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The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 08, 2014

Remarks by the President at the Pentagon

The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.

4:20 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I want to thank Secretary Hagel, Deputy Secretary Work, Chairman Dempsey, Vice Chairman Winnefeld, and all the outstanding leaders who are here today. This is a periodic check-in that I have with not only our service commander but also our COCOMs. And I thought, although usually we do this over the White House, now was a good time for me to come over to the Pentagon and have an opportunity to hear from our top military about the work that they’re doing.

And I’ve said this before and I want to repeat: We put enormous burdens and enormous strains on our men and women of the armed forces, and each and every time, the members of our armed services, our troops perform in exemplary fashion. I think at a time when there’s so much turbulence in the world, never during my presidency has it become more apparent how good our military is, but also how they can tackle a wide range of problems and not just a narrow set of problems. It’s not just the finest military in the history of the world, it’s also just one of the best organizations we’ve ever seen at doing a whole bunch of different stuff.

And so I expressed my gratitude to the leadership, but also asked them to express to those under their command the thanks of the American people.

We had an opportunity to talk about ISIL and the campaign there. After this meeting, we’ll have a National Security Council meeting in which General Lloyd Austin, who’s leading Central Command, will further brief us on the progress that’s been made by the coalition there.

Our strikes continue alongside our partners. It remains a difficult mission. As I’ve indicated from the start, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight. The good news is, is that there is a broad-based consensus not just in the region but among nations of the world that ISIL is a threat to world peace, security and order, that their barbaric behavior has to be dealt with. And we’re confident that we will be able to continue to make progress in partnership with the Iraqi government, because ultimately it’s going to be important for them to be able to, with our help, secure their own country and to find the kind of political accommodations that are necessary for long-term prosperity in the region.

We had a chance to talk about the fight against Ebola, and I got a briefing from General Rodriguez. Our military is essentially building an infrastructure that does not exist in order to facilitate the transport of personnel and equipment and supplies to deal with this deadly epidemic and disease. And we are doing it in a way that ensures our men and women in uniform are safe. That has been my top priority, and I’ve instructed folks we’re not going to compromise the health and safety of our armed services.

But what’s true is, we have unique capabilities that nobody else has. And as a consequence of us getting in early and building that platform, we’re now able to leverage resources from other countries and move with speed and effectiveness to curb that epidemic.

We had a discussion about global security generally, including the work that, with General Breedlove, we’re doing at NATO to mobilize Europe around the increased threats posed by Russian aggression in Ukraine and against some of its neighbors. We had a very successful meeting in Wales that showed the commitment from all 28 NATO countries to redouble the reassurance they can provide to frontline states to invest further in the joint capabilities that are necessary. And I very much appreciate the leadership that General Breedlove has shown on that front.

And I got a chance to get a briefing from Admiral Locklear of the Pacific Command about the ongoing both challenges and opportunities in the Pacific. It’s been noted that our alliances in that area have never been stronger. We are very much welcomed as a Pacific power in the region. And our ability to continue to maintain a presence that ensures freedom of navigation, that international law is observed is going to be critically important. And we need to do that in a way that also reflects our interest in cooperation and effective communication with China, which obviously is a major player in the region.

But the anchor of our presence there, our treaties and alliances with key countries like South Korea and Japan, obviously remain critically important. And thanks to the work of some of the gentlemen sitting around this table and their staffs, those alliances have never been in better shape.

Finally, we had a chance to talk briefly about defense budget and reforms. We have done some enormous work, and I want to thank everybody sitting around this table to continue to make our forces leaner, meaner, more effective, more tailored to the particular challenges that we’re going to face in the 21st century.

But we also have to make sure that Congress is working with us to avoid, for example, some of the Draconian cuts that are called for in sequestration, and to make sure that if we're asking this much of our armed forces, that they’ve got the equipment and the technology that's necessary for them to be able to succeed at their mission, and that we're supporting their families at a time when, even after ending one war and winding down another, they continue to have enormous demands placed on them each and every day.

So I want to thank everybody around this table. A special thank-you to General Austin for the enormous amount of work that's been done by CENTCOM in what is a very challenging situation. We very much appreciate him. I want to thank General Rodriguez for the great work in standing up our operations in West Africa.

And finally, I want to say publicly a hearty thank you to Jim Amos, who somewhere between eight to 10 days from now -- (laughter) -- will be retiring from his command. He is the 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps, the first aviator to command our Marine Corps. I know that he could not be prouder of the men and women under his command. They continue to make us proud. They certainly make him proud. We want to thank him and Mrs. Amos and the entire family for the great service that they’ve rendered to our country.

So thank you very much. (Applause.)

END4:29 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 08, 2014

Remarks by the President in Conference Call with State and Local Officials on Ebola

2:24 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining the call. Obviously, in your states and communities, you guys are on the front lines of public health every single day, working to keep the American people healthy and safe. And I thank you for that.

