Remarks by the President at a rally for Congressman Perriello

The Charlottesville Pavilion, Charlottesville, Virginia

7:50 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Cavaliers!  Thank you!  Are you fired up?  (Applause.)  Oh, it is good to be back in Charlottesville.  (Applause.)  Good to be back.  (Applause.)  
 
     I want to thank Mayor Dave Norris for his hospitality.  UVA, thank you.  (Applause.)  I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by -- (applause) -- just to make sure you get out and vote on Tuesday for one of the best congressmen Virginia has ever had, Tom Perriello.  (Applause.)
 
     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I love you!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Now -- I love you back.  It’s great to see you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
 
     Now, look, I am here for one reason.  I’m not here because Tom votes with me on every issue. Sometimes he disagrees with me.  There are times where I know that his first allegiance is not to party labels, it’s not to the Democratic Party; it’s to the people of his district and the people of Virginia.  (Applause.)
 
     The reason I am here is because in this day and age, let’s face it, political courage is hard to come by. The easiest thing to do, especially when you’re a first-term congressman, the easiest thing to do is make your decisions based on the polls.  You put your fingers up to the wind, you check which way the political wind is blowing before you cast every vote.  That's how a lot of folks think they should do their jobs in Washington.
 
     And that's not who Tom is. (Applause.)  He did not go to Washington -- he didn’t go to Washington to do what was easy, to do what was popular.  He went to do what was right.  (Applause.)
 
     AUDIENCE:  Go, Tom, go! Go, Tom, go!  Go, Tom, go!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Go, Tom, go!  Go, Tom, go!  Go, Tom, go!  Go, Tom, go!  (Applause.)
 
     Tom went to help make the tough decisions necessary to save this economy from a second depression.  He went to fight for jobs in Virginia.  And in the last six months, this district has seen the announcement of over 2,000 new jobs, including new clean energy jobs right here in this district.  (Applause.)
 
     Tom Perriello went -- Tom went to Washington to make college more affordable for students and families.  We got any students here today?  (Applause.)
 
     The first bill Tom wrote was a $2,500 tuition tax credit that is now the law of the land, helping you. (Applause.)
 
     Tom went to Washington to take on the insurance companies and the credit card companies and the Wall Street banks to make sure they can’t take advantage of his constituents or the American people.  That's what Tom Perriello is about.  (Applause.)
 
     So Tom Perriello went to Washington to do what’s hard.  He went to do what is right.  And now the lobbyists and the special interests are going after him.  And the question I have for you is, when somebody like this has your back, do you have his back?  (Applause.)
 
     AUDIENCE:  Yes, we can! Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Sounds like you do.  Look, Charlottesville, in four days, you have the chance to set the direction of this state and this country not just for the next two years, but for the next 10 years, for the next 20 years, just like you did in 2008.
 
     You can defy the conventional wisdom.  You know what that is -- the conventional wisdom that says that you can’t overcome the cynicism of our politics, that you can’t overcome the special interests, you can’t overcome the big money, you can’t tackle our biggest challenges, you don't want to make waves.
 
     We always say we want integrity from our elected officials.  And you know what, this is a test case right here in Charlottesville -- (applause) -- because this man has integrity. (Applause.)  And in four days, you have the chance to say, yes, we can.  (Applause.)
 
     AUDIENCE:  Yes, we can! Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Now, there is no doubt this is a tough election.  It’s tough in Tom’s district. It’s tough all across the country because we have gone through an incredibly difficult time as a nation.
 
     For most of the last decade, middle-class families were hurting.  Between 2001 and 2009, when the other party was in charge, we saw the slowest job growth of any time since World War II.  The average middle-class income went down 5 percent.  This is when they were in charge.
 
     Meanwhile, as your incomes were going down, your costs of living, health care, college tuition, groceries, all were going up.  Too many jobs were leaving this area and going overseas.  Too many parents couldn’t afford to send their kids to college or go to a doctor when they got sick.  Americans were working two to three jobs just to make ends meet.  All this was happening before the crisis.  And it all culminated and was compounded by the worst economic situation since the Great Depression.
 
     We lost 4 million jobs before Tom and I were even sworn into office, in the six months before we were sworn in; 750,000 the month we were sworn in; 600,000 the month after that; 600,000 the month after that.  We were in a freefall.  We’d lost almost 8 million jobs before any of our economic policies had a chance to be put into effect.  
 
And when Tom and I went to Washington, we both hoped that Republicans and Democrats would take some time to put politics aside because we had a once-in-a-generation challenge, because although we are proud to be Democrats, we are prouder to be Americans. (Applause.)  
 
And there are plenty of Republicans around the country that feel the same way.  But Republican leaders in Washington, they made a different decision.  They realized -- they looked around, they said, “Boy, we really made a big mess out of this economy, and it’s going to take a long time to fix it, and in the meantime people will probably be angry and frustrated.  So maybe if we just sit on the sidelines and say no to everything and don't lift a finger to help, knowing that unemployment will still be high, maybe we’ll -- maybe, just maybe, people will blame the Democrats instead of us.”  That was their basic strategy.
 
And so now in this election the other side is betting on amnesia.  (Laughter.)  They’re betting that you forgot who caused this mess in the first place.  (Applause.)
 
So Charlottesville, it is up to you to let them know that we have not forgotten.  It’s up to you to remember this election is a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and the policies that are getting us out of this mess.  (Applause.)
 
Let me tell you something.  If they win this election, the chair of a Republican campaign committee has promised, quote, “the exact same agenda” as before Tom and I took office. In other words --
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo!
 
THE PRESIDENT:  No, no -- now, this is the agenda that resulted in the worst economy since the Great Depression; an agenda of cutting taxes mostly for millionaires and billionaires. You cut the rules for special interests and big corporations.  You cut middle-class families loose to fend for themselves.  It’s the same agenda that turned a record surplus into a record deficit; the same agenda that allowed Wall Street to run wild; the same agenda that nearly destroyed our economy.  
 
Now, look, this is not as if we had not tried their agenda.  Charlottesville, we tried it for eight years.  It didn’t work.  (Applause.)  And so I bring all this up not because I want to re-argue the past.  I just don't want to relive the past.  We’ve been through it before.  (Applause.)  We’re not going back there.  We’re not going back.  (Applause.)
 
Think about what has happened over the last 20 months.  Because of the steps -- because of the steps we’ve taken, we no longer face the possibility of a second depression.  The economy is growing again.  Private-sector jobs we’ve seen increase nine months in a row.  
 
Now, look, nobody knows better than Tom that we’ve still got a long way to go.  We’ve still got a lot of work to do.
 
     There are too many people hurting here and all across the country.  There are families who are still hanging on by a thread.  That's what keeps me up at night.  That's what keeps Tom up at night.  How can we help families who got hit hard during this recession?  How can we make sure that they're back up on their feet?
 
But you know what, we’ve got a different idea about what the next two years should look like, what the next 10 and 20 years should look like.  It’s very different from what the Republicans are thinking.  
 
