In recent breaches, more than 100 million Americans have had their personal data compromised, like credit card information.  When these cyber criminals start racking up charges on your card, it can destroy your credit rating.  It can turn your life upside down.  It may take you months to get your finances back in order.  So this is a direct threat to the economic security of American families and we’ve got to stop it.

If we’re going to be connected, then we need to be protected.  As Americans, we shouldn’t have to forfeit our basic privacy when we go online to do our business.  And that’s why, since I took office, we’ve been working with the private sector to strengthen our cyber defenses.  A few months ago, we launched our BuySecure initiative.  The federal government and companies across the country are moving to stronger chip-and-pin technology for credit cards.   Here at the FTC, you’re working with credit bureaus so that victims can recover their stolen identities faster, and every day you’re helping consumers with IdentityTheft.gov

So today I’m announcing new steps to protect the identities and privacy of the American people.  Let me list them for you.  First, we’re introducing new legislation to create a single, strong national standard so Americans know when their information has been stolen or misused.  Right now, almost every state has a different law on this, and it’s confusing for consumers and it’s confusing for companies -- and it’s costly, too, to have to comply to this patchwork of laws.  Sometimes, folks don’t even find out their credit card information has been stolen until they see charges on their bill, and then it’s too late.  So under the new standard that we’re proposing, companies would have to notify consumers of a breach within 30 days.  In addition, we’re proposing to close loopholes in the law so we can go after more criminals who steal and sell the identities of Americans —- even when they do it overseas. 

Second, I’m pleased that more banks, credit card issuers and lenders are stepping up and equipping Americans with another weapon against identity theft, and that’s access to their credit scores, free of charge.  This includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, USAA, State Employees’ Credit Union, Ally Financial.  Some of them are here today.  I want to thank them for their participation.  This means that a majority of American adults will have free access to their credit score, which is like an early warning system telling you that you’ve been hit by fraud so you can deal with it fast.  And we’re encouraging more companies to join this effort every day.

Third, we’re going to be introducing new legislation -— a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.  Working with many of you -— from the private sector and advocacy groups -- we’ve identified some basic principles to both protect personal privacy and ensure that industry can keep innovating.  For example, we believe that consumers have the right to decide what personal data companies collect from them and how companies use that data, that information; the right to know that your personal information collected for one purpose can’t then be misused by a company for a different purpose; the right to have your information stored securely by companies that are accountable for its use.  We believe that there ought to be some basic baseline protections across industries.  So we're going to be introducing this legislation by the end of next month, and I hope Congress joins us to make the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights the law of the land. 

And finally, we’re taking a series of actions to protect the personal information and privacy of our children.  Those of us with kids know how hard this can be.  Whether they are texting or tweeting, or on Facebook, or Instagram, or Vine, our children are meeting up -- and they are growing up -- in cyberspace.  It is all-pervasive.  And here at the FTC, you’ve pushed back on companies and apps that collect information on our kids without permission. 

And Michelle and I are like parents everywhere -- we want to make sure that our children are being smart and safe online.  That's a responsibility of ours as parents.  But we need partners.  And we need a structure that ensures that information is not being gathered without us as parents or the kids knowing it.  We want our kids’ privacy protected -— wherever they sign in or log on, including at school.

Now, the good news is we’ve got new educational technologies that are transforming how our children learn.  You've got innovative websites and apps and tablets, digital textbooks and tutors.  Students are getting lessons tailored to their unique learning needs.  We want to encourage that information.  And it also facilitates teachers and parents tracking student progress and grades in real-time.  And all this is part of what our ConnectED initiative is about -— connecting 99 percent of American students to high-speed Internet so that we’re empowering students, teachers, and parents, and giving them access to worlds they may never have had access to before.

But we’ve already seen some instances where some companies use educational technologies to collect student data for commercial purposes, like targeted advertising.  And parents have a legitimate concern about those kinds of practices.

So, today, we’re proposing the Student Digital Privacy Act. That's pretty straightforward.  We’re saying that data collected on students in the classroom should only be used for educational purposes -— to teach our children, not to market to our children. We want to prevent companies from selling student data to third parties for purposes other than education.  We want to prevent any kind of profiling that outs certain students at a disadvantage as they go through school.