Right now, a lot of people’s attention is focused on our efforts to prevent an Ebola outbreak in the United States. And I want everybody to know that from day one, this administration has made fighting Ebola a national security priority. We don’t think this is just a humanitarian issue or a public health issue, this is a national security priority. And we are working aggressively to stop the epidemic in West Africa, to stop any cases in their tracks here at home.

On Monday, I met with my team to review our efforts. They’re here today to update you on what we’re doing, to answer your questions, make sure all of you have the information that you need to keep the people in your communities healthy and safe.

And the American people are reasonably concerned -- Ebola is a terrible disease, and the fact that in an interconnected world infectious disease can be transported across borders is one of the reasons we have to take it seriously. At the same time, as I think all of us have tried to emphasize, it’s important that, as public officials, we know and reinforce the facts. Because we’ve got a world-class medical system, because we’ve put in place tough safety measures, because of the work that many of you have done in conjunction with organizations like the CDC and dealing with infectious disease generally, and because of the nature of Ebola and the fact that it’s not something involving airborne transmission, the chance of an Ebola outbreak in the United States remains extremely low.

Procedures are in place to evaluate anybody who might be showing symptoms. In recent months, thousands of travelers arrived here from West Africa, and so far, only one case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, and that’s the patient in Dallas who we know, sadly, passed away, and our thoughts today are with his family.

But as we saw in Dallas, we don’t have a lot of margin for error. If we don’t follow protocols and procedures that are put in place, then we’re putting folks in our communities at risk. So we have to follow the procedures and protocols that have been established based on the science.

I want to thank Mayor Rawlings and County Judge Clay Jenkins in Dallas for their cooperation with our team and their leadership on the ground. We’re going to make sure that lessons learned in Dallas and clear procedures and protocols for health and safety officials are conveyed to all of you. Secretary Burwell and Dr. Frieden will talk to you about how we’re working with hospitals across the country so that local partners are truly prepared should someone who has a history of travel to the affected countries in West Africa start showing symptoms.

At the federal level, we are always reviewing and evaluating measures that we currently have in place. Today, we announced additional screening measures that will be phased in over the coming days and weeks at select airports around the country. And these measures are really just belt-and-suspenders -- it’s an added layer of protection on top of the procedures already in place at several airports.

The new measures will include additional entry screening and questions for travelers arriving from the countries affected by Ebola. It will give us the ability to isolate, evaluate and monitor travelers as needed. And we’ll be able to collect any contact information that’s necessary. So you’ll hear all of this from my team shortly.

But let me close by reminding everybody that America has got the best doctors in the world. We know how to deal with infectious disease. I’m confident that so long as we work together, and we’re operating with an appropriate sense of urgency that we will prevent an outbreak from happening here. And in fact, some of the work that we’re doing together and the lessons learned from this experience will further strengthen our public health systems going into the future. Because there are going to be, unfortunately, other occasions where we know that there are infectious diseases out there, and in some cases the transmission may be swifter, and we’re going to have to be that much more ready.

So for the governors and the mayors and the county officials on the line, I’ve instructed my teams to do whatever federal assistance they can to make sure you’re ready to respond should someone be diagnosed with Ebola in your state. We’re going to have to be partners in this fight. Anybody who has any questions, information or suggestions, that’s why my team organized this call. They want to make sure that they’re getting feedback from you in terms of what you think will be most helpful.

I want to thank you guys, not just for joining us on the call today, but, more importantly, for the critical work you do every day to keep us healthy and safe.

END
2:32 P.M. EDT

2:24 P.M. EDT

I want to thank you guys, not just for joining us on the call today, but, more importantly, for the critical work you do every day to keep us healthy and safe.

END
2:32 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the First Lady

For Immediate Release

October 08, 2014

Remarks by the First Lady at Fashion Education Workshop

East Room

12:49 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA: Well, hello everyone. How are you doing?

AUDIENCE: Great.

MRS. OBAMA: Okay. All right, we’re just going to break this up one moment and just say, is this not cool? (Laughter.) I mean, come on. You’re in the White House. There are some of the most impressive people in fashion here to teach you all, and to reach out and to mentor you. And there’s food. (Laughter.) What more could you ask for.

Well, welcome to the White House. And let me start by thanking Anna for that very kind introduction and for her tremendous passion and leadership in making this day a reality. We started cooking this up a little while ago, and it’s just been a thrill to be able to bring this vision to reality. So, Anna, thank you so much.

I also want to thank everyone from the -- Parsons The New School for Design for helping us today, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Pratt Institute of Technology, along with all of the incredible designers and entrepreneurs, the fashion journalists who have taken time out of their very busy days to be here with all of you. Let’s give them all a round of applause. (Applause.)

And there are two groups that I want to give special recognition to. First, all of the students and faculty from Parsons who created the incredible décor that you see here on the tables in the East Room. Well done. (Applause.) Thank you, guys. Thank you so much.