     It’s an idea rooted in our belief about how this country was built.  I just had a chance to meet Tom’s mom and -- (applause) -- Tom’s mom.  (Applause.)  
 
     And just talking to her, you can tell that this is somebody who understands what it means to work hard and to raise a family.  And both Tom and I know what it’s like to see our families struggle once in a while.  And we know that government doesn’t have all the answers to our problems.  And we believe government should be lean and it should be efficient.  And we believe that job growth is going to come from the private sector, and that each of us have responsibilities to take individual initiative to make it.  
 
But in the words of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, we also believe that government should do for the people what the people can’t do better for themselves. (Applause.)
 
     We believe in hard work and responsibility.  But we also believe in a country that invests in its future, that invests in its children, that helps workers get retrained, where we look after one another, where we say, “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper.”  That's that America we love.  That's the America we believe in.  That's the choice in this election.  (Applause.)
 
     We believe in an America that invests in its future and its people, an America that's built to compete in the 21st century.  We know the jobs and businesses of tomorrow will end up in the countries with the most educated workforce, the best infrastructure, the strongest commitment to research and technology.  I want that nation to be the United States of America.  (Applause.)  Tom wants that nation to be the U.S. of A!  (Applause.)
 
     AUDIENCE:  USA! USA!  USA!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  USA!
 
AUDIENCE:  USA! USA!  USA!  
 
THE PRESIDENT:  There is no reason that China should have faster railroads or newer airports than we do.  We’re the nation that built the Transcontinental Railroad. We’re the nation that built the Interstate Highway System.  
 
Today we see an America where we’ve put -- because of Tom’s efforts, because of our efforts, we’ve put thousands of people, people right here in Virginia, to work building new railroads and runways and highways; an America where we build an infrastructure for the 21st century and put people to work doing the work that America needs doing. (Applause.)
 
We see an America where we invest in homegrown innovation and ingenuity, where we export more goods so we create more jobs here at home, where we make it easier to start a business or patent an invention.
 
We don't want to keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.  We want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Charlottesville, right here in Virginia, to small businesses and American manufacturers and clean energy companies.  (Applause.)  I don't want solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars made in Europe or made in Asia.  I want them made here in the United States of America with American workers.  (Applause.) That's the choice in this election.
 
     We see an America where every citizen -- not just some, but every citizen -- have the skills and the training to compete with any worker in the world.  We can’t allow other countries to out-compete us when it comes to math or science or college graduation rates.  We used to be number one in college graduation rates.  Now we’re number nine.  We used to be number one in science and math. Now we’re 21st and 25th.  That makes no sense.
 
     And that's why, working with Tom, we’ve made historic investments in education.  That's why we set a goal that by 2020 we will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.  (Applause.)
 
     That's why -- that's why Tom and I refuse to think it makes sense to pay for a $700 billion tax cut for millionaires and billionaires and then cut education by 20 percent to pay for it.
 
     AUDIENCE:  No!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Let me tell you, China is not cutting education.  South Korea is not cutting its education spending.  India is not cutting education spending. Germany is not cutting education spending.  Those countries aren’t playing for second place.  And neither does the United States of America.  We play for first place.  (Applause.)
 
     That's why, thanks to Tom, tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies that used to go to the big banks are now going where they should, to you, to students, to help support your college education.  (Applause.)
 
     That's why we want to make permanent the college tax credit that Tom Perriello fought for, a tax credit worth $10,000 of tuition relief for each student.  That is the choice in this election.  That is the America that we believe in.  (Applause.)
 
     We see an America where corporations live up to their responsibilities to treat consumers fairly, to play by the same rules as everybody else.  That's why we made sure insurance companies can’t jack up your premiums for no reason, or deny you coverage because you’re sick.
 
     That's why we made sure credit card companies can’t hit you with hidden fees and penalties.  That's why we made sure taxpayers never again are on the hook for the irresponsibility of Wall Street.  
 
     We see an America where we don't pass on a mountain of debt to the next generation.  And we will attack the trillion-dollar deficit that I inherited when I took office.  But we will do it in a responsible way -- not by cutting education.  (Applause.)
 
     We won't do it by putting the burden on our children or our seniors or our veterans or our middle-class families.  We won’t do it by borrowing another $700 billion to give tax cuts to folks who don't need them and weren’t even asking for them.  We’ll do it by asking for shared sacrifice from all Americans.  That's how we do things in America.  That's the choice in this election.  (Applause.)
 
     So, Charlottesville, we’ve got a lot of work to do in these next few years.  
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Yes! (Laughter.)  Exactly.  We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next few years.  And we need to work together -- Democrats and Republicans, independents -- all to get it done.
 
     But the leaders of the other party, so far they don't see it that way.  They're feeling kind of cocky right now.  They're feeling a little cocky.  And the Republican leader in the House says that “this is not the time for compromise.”  That's what he said.  That's a quote.  “This is not the time for compromise.”
 
     AUDIENCE:  Booo!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  The Republican leader of the Senate -- the Republican leader of the Senate said that his main goal for the next two years, this is his top priority, is to beat me in the next election.  
 
     AUDIENCE:  Booo!
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  That's his top priority.  I mean, he didn't say, “My top priority is to create jobs for folks in Virginia.”  He didn't say, “My top priority is to make America more competitive.”  He’s already thinking about the next election. This one is not even over yet.  (Applause.)  We haven’t even finished this election.  He’s already thinking about the next election.  
 
That's what’s wrong with Washington. That doesn’t make any sense.  That's the kind of cynicism that we’re fighting against.  That's the kind of politics we need to change in this country -- (applause) -- the kind of politics -- you know, this kind of politics that puts scoring points ahead of solving problems.  I mean, it’s so prevalent it happens every day.  
 
And the sad thing is sometimes that cynicism is rewarded.  Sometimes because of all the special interest money pouring in, all the negative ads, all the clout, sometimes folks who were operating in the best interests of their constituents, sometimes they don't win because folks don't turn out, because folks don't vote, because folks feel like, well, this is just too hard.
 
     This is where all -- this is where all of you come in, because the only way to fight that cynicism, the only way to fight the millions of dollars of special interest attack ads that they're running is with the millions of voices who are ready to finish what we started in 2008.
 
     See, 2008 was just -- that wasn’t the end goal.  It wasn’t just to put a President in.  It wasn’t just to put Tom in.  It was to keep building a movement for change. (Applause.)  And if everybody -- if everybody who fought for change in 2008 shows up in 2010, then we will win this election.  And Tom is going back.  (Applause.)
 
     So I want you to think back to -- some of you got involved in 2008 because you believed we were at a defining moment in our history.  We still are.  You believed this is a time where the decisions we make won’t just affect us, but will affect future generations, our children and our grandchildren.  That's still true.
 
     You knocked on doors and you made phone calls and you cast your vote, some for the very first time, because you knew that if we didn't act now, then the opportunity to keep the American Dream alive might slip away.  And that's still the case.
 