And we believe that this won’t just give parents more peace of mind.  We're confident that it will make sure the tools we use in the classroom will actually support the breakthrough research and innovations that we need to keep unlocking new educational technologies.

Now, we didn't have to completely reinvent the wheel on this proposal.  Many states have proposed similar legislation.  California just passed a landmark law.  And I hope Congress joins us in this national movement to protect the privacy of our children.

We won’t wait for legislation, though.  The Department of Education is going to offer new tools to help schools and teachers work with tech companies to protect the privacy of students.  As of today, 75 companies across the country have signed on to a Student Privacy Pledge.  And among other things, they’re committing not to sell student information or use educational technologies to engage in targeted advertising to students. 

Some of those companies are here today.  We want to thank you for your leadership.  I want to encourage every company that provides these technologies to our schools to join this effort.  It’s the right thing to do.  And if you don’t join this effort, then we intend to make sure that those schools and those parents know you haven’t joined this effort.

So, this mission, protecting our information and privacy in the Information Age, this should not be a partisan issue.  This should be something that unites all of us as Americans.  It’s one of those new challenges in our modern society that crosses the old divides -- transcends politics, transcends ideology.  Liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, everybody is online, and everybody understands the risks and vulnerabilities as well as opportunities that are presented by this new world. 

Business leaders want their privacy and their children’s privacy protected, just like everybody else does.  Consumer and privacy advocates also want to make sure that America keeps leading the world in technology and innovation and apps.  So there are some basic, common-sense, pragmatic steps that we ought to all be able to support. 

And rather than being at odds, I think that much of this work actually reinforces each other.  The more we do to protect consumer information and privacy, the harder it is for hackers to damage our businesses and hurt our economy.  Meanwhile, the more companies strengthen their cybersecurity, the harder it is for hackers to steal consumer information and hurt American families. So we’ve got to all be working together in the same direction, and I'm confident if we do we’ll be making progress.

We are the country that invented the Internet.  And we’re also the pioneers of this Information Age -- the creators, the designers, the innovators.  Our children are leaving us in the dust, if you haven’t noticed. (Laughter.)  They’re connecting and they’re collaborating like never before, and imagining a future we can only dream of.  When we Americans put our minds together and our shoulder to the wheel, there’s nothing we can’t do.  So I’m confident, if we keep at this, we can deliver the prosperity and security and privacy that all Americans deserve.

We pioneered the Internet, but we also pioneered the Bill of Rights, and a sense that each of us as individuals have a sphere of privacy around us that should not be breached, whether by our government, but also by commercial interests.  And since we’re pioneers in both these areas, I'm confident that we can be pioneers in crafting the kind of architecture that will allow us to both grow, innovate, and preserve those values that are so precious to us as Americans.

Thank you very much.  And thanks to the FTC -- (applause) -- for all the great work you do to protect the American people.  Thank you.  (Applause.) 

END   
12:31 P.M. EST

Remarks by the President at Announcement of Manufacturing Hub

Techmer PM

Clinton, Tennessee

4:00 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  There’s no need to stand up.  Thank you so much.  First of all, it's wonderful being here in Clinton.  And I want to thank Mayor Scott Burton and very much appreciate the hospitality.  I want to thank John Manuck and the whole Techmer team for having me and the Vice President, as well as your own Senator, Bob Corker. 

I understand I am the first President -- sitting President  -- to visit Clinton.  You’d think Bill would have come down here. (Laughter.) 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Missed opportunity. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Missed opportunity.  Let me tell you, if there’s an Obama, Tennessee -- (laughter) -- I'm going there.  (Laughter.)  But the reason we're here is because wherever Americans are doing big things that can help build our middle class and grow our economy and extend opportunity to everybody, I want to be here to lift it up and figure out how we can promote more of it. 

Last year, our economy created jobs faster than at any time since the 1990s.  The key now is to make sure that that growing prosperity and resurgence is reaching everybody, not just some.  And that means that that we’ve got to create more good jobs and we've got to train people for those jobs that are being created. And this is going to be the focus of my State of the Union address -- but we decided to get started a little early.