And second, I want to recognize the two winners of our design competition for this event. The dress that I am wearing today and the dress that you see here were designed by two students who are with us today. Chelsea Chen -- Chelsea, stand up, please. Chelsea designed this dress. (Applause.) Great job! (Laughter.) And Natalya Koval, please stand up. Natalya designed this dress. (Applause.) Well done. Oh, did it switch around? Natalya designed this dress, Chelsea designed that dress. Well done! (Laughter.) Good job! They’re both students at FIT. And Natalya and Chelsea, thank you. Thank you for your creativity, thank you for your passion. We’re very proud of you. I hope you had fun doing this. And I want to thank the designer mentors who helped them bring their ideas to life -- Phillip Lim and Lela Rose. Phillip and Lela, thank you both for working with Natalya and Chelsea today.

In these dresses that you see and this room, we see the incredible promise that lies within our next generation. And that’s really what today is all about -– it’s about all of you young people who are here in this room with us, and all the young people who couldn’t be in this room, and your dreams. We really do focus on how you’re going to get where you’re going to go. And that’s what this is all about.

I know that many of you are hoping to one day pursue a career in fashion, and that’s why we invited you here today -- because we want you to really understand what it’s going to take to be successful. And we want you to see firsthand that a solid education and the willingness to work hard is really at the core of what it’s going to take to achieve your goals: education and hard work. It’s that simple.

Today’s workshop is one in a series of events that we have done over the past six years for young people across the country. We have been doing this since the day we entered the White House for young people. We want them to be in this house and experience the things that they’re passionate about. And this workshop is one of many -- whether it’s music or dance or poetry, our mission is always the same: to inspire you guys to dream bigger, to reach higher, and then, most importantly, to pull somebody else up with you along the way.

Because your sitting in these seats makes you really special, but it doesn’t make you unique. Because you know for every kid that is sitting in this chair, you know probably 10 others who could be sitting in this chair. So that’s where the giveback comes in, because you’ve got to be thinking, “I was lucky and blessed to be here, so what am I going to do to share these gifts with somebody else?”

Now, when it comes to the fashion industry, so often people think it’s all about catwalks and red carpets and “who wore it best,” and whether some famous person wore the right belt with the right shoes –- like I’d know what that’s like. (Laughter.) But the truth is that the clothes you see in the magazine covers are really just the finished product in what is a very long very complicated and very difficult process, as I’ve come to learn working with many designers.

What most people don’t realize is that there are so many different aspects to this industry. Whether it’s business marketing or technology and manufacturing, even agriculture that produces the wool and the cotton that ultimately becomes our clothes, it’s a big, complicated industry. The industry is also a huge contributor to this economy. Last year alone, Americans spent more than $350 billion on clothing and footwear, and about 1.4 million American workers are employed annually by retailers and others in the fashion industry -- so a lot of jobs, a lot of income that is generated by many of the people who are sitting in this room.

But for so many of you –- whether you’re already in the industry or aspiring to be there some day -– I know that in the end, fashion is really about passion and creativity. Just like music or dance or poetry, it’s what drives you. It’s what gets you out of bed each morning. It’s what you write about in essays in school and what you read about in the news. It occupies every ounce of your daily lives. I know this because with creative people, that’s what their passion does -- it makes everything else worthwhile.

Fashion is about so much more than just a pretty pair of pumps or the perfect hemline. For so many people across the country, it is a calling, it is a career, and it’s a way they feed their families. So that’s why we thought it was important to bring the industry to the White House, and to share it with all of you who are coming up in the next generation.

Today, in your breakout sessions, you all have had a chance to see all the different aspects of the industry -- and there are many, many more aspects, we just didn’t have the time. But you learned the business sense that you need to strike out on your own. There’s a very entrepreneurial aspect to this industry. You learned the writing and verbal skills that you need to communicate your inspiration with others -- because the bottom line is that if you can’t share your thoughts and ideas, no one will hear them. There’s no mindreading in fashion design; you have to be able to articulate what you want. So you have to be a reader, a writer, a thinker, a communicator.

You learned the highly specialized construction skills that you all can only learn through hours and years of education and practice and technical training. This doesn’t just come out of just talent, sheer creativity. You have to practice it. You have to learn it. You have to study it. And those are the kind of concrete skills that you all will need to succeed. And it’s important for you all to know that there’s a concreteness to this work. And it’s easy to lose sight of that, because it’s easy for us to look at the accomplished people in this room and think, well, it must have been easy being Jason Wu -- Jason’s like, not so much -- (laughter) -- that the style and the creativity have just flowed from these people since the day they were born.

It’s easy to think that it’s easy. But these folks will tell you that that’s never really the case. What they have learned over the course of their illustrious careers is that the path to success is rarely ever easy or obvious. Instead, they know that in order to exceed, they know that you have to be prepared, that you’ve got to hone your skills in college or design school. You’ve got to be willing to take some risks, and you also have to be prepared to fail -- a lot.