     Actually delivering change isn’t easy.  Believe me, I know.  So does Tom.  (Laughter.)  I mean, we’ve got our lumps.  We’ve been getting beat up pretty good. But the reason we’re here -- the reason we’re here is -- the reason we’re here is because the lumps we’ve taken are nothing like the lumps that people have been taking for so many years out there; folks who have worked hard, done everything right and are at risk of losing their home, or lost their job, or suddenly aren’t sure whether they can send their kids to college.  We’ve got to remember those folks.  We’ve got to remember what this is about.  
 
     I understand that some of the hoopla and the excitement of Election Night and Inauguration Day from a couple years ago, that fades.  Beyoncé was singing and Bono was there. (Applause.)  All that stuff -- all that stuff fades away, but that spirit can’t fade.
 
     And it’s still in each of you.  Don't let anybody take that away from you.  (Applause.) Don't let folks tell you that all that effort has not been worth it. Don't let them tell you we’re not making a difference.
 
     Because of you right now, there are folks in Virginia who don't have to choose between losing their home and getting treatment for their cancer.  (Applause.)  
 
     Because of you, there are parents who can look their children in the eye and say, “You are going to college.”  (Applause.)
 
     Because of you, there are small businesses who are able to keep their doors open during this great recession.
 
Because of you, there are nearly 100,000 brave men and women who are coming back from Iraq, because of you.  (Applause.)
 
     So don't let them tell you -- don't let them tell you change isn’t possible.  Here’s what I know.  This country was founded on what seemed impossible.  We had 13 colonies come together and have to battle the greatest empire on Earth.  And then they drafted this document nobody had ever tried before, proclaiming, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”  A son of Virginia wrote those words. (Applause.)  “That all men are created equal.” (Applause.)  “And they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  (Applause.)
 
And there were those that didn't believe.  But the founders understood, as imperfect as we were, as long as it would take, that we would be set on a journey to perfect this union. And think of everything our forbearers went through for us to be here tonight, those who braved oceans because they emigrated, those who fought slavery, those who made sure women had the right to vote -- (applause) -- those who made sure that workers had the right to organize.  
 
Imagine if they had given in to cynicism, if they had said, oh, this is too hard, oh, we’re being attacked.  (Laughter.)  Oh, there are negative ads being run against us.  (Laughter.)  Oh, this is taking too long.  Oh, somebody is filibustering.  (Laughter.)  They could have given up.  They went through much tougher fights than we went through.  They got beat up a lot -- they got beat up, literally.  (Laughter.)
 
But they kept on going.  They kept on dreaming.  They kept on believing.  They kept on pushing, even in the face of difficulty, even in the face of uncertainty.  They understood that they had to do what was necessary.  (Applause.)  
 
And that's what brought us through war.  And that's what brought us through depression.  And that's what got us civil rights.  And that's what got us women’s rights.  And that's what got us worker’s rights.  (Applause.)  
 
And that's what made this the greatest country on Earth.  That's the spirit we need today. (Applause.)  That's the journey that put me in the White House. That's what sent Tom Perriello to Congress.  That is what we have to sustain -- is that realization that in the United States of America, anything is possible if we’re willing to work for it, if we are willing to fight for it and believe in it.
 
So I need you guys to keep on fighting.  Tom needs you to keep on believing.  (Applause.)  In these last four days, I need you to knock on doors and make phone calls and talk to your neighbors and vote because if you're willing to step up to the plate, we won’t just win this election, we won’t just send Tom back to Congress, but we will rebuild this middle class.  And we will put people back to work.  And we will reclaim the American Dream for future generations. (Applause.)  
 
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
8:23 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President on the Economy in Beltsville, Maryland

Stromberg Metal Works, Beltsville, Maryland

11:42 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  (Applause.)  Good to see you.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Everybody, please have a seat.  It is wonderful to be here at Stromberg Metal Works.  And I want to thank Bob Gawne and his lovely bride of 58 years, Patricia, for their incredible hospitality. 

I also want to note that you’ve got your great senator from the state of Maryland, Ben Cardin, in the house.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  Your other senator, Barbara Mikulski, couldn’t make it but wanted me to say hello on her behalf, as well as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who couldn’t make it but wants to say hello as well.  And I know they are all incredibly proud of this amazing facility.

I just took a tour with Bob and saw a little bit of what you guys do here, saw the workers turning raw metal into sheets, cutting it into shapes, banging it into finished products.  Everybody here is proud of what they do, and it shows in the great work that you do.  This is a company with a proud history.  Paul Stromberg, a former Navy metalsmith, founded it in 1940.  In 1958, a young former Marine -- Bob -- came on as chief engineer.  And nearly 30 years later, Bob bought the company.  Today, it is in its 70th year of operation, it is employee-owned, it continues to grow.  We’ve got a unionized workforce that -- where folks who put in a hard day’s work get a living wage that allows them to support a family.  This is a community business where even during downturns in tough times people are looking out for each other. 

So it just describes, I think, what's best about America and what's best about American business.  And we are very, very proud of you.  It’s an all-American success story, and I’m proud to be here.  That's right.  (Applause.)

Now, this morning, we learned that our economy grew at a rate of 2 percent over the last three months.  We’ve had nine consecutive months of private sector job growth, after nearly two years of job loss.  But as we continue to dig out from the worst recession in 80 years, our mission is to accelerate that recovery and encourage more rapid growth, so that businesses like this one can continue to prosper and we can get the millions of Americans who are still looking for jobs back to work.

Now, I don’t believe that government can or should guarantee the success of this company or any company.  I don’t think Bob or any business owner expects government to guarantee success.  Success has to be earned.  It has to be earned the old-fashioned way through great ideas and hard work and great employees.  That’s the American way.

But there are times, like in the past few years, when our economy is hit with as devastating a blow as we’ve seen -- when credit is frozen, when demand is stalled -- that we’ve got a responsibility to offer temporary and targeted incentives to spur investment, to knock down the barriers that stand in your way, and to help create the conditions you need to grow and to hire and to prosper.  And that’s what we’ve done.

Since I took office, we’ve cut taxes for small businesses 16 times -- 16 different tax cuts for small businesses.  Instead of providing tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas, we’re giving tax breaks to encourage companies to invest right here in the United States of America -- in small businesses, in clean energy firms, in manufacturers, in businesses like this one.  And we’ve taken steps to expand lending to small businesses, which, even with good credit, continue to have difficulty borrowing the capital they need to grow.

It’s been just over one month since I signed the Small Business Jobs Act into law.  And in that month, just one month, through just one provision in that bill, the Small Business Administration, the SBA, has supported nearly $3 billion in new loans to more than 5,000 small businesses across the country.  That’s fast.  And we expect that when all is said and done, these steps will help support tens of billions of dollars in loans to our entrepreneurs so they can expand, they can grow, and they can hire new workers in communities like this one.