This morning, I was over in Pellissippi State, where I announced my plan to make two years of community college free for students who are willing to work hard, keep their grades up and do the right thing.  And we're here in Clinton because I’m taking actions, building on what we've been doing over the last four or five years, to attract more high-quality manufacturing jobs for workers to fill in the new economy.

For decades, manufacturing was the essential ingredient in building our middle class.  You punched in, you made something you were proud of -- Made in America, shipped everywhere around the world -- and as a consequence, you were able to take home a good paycheck, could support your family, had good benefits.  And it was a bargain that involved more than just building things; it reflected the values that this country stood for.

Over time, technology made some jobs obsolete.  Globalization and additional foreign competition meant that some jobs went overseas.  American manufacturing lost about one-third of its jobs in the last decade, and the middle class paid the price.

So when I took office, I believed, and I know Joe believed, that if the last decade was characterized by outsourcing, I wanted to define this decade for insourcing, making sure that the United States was competitive and that businesses wanted to locate here, and that we had a dynamic manufacturing sector and research and development sector to support that manufacturing, so that we could reverse some of those trends.

So we invested in clean energy, saved the auto industry, and today, factories are opening their doors at the fastest pace in almost two decades.  Manufacturing is actually in its best stretch of job creation since the 1990s.  It's added about 786,000 jobs over the past 58 months.  Manufacturing is actually growing faster than the rest of the economy.  Right here in Tennessee, manufacturing jobs have jumped by about 11 percent. 

And the question is, how do we keep that progress going?  How do we build on it?  That’s why we’re working to grow the jobs of tomorrow through a national network of manufacturing hubs.  We’re launching these hubs around the country, and the concept is simple:  We bring businesses, research universities, community colleges, state, local and federal governments together, and we figure out, where are some key opportunities for manufacturing in the future, how do we get out in front of the curve, how do we make sure everybody is working together. 

And as a consequence, we're potentially able to get cutting-edge research and design to market faster, and businesses are intimately involved in the process of figuring out how these things can be applied in ways that are really going to boost the economy and, in some cases, create entirely new industries.

So these hubs are working on everything from 3D printing -- the idea that you can have some software and put in some materials and something pops out that actually works -- to flexible computer chips that can be woven into the fabric of your shirt.

And today, we’re proud to announce our latest manufacturing hub, and it is right here in Tennessee.  Led by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the hub will be home to 122 public and private partners who are teaming up to develop materials that are lighter and stronger than steel.  So these are materials that would be ideal for fuel-efficient cars, or longer wind turbine blades that produce more energy, or materials that might go into our aviation sector.  And of course, these advanced polymer composites are a sophisticated combination of materials like carbon fiber and tough plastics.  We saw some samples during our tour here.  Everybody knows that.  That means they’re expensive to produce.  So the idea here is for the partners to come together to see if we can not only come up with improved design, but also start driving down the cost and look at new applications.

So Joe and I just watched how these folks develop the composites here at Techmer.  That was cool.  We lost Joe’s attention when we laid eyes on that 3D-printed sports car --(laughter) -- the carbon fiber Cobra.  Biden started pulling out his aviator glasses -- (laughter) -- and we had to explain to him, you don’t get to drive on this trip.  (Laughter.) 

But besides being a cool car, it’s a great example of how a hub like this operates.  So Oak Ridge National Labs created the design and manufacturing processes.  Techmer produced the composite materials.  Another company called Tru-Design developed the surface finishing techniques.  Undergrads from UT worked on the project, gaining skills that can help them get hired in the future.  And a number of others partners chipped in as well.

So these hubs just make sense.  They work.  They get people working together.  They create an ecosystem for a particular type of manufacturing and a specialization that allows, then, where the hub is located, to be a magnet for others who want to participate in this particular industry.  And this is why -- this is an area where Congress and I are working together.  Bob Corker, myself, Governor Haslam, we’re all interested in making sure that advanced manufacturing is taking place here in the United States.