All of these things are essential for the journey. And that’s true for fashion, but it’s true for everything else. Risks, failure, is a part of being great. So embrace that, don’t fear it. And the most important thing you’ve got to do is work and work and work and work and work and work. That’s it. It’s hard work -- sorry -- (laughter) -- years and even decades before you can achieve your goals.

Just take Sara Blakely, for example. After she graduated from college, Sara worked at Disney World, buckling in people into their seats for the rides -- dag, Sara. (Laughter.) Sara did that for a while, and then she went on to sell fax machines for an office supply company. And then she got this idea, and she took a risk -- she devoted her entire savings, $5,000, to start her own company.

She spent two years planning and researching her new business ideas in the nights while she was still selling fax machines. She pitched her idea to factories and mills, asking them to help her make the product a reality, and of course, she was turned down again and again and again. But finally, a manager at a factory liked her idea, and today, 14 years later, Sara’s idea, Spanx, is a multibillion-dollar company with products selling in more than 50 countries. (Applause.) And we all wear them with pride. (Laughter.)

And then there’s my friend Maria Cornejo, who grew up in Chile knitting and sewing clothes for her dolls. When she was 11, her family fled to England as political refugees. And Maria didn’t speak a word of English, and she says she always felt like an outsider. But then she realized that she could make a career out of fashion.

So she went to design school, and she studied fashion and textiles, and she started her own business. And today, Maria’s got a company based in New York. She won a National Design Award for fashion. She is one of my favorite designers. She’s earned fans all around the world. And she is probably one of the sweetest, most gracious people that I’ve met over the course of these years.

So to all of you guys in this room, I want those stories -- the stories of Sara and Maria, and I’m sure there are many, many others as you talk to people at your tables -- I want those stories to show you that there’s no magic to being successful in fashion or in anything else. What is required is a willingness to work long nights, to suffer through rejection and failure, to rise above all of that -- all the doubts and the fears and the anxieties -– whether you come from the city, the suburbs, no matter who you are, where you come from, all those feelings are natural. It’s a natural part of life.

Maybe you do feel like an outsider. Maybe you’ve been told that your ideas aren’t any good. Or maybe your family doesn’t have much money. Maybe you’re the first one in your family to go to college, and you’re wondering whether you’re even going to make it. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, I want you -- again, know that those worries and doubts are natural. It’s okay. Every single person in this room -- including me -- everyone who has been successful at anything has doubted themselves, and has had someone else doubt them.

But what successful people don’t do is let their doubts and fears shut them down. That’s what you cannot do. They brush off the doubters, they brush off the haters. They reach out for help, which is key. They use those emotions to inspire them to work even harder to create their own futures.

So today, I want you all of you to know that you belong here. You belong right here in the White House -- yes, yes. (Laughter.) So, look, you belong right here next to Jason Wu and Anna Wintour and Narciso -- and I could go on. You belong here. This is your home, so own it, okay? Because if you can sit at these tables and spend this day here and meet with all these great people, then you can do anything -- but you have to know that, and you have to tell yourselves that every single day. Remember this moment, and remember that the First Lady of the United States told you that you can do anything you want to.

And we’re counting on you. We are proud of you. Your President is proud of you. He knows this is going on, he’s just a little busy. (Laughter.) So I want you to take advantage of this day. I want you to network with each other. I want you to continue working hard, and know that failure is a part of the growth that you will need to be great.

So we are so pleased to have you here. And if you feel like this day was special, it’s because we think you all are special, and you all are worthy of the efforts that we’ve put in to making this day special for you. So thank you, guys. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

END

1:05 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the First Lady

For Immediate Release

October 07, 2014

Remarks by the First Lady at Grassroots Campaign Event With Governor Pat Quinn -- Chicago, Illinois

UIC Pavilion
Chicago, Illinois

5:07 P.M. CDT

MRS. OBAMA: Oh, my goodness! I’m home! (Applause.) Oh, my goodness. It is so good to be home. (Applause.) Let me start by thanking --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you!

MRS. OBAMA: I love you all. I miss you all so much. (Applause.) We miss you guys. But we’ve got a job to do here today, right? We’ve got a Governor to reelect. And I want to start by thanking my friend Pat Quinn for that very kind introduction. I am so proud to be here to support his reelection to Governor of the great state of Illinois. Let’s get it done! (Applause.)

I also want to recognize our terrific Senator, Senator Dick Durbin, as well. Dick has been such a great friend and a partner to me. He’s been a powerful leader for our state and for our country out in Washington, and I am so glad that he’s here to join us.

I want to remind you all to get out and vote for Dick Durbin and the other outstanding leaders we have here today -– just to name a few, Representatives Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Luis Gutierrez, Robin Kelly, Jan Schakowsky -- (applause) -- all of them representing our state so wonderfully in Washington, as well as Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon, our Secretary of State Jesse White, our Attorney General Lisa Madigan, our candidate for Treasurer, Senator Mike Frerichs, and of course, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. Let’s give them all a round of applause. (Applause.)