Now, that same initiative also accelerated $55 billion in new tax relief for businesses that make job-creating investments over the next year, including by extending a provision in the Recovery Act called business expensing, or bonus depreciation.  Now, this is a pretty simple concept.  What it does is allow a business like this one to immediately deduct 50 percent of the cost of certain investments like new equipment. 

And I was talking to Bob and he says he’s got to buy a new piece of equipment for this plant basically every year.  The reason this company is able to compete against low-wage countries, against non-union workforces, is because it’s got better equipment and it’s got more skilled, better workers.  That’s the reason that it’s succeeding.  (Applause.)

So what I want to do to accelerate this recovery is to allow businesses of all sizes to immediately deduct the entire cost of these investments -- 100 percent -- all next year, through the end of 2011.  And that means that business owners like Bob who decide to upgrade their plants, upgrade their equipment -- that means that they are able to write off immediately that depreciation in one year.  And that means that they're going to have additional money to invest in workers and in other plants and equipment.

So let’s just take the example of Stromberg.  Let’s say that a similar business is thinking about buying $1 million worth of additional shop equipment next year.  Typically, the business might only be able to deduct the value of that new equipment over the course of several years.  Under this proposal, a business like this one would be able to deduct all $1 million next year.  That accelerates hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax cuts -- real money that business can use to expand or hire new workers. 

Now, this is not a shot in the dark.  This is a proposal that works.  A new report from the Treasury Department estimates that it will accelerate $150 billion in tax cuts for 2 million businesses, large and small, around the country.

It would temporarily lower the average cost of investment by more than 75 percent for companies like Stromberg, creating a powerful new incentive for businesses to invest more right now -- perhaps about $50 billion -- which will generate more jobs and more growth.

So this is a good idea.  It’s a proven idea.  It’s an idea that will allow more equipment to be purchased and eventually more folks to be hired.  And it will put a dent in the jobless rate that we’ve got to keep on working on because it’s way too high right now.

And, look, I know we’re at the height of political season.  I just had my guy show me a little button showing that he had already voted -- early voted.  So I hope everybody else is using that as an example.  But it is political season.  Political season is going to be over soon.  And when it does, all of us are going to have a responsibility, Democrats and Republicans, to work together wherever we can to promote jobs and growth.

And the idea I’m advancing today is one that both Democrats and Republicans should be able to support.  In fact, Republicans have actually offered this idea in the past.  It’s a simple proposal that will make a serious difference for this company and others like it.  It will encourage business investment right now.  It will create jobs right now.  It will help our economy grow right now.  And when many of our friends and neighbors are still navigating through some tough times, that’s what America needs right now.

When I hear Bob and Patricia talk about their lives together and building this -- helping to build this company, I’m reminded that this country has been through tough times before.  We’ve weathered tough times before.  And it’s precisely in those times that we regrouped, we reinvested, we retooled, and we rebuilt.  It’s in those times that we recaptured the ingenuity and the resilience that makes us a great people and makes this a great country. 

And that’s the spirit that we’ve got to recapture and unleash once again -- a spirit of optimism and confidence and hope that has made America the most dynamic country in the world.  And standing here with all of you, I am absolutely convinced that there are going to be brighter days ahead for America -- an America where businesses like this one are leading our economy forward and workers like all of you are rewarded for the work that you do; where our middle class is growing again and investment is being made here in the United States again; and the American Dream is back within the reach for all who are willing to work for it; where we’re forging our future the way you forge your steel right here -- with hard work, and sweat, with American know-how and ingenuity, cooperating together, working together.  That’s how the folks who came before us built the first American century in plants just like this one.  That’s how we’re going to make sure that the 21st century is an American century, as well. 

So thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  Bob and Patricia, thanks for the great work that you do.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END
11:55 A.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at a DCCC Dinner

Chace Residence

Providence, Rhode Island

7:09 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  I was back in the kitchen making sure everything was going okay.  (Laughter.)  It smells really good.

So first of all I just want to thank Jonnie and Buff and the whole Chace family for opening up this spectacular home.  And we are so grateful for your hospitality.

I want to make sure to recognize a couple of folks that are here.  Obviously Chris Van Hollen.  This guy is the hardest-working man in politics right now.  (Laughter.)  He is having to run around all across the country, working so hard on our behalf.  And we are really proud of what he’s accomplished against daunting odds.  I think we are going to end up doing really well partly because of his leadership.  So please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.)

Looking around here, I don’t see the Rhode Island delegation.  I don’t know -- (laughter) -- all right, there they are.  Sheldon, Jack and Patrick -- we could not have accomplished half of what we accomplished this year if it hadn’t been for them.  You guys have an outstanding congressional delegation.  And so I am grateful to them not only for their hard work but also for their friendship and good counsel.  I really appreciate it.

We are 10 days away, is that right?  Nine?  Eight?  (Laughter.)  I’ve been on the road a lot.  (Laughter.)  Seems like it will be 10.  But I have been traveling all across the country over the last several weeks, and the mood out there is interesting.  I mean, this is going to be a difficult election, there’s no doubt about it, because we’ve gone through one of the most difficult times in our nation’s history.  I think the magnitude of the crisis isn’t fully appreciated, partly because the terrific actions that were taken by Congress helped to stem the crisis fairly early on.  But the devastation is something that we are feeling and will continue to feel for a while.

I was mentioning in a speech earlier, we lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I took office, before I was sworn in; 750,000 jobs the month I was sworn in; 600,000 the month after that; 600,000 the month after that.  So most of the 8 million jobs that we ended up losing in this recession we had lost before any of the economic policies that we had a chance to put into place could take effect.  And most economists estimate, including John McCain’s economist, that had we not taken these steps, unemployment might be at 12 percent or 13 percent.

So an economy that was shrinking is now growing.  We’ve seen nine months straight of public sector job growth.  But the fact is, people are still hurting.  I mean, the consequences of that crisis are felt everywhere -- here in Rhode Island and all across the country.  People who have been looking for work in some cases for over a year and still can’t find a job.  Families that have seen the values of their homes decline drastically.  They’re having trouble maybe financing their kid’s college education because of what happened to their savings accounts or their investment accounts.

And so it’s not surprising that the country is angry and the country is frustrated.  And essentially the strategy of the Republicans when we came in was to try to ride that anger as long as possible.  We had hoped that in this once-in-a-generation challenge that we’re facing that we would see an end to some of the game-playing and posturing and politicizing of everything we did because there would be a recognition that this was an urgent time and we had to take some key steps, not only for the next several years but to ensure that we were going to be competitive in generations to come.

And, frankly, the Republicans made a strategic decision which said, you know what, we are going to just step back, say no, do nothing, obstruct, and hopefully then people will forget how we got into this mess in the first place.  In other words, their electoral strategy is amnesia.  And although it may have seemed like a smart political tactic, it wasn’t right for the country.

And so we made a different decision, which was that we were going to do everything that we could not only to deal with the immediate crisis, but also to start finally tackling some of the structural problems that had been holding this country back for far too long.