Last month, I was glad to see members of Congress from both parties pass legislation that supports the progress we’ve made by creating a real national network of hubs.  Senators Brown and Blunt and Representatives Kennedy and Reed deserve credit for working together to get this legislation over the finish line. I’m working to work with Congress this year to fully fund the network.

Because places like this are who we are.  We create.  We innovate.  We build.  We do it together.  When I was taking the tour and we had a chance to hear from John about how he got this company started, he started off as an engineer, worked for another big company, and then decided he could it better and struck out on his own.  And that story of entrepreneurship and taking a chance, that’s what built this country.

But at every step of the way throughout our history there have been instances where government can be a partner in that progress -- whether it’s creating infrastructure, whether it’s financing the basic research that generates new products.  That’s a role we can play.  We’ve got the most dynamic economy in the world and we’ve got the best business people in the world and the best universities in the world.  Let’s put them all together and make sure they’re working to create more good jobs and more opportunity for the American people.

So, congratulations to the new hub.  Let’s get to work.  And I look forward to hearing about all the great things that are coming out of Clinton and across Tennessee and across America.  Appreciate you.  (Applause.)

END
4:12 P.M. EST 

Remarks by the President on Housing -- Phoenix, AZ

Central High School
Phoenix, Arizona

11:06 A.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Arizona!  (Applause.)  Hey!  (Applause.)  Happy New Year, Arizona.  (Applause.)  Go, Bobcats. (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

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

It’s good to be in Phoenix.  (Applause.)  And I mean that, because I was in Detroit yesterday, which is a great city but it was 60 degrees colder.  (Laughter.)  So it feels pretty good, this weather right here.  I had a couple staff people who said, we’re going to miss the plane.  (Laughter.)  They’re just going to try to get stranded here for a while.  (Laughter.) 

But I went to Detroit, I went here -- I guess between the Lions and the Cardinals, this is my post-wild card consolation tour.  (Laughter.)  As a Bears fan, I want you to know that, first of all, you guys did a lot better than we did.  (Laughter.) You got a great coach; you got a great team.  You had some bad luck.  And there’s always next year.  So keep your chin up.  Keep your chin up.  

I want to thank Secretary Castro not just for the terrific introduction, but for the great job he’s doing every day.  (Applause.)  I want to thank your Congressman, Ruben Gallego.  (Applause.)  Where’s Ruben?  Where is he?  Ruben, I already liked him, and then he told me he was from Chicago originally, before he got smart and moved to warmer weather (Laughter.) 

I want to thank your Mayor, Greg Stanton.  (Applause.)  He was there.  There he is.  Greg is doing a great job.  I want to thank your principal, John Biera, Jr.  (Applause.)  And your superintendent, Kent Scribner.  (Applause.)  And I want to thank all the students and staff and faculty who may be here.  We really appreciate your hospitality.

One last acknowledgement.  I had a chance to meet a couple of really good friends -- Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords. (Applause.)  This was a remarkable meeting for me because it was four years ago today that Gabby and some other wonderful Arizonans were gunned down outside a supermarket in Tucson.  It's a tough day for a lot of folks down there.  We keep them in our thoughts and prayers. 

But Gabby is doing great.  She looks wonderful, and she’s got the same energy and passion that she always has had.  Even as she’s waged her own fight to recover, she’s fought to prevent the next tragedies from happening to others.  She’s a hero, and she is a great Arizonan.  (Applause.)  So we’re really proud of her.  And her brother, who is also an astronaut -- her brother-in-law, who’s also an astronaut, is going to be in space for a year. He was just on the cover of Time Magazine, which I know there’s some folks in Washington who wish I was going to be in space for a year, but -- (laughter) -- but I'm still around.  (Applause.)  Because I got some work to do.

Now, I am here because one of my New Year’s resolutions is to make sure more Americans in Phoenix and in Arizona and all across the country feel like they’re coming back.  Because the country is coming back, but I want everybody to feel like things are getting better and we are moving in the right direction.  And let there be no doubt -- thanks to the steps we took early on to rescue our economy, to rebuild it on a new foundation, America is coming back.  (Applause.) 