All right, you all. There is a reason that I’m here today for Governor Quinn, and there’s a reason why I’m going to be casting my vote for Governor Quinn, and that is because I know Pat Quinn and I have seen how he is out there every day making the tough decisions to lift up our families and to move this state forward.

And let me just tell you, this is personal for me because this city, this state -- this is my home. And like all of you, I care deeply about what happens here. I care deeply about who is the leadership here in this state. And over the past four years, I’ve seen Pat Quinn fighting off radical budget cuts to our schools. I’ve seen him investing in early childhood education, in college scholarships for our kids to make sure they get to fulfill their God-given potential.

I’ve watched Pat work tirelessly with me, hand in hand, for our veterans and military families, helping them buy homes, find jobs and get the education they’ve earned. I’ve seen Pat creating thousands of new jobs here in this state. His push for the minimum wage is essential. And the man even suspended his own paycheck to help fix our pension crisis here in Illinois. (Applause.)

That is what -- just some of what Pat Quinn has done for us as Governor. And that’s really what matters in this election -– not what a candidate says, but what he actually does. And let me tell you something -- Lord knows I’ve been through enough campaigns and elections in this state to know just a little bit about what I’m talking about. (Laughter.)

Because I have seen candidates come and go. I have seen people who have spent a lot of money and make a lot of promises. But at the end of the day, we have got to ask ourselves, what do these folks really stand for? What do they really stand for? What are their values? What do they believe in? What are they going to do for us? Well, I know what Pat Quinn stands for. I know, that’s why I’m here.

Pat believes like we do that when you get to the top, you don’t pull up the ladder after you -- you reach back and you help other folks get the same opportunities you had to succeed. (Applause.) Pat Quinn believes that everyone should play by the same rules -– no gaming the system, no special breaks for some folks at the expense of others. Pat thinks that everyone who’s willing to work for it should be able to build a good life for themselves and an even better life for their families. And finally, Pat believes in putting our children first. Just like us, he wakes up every morning thinking about their health, their happiness, their futures, our kids.

So let’s be very clear: If we want a Governor who shares our values and is going to fight for our families, then we need to work day and night to reelect Pat Quinn as Governor of Illinois. (Applause.) We have to do that. And I am confident that we can get this done. I am confident, because I’ve seen what you all can do. I’ve seen it.

A lot of you here today in this city, in this state, you have been with me and Barack from the very beginning -- from the very beginning. (Applause.) You all remember those days back when we were on the South Side working to get Barack to Springfield as State Senator? You all were back with us when we traveled throughout the state to get Barack to represent us in Washington as a U.S. Senator. You all were there with us when we were out in Iowa and New Hampshire, remember? We were talking about hope and change, we were getting fired up and ready to go. You were there. You were there. You did the work.

And then you were with us when Barack first took office, and he got a good look at the mess he’d been handed and wondered what on Earth he had gotten himself into. Remember how bad things were back when Barack took office? Let me take you back for a moment, because sometimes we forget.

Back when Barack first took office, we were, in this country, in full-blown crisis mode. Our economy was literally on the brink of collapse. Wall Street banks were folding -- folding. You all hear me? They were folding. Businesses were losing 800,000 jobs a month -- every month. Folks on TV were panicking about whether we were headed for another Great Depression –- you remember that? And that wasn’t just talk, that was a real possibility. This is what Barack Obama walked into on day one as President of the United States. I could go on. Things were bad.

Now, I want you to think about how things look today, less than six years later. And I’m going to give you facts; I’m talking as a citizen, not as a wife.

By almost every economic measure, we are better off today than when Barack took office. That is a fact. (Applause.) Why do I say that? Our businesses have created more than 10 million new jobs since 2010 -- 10 million, including the 236,000 jobs last month alone. Now, this is the longest uninterrupted run of private sector job growth in our nation’s history. Do you hear me? In the history of this nation. (Applause.) The unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 10 percent back in 2009 to 5.9 percent today. And right now, there are more job openings than at any time since 2001.

Last year, the number of children living in poverty decreased by 1.4 million -– the largest drop since 1966. (Applause.) And today, our high school graduation rate is at a record high. More of our young people are graduating from college than ever before. And because of the Affordable Care Act, health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in nearly 50 years, and millions more Americans finally have health insurance. (Applause.)

Now, I want you to also think about how different our country looks to children growing up today. Think about how our kids take for granted that a black person or a woman can be President of the United States. (Applause.) They take for granted that their President will end hurtful policies like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and speak out for equality. (Applause.)

So while we still have a lot of work to do, we have truly made so much of that change we were talking about. But what I want you to remember is that Barack didn’t do that all by himself just sitting in the Oval Office. He did it with the help of outstanding leaders across this country -– leaders like Pat Quinn, who understand what’s really going on in our lives. Leaders who will stand with Barack to create more jobs and build better schools. Leaders who will make sure that women get equal pay, and that we can make our own decisions about our bodies and our health care. (Applause.) That’s how he did it.