And some of those decisions might not be popular, but we determined they were the right thing to do.  And I know that Sheldon and Jack and Chris and Patrick and certainly I felt that you guys sent us there not to do what was easy, but to do what was right; and that we did not go to Washington for fancy offices or titles.  

We went there because somewhere in our lives, somebody had helped us.  Somewhere in our life stories, we had seen an America in which we looked after one another.  We gave everybody an opportunity; that we made investments in education and worker training and infrastructure.  We didn’t just think about the next election, but we thought about the next generation.

And that’s what we’ve done over the last two years.  And I could not be prouder of the record of accomplishment in this Congress.  A lot of it happened so fast people didn’t realize it.  Within the first few months, not only had we made investments in clean energy that were unprecedented, not only did we significantly increase our research and development so that we could continue to be an innovation economy, not only did we make the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System, not only did we make the largest investment in education in history, but we had made sure that 4 million children who hadn’t previously gotten it had health insurance.

We had made sure that mortgage fraud was actually policed, that credit card companies couldn’t abuse their customers.  We expanded national service larger than any expansion since the Peace Corps.  And this was all before we started tackling some of the enormous issues that we tackled like health care reform and financial regulatory reform.

And it was interesting, Ira Magaziner is here, so he was there for the last round in ‘94, and remembers how tough this was.  And I have to tell you when it comes to health care reform, we knew how tough it was going to be because it is a huge complicated system with a lot of interests.  And we had neglected it for so long that inevitably it was going to be a contentious fight.

But what we also knew was if we didn’t start tackling it now, that not only were you going to continue to see 30 million people without health insurance, not only were we going to continue to waste money on preventable diseases like diabetes because people weren’t getting regular checkups, but there was no way that we could ever hope to deal with our deficit because the primary driver of our deficit -- almost by a magnitude of several times -- the biggest driver of our deficit and our debt, long term, is our health care costs.  And we’ve got to bring those costs down.

So we have taken steps that essentially encompass the biggest patient’s bill of rights in our history, combined with measures that over time can actually make sure that we are bending the cost curve and making smarter health care investments that will result in higher quality and lower cots.  And in the bargain, 30 million people are going to end up getting health care.

You’ve got young people who are able to stay on their health care up until the age of 26 if they’re not getting it on the job.  You’ve got folks with preexisting conditions who now have some hope of getting coverage and won’t be bankrupted when they get sick.

Oh, and by the way, it turns that according to the Congressional Budget Office, it reduces our deficit by over a trillion dollars over the course of two decades.  (Applause.)

On financial regulatory reform, the other big project that we had -- my general theory is if you’ve gone through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, probably something is not working.

And we rolled up our sleeves and put together a set of rules that allow for innovation in the financial markets, that allow Wall Street to do well, but not at somebody else’s expense -- make sure that we’ve got consumer protections, make sure there aren’t taxpayer bailouts, make sure that if one company goes under, it’s not too big to fail because we’ve got a mechanism to let them go into bankruptcy without bringing the entire financial system down with it.

All of these things were huge battles -- and this is just on the domestic front.  By the way, I had two wars to deal with at the same time.  And so we’ve brought home 100,000 troops from Iraq.  (Applause.)

We’ve got a strategy in Afghanistan that will allow us to start phasing down our troop levels next year at the same time as we’re going to provide an opportunity for Afghans to stand up and start strengthening their own security capacity.

Incredibly proud of what we’ve done.  But we’ve got so much more to do.  Not only do we have 9.5 percent unemployment, which is a huge drag on our economy and has just an enormous human toll that keeps me up at night every day, but there are a bunch of things that we’re going to have to do to make sure that we can compete in what is going to be the most competitive global economy imaginable.

We used to have the best infrastructure in the world.  We don’t now.  Anybody who has been to the airport in Beijing or in Singapore will tell you that we’re losing ground.  

We used to stitch the entire country together with our rail systems, and now our rail systems are 20th century -- 19th century in some cases -- compared to the 21st century high-speed rail around the world.

We still under-invest in research and development.  We don’t have an energy policy that will allow us to be the leaders in solar and wind and biodiesel that can not only help protect our environment but also create the jobs of the future.  

We’ve got so much work left to do.  And the only way I can do it is if I’ve got good partners in Congress.  The only way I can do it is if Chris and Jack and Sheldon are not in the minority but are the majority, that they are the ones who are helping to guide these issues through.  

I know that a lot of times people wonder, gosh, you know, why did it take -- why did health care take so long?  Well, this is not a monarchy we live in.  This is a democracy.  And it’s a big, messy democracy.  And there’s supposed to be debate, and there’s supposed to be contentiousness, and it’s supposed to be hard to make big changes.

But ultimately we got those changes done because we had leaders in Congress who were willing not just to put their fingers up to the wind but instead were committed to doing what was right.  And we’re going to need more of that in not just the next couple of years but for the next decade if we want to make sure that finally we are positioning ourselves so that our kids can live out the American Dream, and we’re handing an America off that is stronger than the one we inherited.

That’s going to require some very tough choices.  And I’ll just use as one example fiscal issues.  We do have a big debt.  And we’ve got a big deficit.  Most of it was structural and inherited from the previous administration where we went to -- from record surpluses to record deficits.  A bunch of it is a consequence of this huge economic crisis that we just went through.  But it is real.  And we’re going to have to deal with it.

And that means choices.  And so when you’ve got the other party saying, let’s provide $700 billion worth of tax cuts to the top 2 percent -- so, many of the people in this room, those of us who don’t need it and aren’t asking for it and are not going to be making different decisions as a consequence of it -- and we don’t have this $700 billion, so we’d have to borrow it from China or Saudi Arabia or others, and when you’ve got the other side in their “Pledge to America” saying that a portion of this will be paid for by cutting education by 20 percent, at a time when we know that the biggest determinant of our success is going to be how well our workforce is educated, that’s the choice that makes this election so absolutely critical.

I mean, we made a different choice when it comes to education.  Not only have we been willing to reform education in ways that sometimes offends some of our core base because it’s the right thing to do.  But we also, for example, took tens of billions of dollars that were going in unwarranted subsidies to banks, and they’re now going to students in direct student loans, and in increased Pell Grants, and making college much more affordable, and boosting up our community colleges, which serve as a gateway for so many working families.

There are going to be choices like that repeatedly over the next year, the next two years, the next five years, where you make decisions about are we going to invest in our future, are we going to invest in our infrastructure, are we going to invest in research and development?

When we cut spending, do we do so intelligently with a scalpel to make sure that it’s not hurting the most vulnerable, and to make sure that it’s not essentially impacting our ability to compete over the long term?  Or are we just doing it in a knee-jerk fashion because of whatever is politically fashionable?

That’s what’s at stake in this election.  But it’s going to be hard.  The only way we succeed is if we’ve got the ability to get out the message, particularly in this last week.  Because we are getting snowed under by unsupervised spending, undisclosed spending through these front groups that so many of you have read about:  “Americans for Prosperity” and “Moms for Motherhood” -- that last one I made up.  (Laughter.)