And that’s not just my own opinion.  Here are the facts.  2014 was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s.  (Applause.)  We’ve had 57 straight months of private sector job growth, created nearly 11 million new jobs.  (Applause.)  Since 2010, we’ve put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and every advanced economy combined.  (Applause.)  American manufacturing is growing at the fastest pace since the ‘90s.  We’re now the number-one producer of oil, of gas.  And by the way, you’re saving about a buck-ten a gallon at the pump over this time last year.  (Applause.)

Although I was in Detroit and I told folks yesterday, gas prices aren’t going to be low forever, so don’t start suddenly saying you don’t have to worry about fuel efficiency.  If you’re going out shopping for a new car, don’t think it’s always going to be this low, because then you’ll be surprised and you’ll be mad at me later -- (laughter) -- and I’ll be able to say, I told you don’t get a gas guzzler because gas is going to go back up. But while it’s low, enjoy it.  And feel free to spend some of that money on local businesses, who then will hire more people and put more folks back to work.  (Applause.)

Meanwhile, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, about 10 million Americans have gained health insurance in the past year alone.  (Applause.) 

We’ve done all this while cutting our federal deficit by about two-thirds.  And I’m going to repeat that, because they did a poll the other day and like 70 percent of the people think the deficit is going up.  No, 70 percent of the people.  You stop people on the street -- 7 out of 10 think the deficit is going up.  The deficit has gone down by two-thirds since I was President of the United States.  (Applause.)  So we’re doing all this in a fiscally responsible way.  (Applause.)

And maybe closest to my heart, after 13 long years, our war in Afghanistan has come to a responsible end, which means more of our brave troops spent time with their families this holiday season, right here back home.  (Applause.) 

So these last six years required hard work and sacrifice by everybody.  But as a country, we have a right to be proud that all that hard work paid off.  America’s resurgence is real.  And now that we’ve got some calmer waters out there, if everybody does their part, if we all work together, we can make sure that the tide starts lifting all boats again.  We can get wages and incomes growing faster.  We can make sure the middle class is growing, that the ladders of the middle class for folks who are struggling are firm and steady and have a lot of rungs to them.  Because it’s the middle class, it’s working families that power America’s prosperity.  That’s always been the case; that will be true for decades to come.  (Applause.)

And I’ve got a State of the Union address in about two weeks and that’s what I want to talk about -- building on the progress we’ve made.  But of course, why wait for the State of the Union? It’s sort of like you’ve got presents under the tree, you kind of start shaking them a little bit.  (Laughter.)  I want to kind of give you a little sense of what I want to talk about.  So we’re going to start this week laying out some of the agenda for the next year.

And here in Phoenix, I want to talk about helping more families afford their piece of the American Dream, and that is owning their own home.  (Applause.)  

Now, let me just say, right now Michelle and I live in rental housing.  (Laughter.)  We don’t own where we live.  We’ve got two years remaining on our lease.  (Laughter.)  I’m hoping I get my security deposit back.  (Laughter.)  Although Bo and Sunny have been tearing things up occasionally -- we’re going to have to clean things up a little bit.  (Laughter.)

But I’ll never forget the day we bought our first place, a place of our own -- a condo, back in Chicago.  And for us, and millions of Americans like us, buying a home has always been about more than owning a roof and four walls.  It’s about investing in savings, and building a family, and planting roots in a community.  So we bought this place -- it was about, I guess, probably about 2,000 square feet.  It was in this complex called East View Park.  It was sort of like a railway apartment. And it felt huge when we moved in.  And then Malia and Sasha were born, and their toys got everywhere.  (Laughter.)  And then it felt small because they basically took over the whole dining room with their toys. 

But I have such good memories not just about the place itself, but all the work we had to do to save to get in there, and then to fix it up, and that sense of accomplishment that you were building something for your family and for your future.

And that's always been true.  When my grandfather came back from World War II, this country gave him the chance to buy his first home with a loan from the FHA.  For folks like him, a home was proof that America was a place where if you worked hard, if you were responsible, it was rewarded. 