In short, Pat Quinn has Barack’s back. And now it’s time for us to have Pat’s back. (Applause.) Now it’s our turn. Because make no mistake about it, Barack’s last campaign wasn’t in 2012. Barack’s last campaign is this year, 2014, because that election in 2012, that wasn’t the change we sought -- it was only the chance to make that change. And if we want to finish what we started together, then we need to reelect Pat Quinn as Governor. We need to do that today. (Applause.)

Now we know this won’t be easy. We know this won’t be easy, but we know a little bit about not easy, don’t we? We know that there is too much money in politics, and special interests have way too much influence. But what I want you to understand is that they had plenty of money and influence back in 2008 and 2012, and we still won those elections -- we still won. (Applause.)

You want to know why we won? Because we showed up and we voted. (Applause.) It’s as plain as that. Because at the end of the day, the folks running those special interest groups, the folks who poured millions of dollars into those elections, well they each just have one vote -- and so do each of us. And ultimately, the only thing that counts are those votes. That’s what decides elections in the United States of America. That is still true. And that is why Barack Obama is President right now.

He is President today because a whole bunch of folks who never voted before showed up to vote in 2008 and 2012. And a lot of people were shocked when Barack won -- they were shocked -- because they were counting on folks like us to stay home. They were counting on it. But we proved them wrong. We proved them wrong, because Barack won because record numbers of women and minorities and young people showed up to vote.

But see then, this is what happens -- then the midterms came along, and too many of our people just tuned out. And that’s what folks on the other side are counting on this year, because when we stay home, they win. So they’re assuming that we won’t care. They’re hoping that we won’t be organized. They’re praying that we’re not energized. And only we can prove them wrong. Only we can do it.

And make no mistake about it -- this race is going to be tight. We know that races like this can be won or lost by just a few thousand or even a few hundred votes.

And I want you to think about what happened in Governor Quinn’s race back in 2010. The outcome of that race was decided by about 32,000 votes. Now, that might sound like a lot, but when you break that number down, that’s just about three votes per precinct -- do you hear me? That’s three votes per precinct. That was the margin of difference.

Now, I know that every single one of you all knows three people who didn’t vote in the midterms. And I know you know three people that you can connect with. I mean, just think about those numbers. That is the power of the right to vote. And if we do that, Pat Quinn wins this election. (Applause.)

So let’s be real clear -- that’s why I’m talking -- we can go emotion, but they’re just facts about how to win. We have to be clear: This election is on us. These are our voters. This is us. And we can’t wait around for anyone else to do this for us. It’s on us to get this done. It’s on us to get people energized, to get them organized, to get them out to vote.

So that’s why this rally is so important. That’s why I’m here. That’s where all of you come in. Because every day between now and the November the 4th, we need you out there doing the hard work, knocking on those doors, making those calls. It’s the person-to-person contact. These are our voters. We need you to tell folks to vote early. That’s what Barack and I are going to be doing even from Washington.

And I want you all to know -- remember, you can vote early by mail, or you can vote early in person all across this state starting on October the 20th. The early vote got it done for Barack, and we can do it for Pat Quinn. (Applause.)

So I want you all to go to QuinnForIllinois.com. I’m being real specific -- QuinnForIllinois.com -- and you can find out all the information you need about how to vote, and you can also sign up to volunteer. And once you have the information you need for everyone you know, you need to get them to vote early. Think about those three people in your life who don’t think their vote matters; who don’t think it’s worth getting up early, or to fill out the form -- those folks in your church, or your neighbors, or your classmates who think somehow this doesn’t matter. And I want you to get those folks to the polls on November the 4th. Bring as many people as you can -- family members, neighborhood folks, church folks. Don’t leave anyone behind.

In this arena alone, if we do that, we could change the course of this election. (Applause.) We can change the course of this election with the folks in this room. So start today reaching out, because we’ve got less than a month until Election Day. And we all need to be as passionate and as hungry for this election as we were back in 2008 and 2010 [2012.] In fact, we need to be even more passionate and even more hungry, because races like this Governor’s race here in Illinois will be even harder and even closer than those presidential elections, but they’re just as important.

Because the stakes this year simply could not be higher. See, because if we don’t elect leaders like Pat Quinn and Dick Durbin and the other outstanding folks here today who will put people first instead of fighting for special interests, then we know exactly what will happen: We will see more folks interfering in women’s private decisions about our health care. We’ll see more opposition to immigration reform and raising the minimum wage for hard-working folks.

So I want to be clear: If you think people who work 40 or 50 hours a week shouldn’t have to live in poverty in the wealthiest nation on the planet; if you don’t want women’s bosses making decisions about their birth control; if you think women should get equal pay for equal work; if you want our kids to have quality preschool, have the chance to go to college to get the education they need to fulfill their God-given potential, then we need you to step up. We need everyone you know to step up and vote for Pat Quinn. (Applause.)

That’s what’s at stake in this election -- the kind of country that we want to leave for our kids and our grandkids. Because we have to remember those kids are counting on us to stand up for them. They’re kids like all the kids we know. I met young people at Harper High School in Englewood -- I met a great group of kids.