But there are a whole bunch of groups out there mostly run and coordinated by Republican operatives as a consequence of the Supreme Court Citizens United decision that are just spending millions of dollars --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  And they’re liars.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, and these ads completely distort Democrats’ records.  But it’s a powerful force.  If you’re in a competitive House race right now, if you’re in a state like Colorado and you just watch this stuff, I mean, it is just a blizzard of negative ads.

And so we’re going to have to do our best to match that, mostly just by telling the truth.  But also we’re going to have to have enough money to be able to get that truth out.  And that’s where all of you come in.

So I am grateful to all of you for the kind of support that you’ve already shown us.  I want to just close by saying this.  I meet a lot of people who say, boy, I got really involved in politics for the first time in 2008.  I was so inspired and I was so excited.  And I knocked on doors and my kids, they talked to me about it.  They got involved.  It was just a magical time, and then Election Night and Inauguration and Beyoncé was singing. (Laughter.)  And Michelle looked so pretty in her dress.  (Laughter.)

And I understand that excitement.  It was a good thing because I think it reminded us of what is possible when citizens get involved.  It was a moment where we overcame the cynicism of our politics and the conventional wisdom of Washington, and we said, you know what, when people join together, we can do amazing things, unlikely things.

And I know that over the course of the two years, sometimes people feel like, gosh, that magical moment now has given way to just the grinding it out and filibusters and cable chatter. And you just start feeling like, boy, this is exhausting.  And a lot of people come up and say that to me.

And yet I just want everybody to understand, because of you being involved right now there’s a woman in New Hampshire somewhere who doesn’t have to give up her house to get her cancer treatments.  

And right now there are young people around the country who didn’t think they could finance their college educations that now can.

And right now there are incredible scientific experiments and research being done in cutting-edge areas that otherwise wouldn’t be happening and might set the groundwork for amazing industries of the future.

And right now there are small businesses here in Rhode Island that might have shut down in the middle of -- in the depths of recession had we not made those investments.  

And right now there are 100,000 young men and women of incredible courage who are home because of what you’ve done.

So don’t let people tell you you haven’t made a difference.  This is what change looks like.  It is slow.  It is methodical.  There are times where we’ll experience setbacks.  But the trajectory is sound.  We’re going in the right direction.  We just got to keep on going.  So thank you, guys. (Applause.)

The last thing I have to do is to make sure that you all send your mayor to Congress.  And I want to just say something special about David.  I had a chance to meet him when I was still running -- was I running for senator or was I running for President at that point?

MAYOR CICILLINE:  For President.

THE PRESIDENT:  I was already running for President.  (Laughter.)  It all blurs together. (Laughter.)  

And when I came here, the interesting thing was everybody I talked to said, boy, you should see our mayor.  He’s just like -- he’s exciting and he’s smart and he’s funny and he’s passionate.  And I got to know David, and he was exactly as advertised.  Unless it’s the other guy running -- (Laughter.)

Look, the truth of the matter is we feel confident that David is going to be joining us in Congress because of the incredible support of all of you.  But the key is making sure that when David gets there, he’s able to get something done.  And I promise you, it’s a lot easier to get something done in the majority than in the minority.  (Laughter.)

So obviously I need everybody -- don’t take it for granted, run scared.  I know he will.  He’s going to be knocking on doors and making phone calls.  And you need to be doing the same on his behalf.  But the fact that you’re here tonight reminds us that even beyond this one particular race, we’ve got races all across the country with great candidates like David.  And they need that support and they need that help as well.  And that’s what you’re showing here tonight.  

So thank you so much to the Chaces.  Thank you.  I’ve got to get home because Michelle is on the road.  So I’ve got to be home to tuck in the girls and walk the dog. (Laughter.)  And scoop the poop.  (Laughter.)  So I apologize that I can’t stay for dinner.  But it looks simply spectacular.  And, again, I thank you all for being here tonight.  All right? (Applause.)

END
7:30 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at DCCC General Reception

Rhode Island Convention Center

Providence, Rhode Island

6:03 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Rhode Island!  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  Are you fired up? (Applause.)  It is good to be back in Rhode Island.  It is good to be here for an outstanding soon-to-be member of Congress, Dave Cicilline. (Applause.)  

Now, you already have some great members of Congress, and so I just want to make quick mention of them.  Your senior senator, one of the finest senators that I know, Jack Reed is in the house.  (Applause.)  His great partner, junior senator Sheldon Whitehouse.  (Applause.)  A dear friend, Patrick Kennedy is here.  (Applause.)  Outstanding legislator Jim Langevin is here.  (Applause.)  And somebody who’s working so hard to maintain a Democratic majority across the country, the head of the DCCC, Chris VanHollen is here.  Thank you, Chris.  (Applause.)  

And all of you are here.  And I'm really happy about that.  (Applause.)  

Now, Providence, one week from tomorrow, you have the chance to set the direction not just for this state but for this country, not just for the next two years but for the next two decades.  And just like you did in 2008, you have the chance to defy the conventional wisdom.

You remember in 2008, everybody looks back and says, oh, that was easy.  No, it wasn’t easy. (Laughter.)  In retrospect it looked easy.  But at the time, everybody said, you can’t overcome the cynicism in our politics.  You can’t overcome all the special interest money.  You can’t take on the biggest challenges that we face.  You certainly can’t elect a skinny guy named Barack Obama.  (Applause.)  And you said, “Yes, we can.” (Applause.)  And a week from tomorrow, we have a chance to say, “Yes, we can” again.  We’ve got a chance to say, “Yes, we can” again.

AUDIENCE:  Yes, we can! Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, we can.  Look, there is no doubt that this is going to be a difficult election.  I'm confident that David is going to win.  I feel good about it.  (Applause.)

But, look, this is going to be a difficult election because we’ve been through an incredibly difficult time as a nation.  For most of the last decade, middle-class families have just barely been treading water.

I want to give you a couple of statistics.  Between 2001 and 2009, we had the slowest job growth of any time since World War II.  In fact, job growth was slower during those eight years than it has been over the last year.

Between that same period, 2001 to 2009, middle-class families on average lost 5 percent of their income. Think about that.  This is at a time when health care costs skyrocketed.  College tuition, off the charts.  More jobs being shipped overseas.  Families just barely keeping up, working two jobs, three jobs to pay the mortgage, to pay the bills.

Too many parents were saying to their kids, I’m not sure we can afford college; too many families saying, we can’t afford to see a doctor when we get sick.  It’s just too expensive.

And then all these problems that had been building up for a decade culminated in the worst financial crisis and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

In the six months before I took office, we lost 4 million jobs in America -- in six months.  We lost 750,000 the month I took office; 600,000 the month after that; 600,000 the month after that.  We lost almost 8 million jobs before any of the economic policies the Democrats had a chance to put into place could take effect -- almost 8 million jobs.