But we all know what happened in the last decade when responsibility gave way to recklessness.  Families who did the right thing and bought a home that they could afford, and made their payments each month, and did everything right, when the market plummeted they got hurt.  Even though somebody else was acting irresponsibly -- whether on Wall Street, or folks who weren’t responsible in terms of how they were dealing with their real estate -- ordinary families got hurt bad.  And that was especially true here in Arizona. 

There were folks who borrowed more than they should have.  There were lenders who really were just worried about making profits and not whether the people they were lending to were going to be able to keep up their homes.  So home values plunged. Americans sank underwater.  Foreclosures skyrocketed.  Builders stopped building.  Construction workers lost their jobs. 

And when I came into office, I believed we could not let this crisis play itself out.  If we could save more families from losing everything they had worked so hard to build, we had to make the effort.  So less than a month after I took office, I came here to Arizona to lay out my plan to get responsible homeowners back on their feet.  And I said that healing our housing market wouldn’t be easy, it would not be quick.  But we were going to act swiftly, we were going to act boldly, we were going to try everything that we could to help responsible homeowners.  If something didn't work, we’d try something else.  But we were going to try to keep folks in their homes.

And we ended up helping millions stay in their homes.  We helped millions more save thousands of dollars each year by refinancing.  We helped folks who didn’t want to buy a home or who weren’t ready to buy find an affordable place to rent.  We kept up our fight against homelessness.  And by the way -- there’s some homeless advocates here -- since 2010, we’ve helped bring one in three homeless veterans off the streets.  (Applause.)  And I want to make sure everybody knows -- under Mayor Stanton, Phoenix is leading the way in that effort.  (Applause.)  Phoenix is doing a great job.  (Applause.)

So as a result of all these efforts, today, home sales are up nearly 50 percent from where they were in the worst of the crisis.  Homebuilding has more than doubled.  That's created hundreds of thousands of construction jobs.  New foreclosures are at their lowest level since 2006.  Since 2012, nearly 10 million fewer Americans have their homes underwater.  Rising home prices have put hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth back in the pockets of middle-class families.

Now, I want everybody to be clear -- this progress is not an accident.  It is not luck.  It’s what happens when you have policies that put middle-class families first.  (Applause.) 

And what’s true in Arizona is true all across the country:  We’ve still got some more work to do, our job is not done, but what we're doing is working.  And we’ve got to keep at it.  We’ve got to stay at it. 

Today, here in Phoenix, I’m going to take a new action to help even more responsible families stake their claim on the middle class and buy their first new home.  Starting this month, the Federal Housing Authority will lower its mortgage insurance premium rates enough to save the average new borrower more than $900 a year.  (Applause.)  Now, that's $900 that can go towards paying the groceries, or gas, or a child’s education.  Or, depending on what your mortgage is, it might be a month’s mortgage payment. 

And for those who aren’t familiar with FHA, FHA underwrites, it guarantees, it’s the backstop for a lot of loans around the country, especially for middle-class folks.  So a lot of people pay these fees, and if they’re saving $900 that’s money that’s going to be going throughout the economy. 

Over the next three years, these lower premiums will give hundreds of thousands more families the chance to own their own home, and it will help make owning a home more affordable for millions more households overall in the coming years. 

And just to give you an example, earlier today, Secretary Castro and I visited Nueva Villas.  It’s a new neighborhood here in Phoenix where a lot of families are buying homes with the help of the FHA.  And we actually -- this was a big development that wasn’t finished or wasn’t all sold; the crisis came, half the homes were still unsold.  Folks lost their homes.  It started getting boarded up.  People were feeling insecure.  It was starting to get depressed.  Nonprofits, with the help of HUD, came in, purchased some of the properties, hired local residents to rehab them.  Now people are building them -- beautiful homes. And with the help of the FHA, we can now make sure that more people are getting access to these homes.  And today’s action will mean more money in the pockets of families like the ones that we’ve met. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Is this about housing?  (Laughter.)  All right. 