Many of you know the odds these kids and so many of our kids are facing -– neighborhoods torn apart by poverty and hopelessness, by guns and gangs; parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, or who’ve lost their jobs. When I was at Harper, there were about 25 kids in the classroom I spoke to that day, and when asked whether they knew someone who’d been shot, every single one of them raised their hands -- every last one of those kids raised their hand.

But let me tell you some other facts about these kids. See, one of them was the valedictorian. One was the salutatorian. One was a football star. A couple of them were leaders in the ROTC. See, against all the odds, those kids still had big dreams for their futures. (Applause.) They still found a way to lift their sights to college, to careers, to want families of their own.

And here’s what you all know -- as I travel around the country, I meet so many kids just like those kids at Harper. Kids who wake up early and take the long route to school to avoid the gangs. Kids who juggle afterschool jobs to support their families, stay up late to get their homework done. Kids whose parents don’t speak a word of English, but who are fighting every day to realize their dream of a better life.

See, these kids, they have every reason to give up, but they are so hungry to succeed. They are desperate to lift themselves up. And that’s why we’re here -- because those kids, they never give up -- they never give up. And neither can we -- neither can we.

So between now and November, we need to be energized for them. We need to be inspired for them. We need to pour everything we have into this election so that they can have the opportunities they need to build the futures they deserve. And I know we can do this, because we’ve done it before. You all have done it before. You amaze me. You all amaze me.

If we keep stepping up and bringing others along with us, then I know -- I know in my heart that we can keep making that change we believe in. I know we can elect Pat Quinn as Governor of Illinois. I know that we can elect Dick Durbin and all our other terrific leaders here today. And I know that together, we can build a future worthy of all our children. So let’s just get this done.

Thank you all. God bless. (Applause.)

END

5:30 P.M. CDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 07, 2014

Remarks by the President at DSCC Event

Private Residence
Greenwich, Connecticut

6:21 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. (Applause.) Well, first of all, I just want to thank Ellen, Rich, and Scott and Brooke. These guys have been supporters since way back, before a lot of people could pronounce my name. (Laughter.) And they have been incredible friends and supporters ever since. Whether we're up or whether we're down, they’ve always been there for us. And it just really means so much to be back in their beautiful home. I want to thank them for their hospitality, even though Spree, their dog, got hair all over my pants. (Laughter.) But fortunately, these days I travel with one of those rollers. (Laughter.) Somebody had a roller somewhere. He is an adorable dog.

A couple of people that I want to acknowledge. Your own senators who do a great job each and every day -- Dick Blumenthal is here. Where’s Dick? (Applause.) There he is. And Chris Murphy. Give Chris a big round of applause. (Applause.) Chris is back here. And one of the finest young senators that we have who has this thankless job -- I don't know whether Dick and Chris volunteered him -- but we're happy that he’s doing it because it's an enormous workload, but he handles it with grace and good humor and is doing an outstanding job -- Michael Bennet from Colorado. (Applause.)

So the nice thing is this is a small group and it gives me a chance to have a conversation rather than to give a long speech. Let me just say a few things at the top and then we'll open it up for questions and comments.

Point number one, the world is going through tumultuous times. And we see it in the headlines every day: ISIL, Ebola, Ukraine. It seems like every day there’s a new challenge. The thing I want to emphasize, and we saw this at the United Nations General Assembly just a couple of weeks ago, is that on every issue it's American leadership that's mobilizing the international community to tackle it.

In Ukraine, we've been able to at least blunt Russian aggression because the United States helped to mobilize the world community and Europe to impose tough sanctions and to impose a cost on Russia for its actions, and to support Ukraine in the basic notion that they should be able to make their own decisions about their country.

With respect to Ebola, it is because our galvanizing action, including sending 3,000 of our finest men and women in uniform to essentially build up an infrastructure in three countries that are allowing us to now mobilize the international community to start putting resources in there and to deal with one of the great humanitarian tragedies that we've seen in a long time, but also a threat to our own safety and security.

With respect to ISIL, it's American leadership that has galvanized the international community to take on what is really the logical conclusion of the sort of violent extremism that's been building up in the Middle East for far too long.

And so on each and every issue, America remains the one indispensable nation. And as I've said at the U.N. General Assembly and in other settings, whether it's a typhoon or an earthquake or political breakdown in a country, they don't call Beijing and they don't call Moscow. They call us. Even our critics. Because they understand that America stands for a set of principles and ideals and values that we're willing to fight for and put resources in. And it's making the world a better place. And I have no doubt, as a consequence, that we will continue to be able to meet whatever challenges arise on the international stage.

The good news is that we're better positioned for leadership than any time in the last several decades. When I came into office -- and a lot of you are familiar with it. Rich and I were talking about the nature of the real estate market. When I came into office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. The real estate market had entirely collapsed. Capital markets were frozen. And we were teetering on the brink of a cataclysmic financial crisis.