Now, our hope was that because of the magnitude of the crisis, that me and Jack and Sheldon, Jim, others, Patrick, our hope was that finally we’d be able to come together with the Republicans and start solving problems instead of playing politics.  We figured this is a once-in-a-generation challenge, and so let’s see if we can put the bickering aside, and the gamesmanship that had dominated Washington for way too long.  Because although we’re proud to be Democrats, we are prouder to be Americans.  (Applause.)

And there are a lot of Republicans that I think felt the same way.  But Republican leaders in Congress, they made a different decision.  Their basic strategy was, you know what, we really screwed up.  This is such a big mess.  We’ve lost so many jobs.  The economy is so bad that it’s going to take a while to fix all these problems.  And if we’re there helping, then, gosh, who knows, they might realize that we’re to blame.  So we’re better off just standing on the sidelines and saying no to everything.

And people are going to get angry and frustrated.  And they may forget that, in fact, we were the folks in power when this crisis occurred.  And we’ll be able to point our fingers and pretend we had nothing to do with it.

That was their tactic.  That was their strategy.  In other words, their main electoral strategy, their political strategy was amnesia.  (Laughter.)  They are banking on you forgetting who caused this mess in the first place.  But, Providence, it is up to you to let them know we have not forgotten.  (Applause.)  We have not forgotten.

We have not forgotten, and it’s up to you to remember that this is a choice in the election between the politics that got us into this mess and the politics that are getting us out, between hope and fear, between the past and the future, between moving forward and moving backwards.  And I don't know about you, but I want to move forward. (Applause.)  David, I want to move forward.  (Applause.)  I want to move forward.

Look, if they win this election, the chair of the Republican campaign committee has already promised to pursue -- and I’m quoting here -- “the exact same agenda” as they pursued before I took office.

AUDIENCE:  Booo!

THE PRESIDENT:  And we know what that agenda is.  It does have the virtue of simplicity. (Laughter.)  You cut taxes -- mostly for millionaires and billionaires; you cut rules for special interests; and then you cut middle-class families to fend for themselves.

So if you’re a family that doesn’t have health care, tough luck, you’re on your own.  If you’re a young person who can’t afford to go to college, too bad, you’re on your own.  If you’ve lost your job, you need a little help with unemployment insurance, you need a little help with some job training, tough luck, you’re on your own.

And this is all done under the guise, under the banner of fiscal conservatism, except it turns out that this same agenda turned record surpluses under a Democratic President and converted them into record deficits that allowed Wall Street to run wild that nearly destroyed our economy.

Now, I bring all this up not because I want to re-argue the past.  I bring it up because I don't want to relive the past.  (Applause.)

It’s not as if, Providence, we haven’t tried what they're peddling.  We tried it for eight years. It didn't work.  

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We can’t go back.

THE PRESIDENT:  We can’t go back.  (Laughter.)  Look, I’ve been using this analogy as I travel the country.  Imagine the Republicans driving the economy into a ditch.  And it’s a deep ditch.  It’s a big ditch.  And somehow they walked away from the accident, and we put on our boots and we rappelled down into the ditch -- me and Jack and Sheldon and Jim and Patrick.  We’ve been pushing, pushing, trying to get that car out of the ditch.

And meanwhile, the Republicans are standing there, sipping on a Slurpee.  (Laughter.)  Fanning themselves.  We’re hot and sweaty and pushing, and they're kicking dirt into the ditch.  (Laughter.)  Getting it into our faces.  But that's okay.  We said -- every once in a while we’d ask them, “Do you want to come down and help?”  They’d say, “No, but you're not pushing the right way, though.  Push harder.”  

Finally, we get this car out of the ditch, and it’s banged up.  It needs some body work, needs a tune-up.  But it’s pointing in the right direction.  The engine is turning and it’s ready to go.  And we suddenly get this tap on our shoulders.  We look back, who is it?  The Republicans.  And they're saying, “Excuse me, we want the keys back.”  You can’t have the keys back.  You don't know how to drive!  (Applause.)  You can’t have them back.  Can’t do it.  (Applause.)  Not after we’ve worked this hard.

We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun.  (Laughter.)  You know, we got to have middle-class families up in front.  (Applause.)   We can’t -- we don't mind the Republicans joining us.  They can come for the ride, but they got to sit in back.  (Laughter.)

Look, these two years have been incredibly difficult.  And not every decision we’ve made has always been popular, but they’ve been the right things to do because you sent me there -- you sent me there not to do what was easy but do what was right.  That's why you sent me there.  (Applause.)

And because of the steps we’ve taken, we no longer face the possibility of a second depression.  The economy is growing again.  (Applause.)  We’ve seen private sector job growth for nine months in a row.  I just had a chance to visit with some of the elected officials at a wonderful small business here that is representative of small businesses all across the country.  They survived the recession, and they're now ready to grow and expand.

And we’ve passed tax cuts and provided them additional financing so they can hire more workers.  But you know what?  We’ve still got a long way to go.  We know we do. There are a lot of people hurting out there.  There are a lot of folks who have been looking for work for months and still can’t find it.  A lot of families still hanging on by a thread.

That's what keeps me up at night.  That's what keeps David up at night.  That's what we’re focused on because we’ve got a different idea about what the future should look like.  And it’s an idea rooted in our own families, our own backgrounds, about our understanding about how this country was built.

I didn't come from money.  I didn't have a famous, well-connected family.  And I was raised by my parents to believe -- and my grandparents to believe in self-reliance.  We know government doesn’t have all the answers to our problems.  We know our young people -- if our schools are going to succeed, our young people have to work hard in school.  Parents have to do a good job parenting.

We believe government should be lean and efficient, and that each of us should take responsibility for contributing to our community.  But in the words of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, we also believe that government should do for the people what they can’t do better for themselves.

So we believe in hard work and responsibility and individual initiative.  But we also believe in an America that invests in its future, invests in its people, in the education of our children, in the skills of our workers.

We believe in a country where we look out for one another, where I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper.  That's the America I know.  That's the choice in this election.  (Applause.)  That's the choice in this election.

If we give the other side the keys to the car, you know what they're going to do?  They're going to keep on giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.  I believe in tax breaks for companies like the one that I just visited, companies that are investing here in the United States, small businesses, American manufacturers, clean energy companies.  (Applause.)

I don't want solar panels and electric cars made in Europe or Asia.  I want them made right here in the United States with American workers.  That's the choice in this election.  (Applause.)

I think a lot of Americans right now, what they're asking -- they're seeing all the negative ads on TV. What they really want to know is, what’s your plan to move America forward; what’s your plan to put people back to work.

And we’ve put forward plans to rebuild our infrastructure.  We used to have the best infrastructure in the world.  But we don’t now.  We’ve got to invest in that. We’ve got to invest in research and development.  We want to make sure that we’re giving incentives to companies to push their investments forward into next year so that we can jumpstart the economy and help move it forward.  Very concrete plans about how we’re going to invest in education so every one of our young people have the skills to compete in this new global economy.  