And keep in mind, hundreds of thousands of new buyers is going to mean a healthier housing market for everybody.  So how many people here own their own home?  (Applause.)  All right.  So even though you’ve already got your mortgage or your loan, already have your home, if your neighbors are buying more homes, that’s lifting the whole market here, which means the value of your home starts going up.  And that’s good for you.  (Applause.)  It means fewer foreclosure signs as people fix up old properties.  It means more construction, which means more jobs, which means a better economy.  So this is the kind of boost that we need to keep the momentum that we have seen over the last several years -- keep it going here in Phoenix and all across the country. 

So I want to be clear.  If you’re looking to take advantage of these lower rates, that’s great.  On the other hand, don’t buy something you can’t afford.  (Applause.)  You’re going to be out of luck.  These rates are for responsible buyers.  We’re not going down the road again of financing folks buying things they can’t afford.  We’re going to be cracking down on that.  We put in place tough rules on Wall Street and we created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and we’re really policing irresponsible lenders luring folks into buying stuff they can’t afford.  (Applause.) 

And we designed a mortgage form that’s written in simple language so that people understand what the commitments are when you buy a home.  We’re cracking down on some of the worst practices that led to the housing crisis.  We’re going to protect middle-class families from getting ripped off.

And that’s why we had the Justice Department fight for buyers who were discriminated against or preyed upon, and we won a settlement that awarded more money to victims in one year than in the previous 23 years combined.  (Applause.)  That’s why we worked with states to force big banks to repay more than $50 billion to more than 1.5 million borrowers who had been treated wrongly -- and that was the largest lending settlement in history.  (Applause.)  And that’s why I’ve called on Congress to wind down the government-backed companies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

So the bottom line is we don't think there’s anything wrong with pursuing a profit, but we want to make clear the days of making bad bets on the backs of taxpayer money and then getting bailed out afterwards -- we're not going back to that.  (Applause.)  We've worked too hard, and everything we’ve done to heal the housing markets we want to preserve.  But we do want to make sure that the housing market is strong and that responsible homeowners can get a good deal.  For people who have saved, done the right thing, now are looking to buy their first home, we want to make sure that they get a little bit of help.

In the end, everything we've done to heal the housing market is about more than just restoring housing values.  It's about restoring our common values.  It's about who we are as a country and who we are as communities.  

And I want to just tell you a quick story.  Lorraine Cona, from Sun City, next door, she did everything right.  She had a good job as a librarian.  She bought a home she could afford.  She wanted to retire in that home.  She made her payments on time.  Then, five years ago, through no fault of her own, she was laid off, and she started falling behind in her payments.  She knew foreclosure was coming.  She said, “I’d look out the window and I’d see somebody taking pictures of my house.”

But when things seemed darkest, Lorraine learned about something called the Hardest Hit fund –- it's a program that we created to help folks in states like Arizona that had been especially hard hit by the real estate crash.  And they helped her make her late payments -- because she had a great track record until she had lost her job.  They set her up with financial counseling so she could stay on track.  It wasn’t easy, but Lorraine repaired her credit.  She refinanced her mortgage.  And today, after a lifetime of hard work, Lorraine is retired, she’s back to making her payments every single month.  She’s in her home.  She was able to accomplish that.  Even though it was scary at times, she got it done.  Lorraine came back, just like Phoenix has come back.  (Applause.)  Just like Arizona has come back.  Just like America has come back.  (Applause.) 

It’s not just the economy turning around.  It’s turning around the lives of hardworking people, making sure that that hard work finally pays off.  (Applause.)  It’s making sure you finally get that job you’re looking for, or the raise you deserve, or a little bit of security, or the retirement that you’ve earned, or being able to send your kid to college so their lives are better than yours.  (Applause.)  That's what this is about. 

So I just want everybody to know that we have been through some tough times, but we are moving.  There are workers today with jobs who didn’t have jobs last year.  There are families who have got health insurance who didn’t have health insurance before.  (Applause.)  There are students who are in college right now who didn’t think they could afford it before.  (Applause.) There are heroes who had served tour after tour who are finally home with their families.  There are autoworkers who are building great American cars now when they thought that those plants were going to shut down. 

America is coming back.  (Applause.)  And the key, Arizona, is for us all to work together to make sure we keep it going.
   
Thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.) 

END
11:29 A.M. MST