You know what the other side’s big idea is?  And I'm not exaggerating, they’ve got one idea.  And their idea is to cut taxes for the top 2 percent wealthiest Americans.  Would mean an average $100,000 check to millionaires and billionaires; it would cost $700 billion that we do not have.  We’d have to borrow it from China.  And when you ask them, well, how else are you going to pay for it other than just borrowing, they say, well, we’ll cut some programs.  It turns out part of what they’re proposing is a cut of 20 percent in our education budget.

AUDIENCE:  Booo!

THE PRESIDENT:  Now, think about this.  Do you think at a time when education will probably make more of a difference in terms of how well our economy performs than any other single indicator -- (applause) -- that we should be cutting education by 20 percent?  Do you think China is cutting it by 20 percent?  You think Germany and South Korea are cutting education by 20 percent?  Of course not.  Because they’re not playing for second place.  They’re playing for first place.  And we need to play for first place.  That’s what we do in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

That’s why, with the help of a Democratic Congress, we took tens of billions of dollars that were being put into unwarranted subsidies for banks in the student loan program.  We said, let’s not do that.  Let’s have the money go where it belongs -- to the students.  And we now have millions more young people who are able to get student loans and Pell Grants -- (applause) -- higher levels of grants, a $10,000 tuition relief credit for each student.  That’s our agenda for economic growth.  That’s what’s going to make a difference.

That’s why when we talk about tax cuts, we want to give permanent tax relief to middle-class families.  They need the relief.  That’s the choice in this election.  (Applause.)

Look -- and let me just say, they’ve already said, the other side has already said, we’re going to roll back regulations and put special interests back in charge in Washington.  This is not me making it up.  The person who would take over the energy committee in the House of Representatives is the guy who apologized to BP when we said, you’ve got to pay for all the small businesses and families that have been -- and fishermen that have been hurt by the oil spill.  

AUDIENCE:  Booo!

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s the head of the energy company [sic].  Another one of their members has already promised that one of their first orders of business would be to repeal Wall Street reform.  Now, we just went through the worst financial crisis in our history, and we finally now have some rules of the road that are going to say no taxpayer bailouts; you got to have higher capital requirements. We’re going to make sure that we’ve got tough overseers that protect consumers from everything from predatory mortgages to unwarranted credit card fees. And their main agenda is rolling these rules back?  Why?  Why would we do that?

We can’t let that happen, Providence.

AUDIENCE:  No!

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, we believe in making sure that people don’t get ripped off when they sign up for a mortgage.  We believe credit card companies shouldn’t be able to jack up your rates without notice.  We believe that insurance companies, if you’re paying your premiums, they actually have to pay when you get sick.  They can’t drop your health insurance when you get sick.  (Applause.)

We think it’s a good idea that young people should be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26 years old.  (Applause.)  We think it’s a good idea that senior citizens see that doughnut hole closed so that they can actually afford their prescription drug coverage.  (Applause.)  Those are ideas that we believe can move America forward.

That’s the choice in this election.  We believe Social Security should never be privatized, not as long as I'm President.  (Applause.)  We’re not going to take the retirement savings of a generation of Americans and hand it over to Wall Street.  That’s the choice in the election.  That’s what we’re fighting for.

But understand, the other side is fighting back.  The same special interests we’ve been battling on your behalf over the last two years, they are fighting back hard.  And they are now using these phony front groups to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads all across the country, distorting the records of Democrats. And you know what?  They are not even willing to disclose where the money is coming from.  You don’t know.  Could be from insurance companies. Could be from oil companies.  Could be from Wall Street banks.  You don’t know.

This is all the consequence of a Supreme Court decision, so don’t let anybody tell you the Supreme Court doesn’t matter.  That’s why I put Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan there. (Applause.)  We need to have some Supreme Court justices who are looking out for you.

But because of this campaign finance loophole, you’ve got hundreds of billions of dollars.  It’s not just a threat to Democrats.  It’s a threat to our democracy.

I mean, imagine if you can -- if special interests can just spend as much money as they want and you don’t know who they are.  They’ve got these innocent-sounding names: “Americans for Prosperity” or “Moms for Motherhood.”  (Laughter.)  No, I made the last one up.  (Laughter.)  But you don't know.

And that cheapens our discourse.  It hurts our democracy.  And there’s only one way to fight back against those millions of dollars, and that's with the millions of voices of people like you.  (Applause.)  It’s all of you saying -- it’s all of you being willing to finish what we started in 2008.

I’ve got to have you come out in droves and vote in this election.  You’ve got to come out and vote. And, look, if everybody who voted in 2008 votes in 2010, we are confident we will win this election.  (Applause.)  

And a lot of you -- a lot of you got involved in 2008, some of you for the very first time, because you understood that we’re at a crossroads in our history; that the decisions that we make now don't just affect us, they affect our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.  That's why some of you knocked on doors.  That's why some of you made phone calls.  That's why many of you stood in line to cast your ballots.

And it turns out, you know what, actually delivering change is very hard.  I warned you. (Laughter.)  I said it was going to be hard.  And so over the last two years, we’ve been grinding it out.  And sometimes I know it gets frustrating.  Some of you may get discouraged.  You say, gosh, we have these bigger majorities, and things are being filibustered, and there’s all this nastiness on TV.  And maybe you just can’t change politics.

But I want everybody to understand we’re just in the first quarter.  We got a whole game to play. (Applause.)  We’ve got a whole game to play.  We’ve got a whole game to play.  (Applause.)

And I want everybody here to understand that because I’ve had good teammates, like the folks you sent here from Rhode Island, we have made a huge difference.  Don't let anybody tell you we haven’t made a difference.

Because of you, there’s somebody here in Rhode Island somewhere who is going to be able to get their treatment for cancer without having to give up their house or go bankrupt.  Because of you, there are folks -- small businesses right here in New Hampshire -- who are able to keep their doors open in the depths of recession.

Because of you, there are young people right here in Rhode Island who are going to be able to go to college and otherwise couldn’t go to college.  Because of you, there are 100,000 young men and women who are returning home from Iraq -- because of you. (Applause.)  Because of the things that you did in 2008, we have made huge changes.

So don't let people tell you you’re not making a difference.  Yes, it’s hard.  But it’s always been hard.  The history of America has been hard, starting with a revolution to found this country.  The idea of America is hard, based on a document and ideas that had never been tried before:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

That's a hard idea.  And we had to overcome slavery.  We had to fight for women’s rights.  And we had to fight for workers’ rights.  (Applause.)  But each successive generation hasn’t shied away just because it’s hard.  We kept on going. We kept moving forward.

And that's why we’re here today.  And we want 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 100 years ago -- 100 years from now, we want people to be able to look back and say, you know what, this generation did the same thing.  That same spirit that got us through war and depression, that helped to perfect this union, that same spirit is alive and well in 2010.

That's what I need all of you to show me.  And if you do, I promise you David is going to Congress. (Applause.)  And we will continue to help rebuild the American Dream for all people.

Thank you very much, Rhode Island.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
6:29 P.M. EDT