Today, six years later, the stock market is at an all-time high, corporate balance sheets never been stronger. Unemployment has gone from 10 percent down to 5.9 percent. We've seen a healing of the housing market, complete with a recovery of the auto market. Manufacturing is as strong as it's been since the 1990s. We've created more jobs in the United States than Japan, Europe, and every industrialized nation combined during those six years. Combined. Our deficit has been cut by more than half. Millions of people have health care who didn’t have it before. Health care inflation is the lowest it's been in 50 years, and as a consequence, we're saving about $188 billion over the next 10 years in health care costs to the federal government -- without cutting benefits and actually improving quality.

Our energy production has never been more robust. We are the world’s largest producers of oil, largest producers of natural gas. We now produce more oil than we import for the first time in 20 years. We’ve doubled clean energy production, tripled wind energy production. Solar energy production has increased tenfold. We’ve doubled fuel-efficiency standards on cars and, as a consequence, we’ve brought carbon emissions down more than any other advanced nation on Earth.

On education, reading scores up, math scores up. High school graduation -- up. College attendance -- at an all-time high. There is no measure just about of economic wellbeing in which we are not better off than when I came into office. And yet, people are anxious and the question is why. And the reason is, is because trends that preceded me coming into office -- in fact, dating back for 20 years -- have created an economy in which productivity gains and growth and a robust stock market have not necessarily translated into increased incomes and wages for ordinary people.

And so folks still feel as if no matter how hard they work, they don’t seem to be getting ahead. And a combination of technology and globalization but also policy has made it for a winner-take-all economy where folks in Greenwich and most of the folks in this room are doing very well, but the average person still feels like if they’re hanging on, they’re not sure whether their kids are going to be able to achieve the same kinds of advancement that they were able to achieve in their lives.

Now, the good news is there are solutions to that. If we increase the minimum wage, 28 million people rise out of poverty. In those states that have increased the minimum wage over the last couple of years, since I called for an increase, have created more jobs and grown faster than those who didn’t. Making sure we’ve got fair-pay laws so that women are paid the same as men for doing the same work. It’s not just a women’s issue -- that’s a family issue.

We know that if we invest in infrastructure -- we’ve got $2 trillion worth of deferred maintenance -- we rebuild our roads, our bridges, our airports, our energy grid, not only do we make the economy more efficient, we put people back to work right now and there is a multiplier effect that could drive the growth rate up higher and reduce unemployment even faster. If we invest in early childhood education we know that every dollar we spend there, we get $7 back in improved performance, reduced drop-out rates.

We know what to do, and none of these agenda items are radical. They used to garner the support of both parties, considered relatively uncontroversial. There’s a reason why we can’t get those things done right now, although we’re doing everything we can administratively to advance the agenda. The reason is, is because you’ve got a Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, that’s been become captive to a very narrow, ideological set of beliefs that think government has no role to play in providing opportunity and that believe that if as long as folks at the very top are doing well and we eliminate regulations on polluters and the financial system, somehow prosperity will trickle down.

And we’ve got a different vision for the economy that says when middle-class families are doing well, when there are ladders of opportunity and everybody who works hard can get ahead in this country, that’s when everybody does well. Business does better, folks at the top do better, middle, down at the bottom -- everybody does better. That’s how we grow. That’s been our history.

And so the question then becomes whether we can get a Congress that is true to the vision that has been shown to work and has given so many of us opportunities that we might not otherwise have, or whether we succumb to the cynicism and the naysaying of folks in Washington who have a different vision.

And in order for us to do that, we’ve got to -- at minimum -- make sure that we continue to have a Senate that believes in those things that will open up opportunity to everybody. You have the wisdom here in Connecticut to have really good senators, but we need a few more. (Laughter.) And it’s for that reason that Michael Bennet is working so hard, and it’s for that reason that I’m here tonight. It’s the single-most important thing we can do to assure that the 21st century is the American century just like the 20th. But we’re going to need your help. And so I’m very grateful for you being here.

All right, we’ll open it up for questions. (Applause.)

END
6:33 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 07, 2014

Remarks by the President at DNC Event -- New York

White Street Restaurant
New York, New York

4:12 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! (Applause.) It's good to be back in New York City. (Applause.) Even though I mess up your traffic. (Laughter.) I feel bad about that. But I do love New York.

First of all, to Ed and Betsy, I just want to thank you so much for everything you did to make this such a rousing success. And to all the host committee, thank you, guys. Give them a big round of applause. (Applause.) The DNC treasurer, Andy Tobias, works tirelessly day in, day out. Give Andy a big round of applause. (Applause.) And thank you Nickel Creek for your outstanding performance. (Applause.) You can find them on iTunes. They are very good. (Laughter.)

I was here in New York just a couple weeks ago -- you noticed the traffic was even worse then -- during the United Nations General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders. And it's appropriate to talk a little bit on the front end about why this particular General Assembly was so indicative of America’s position in the world. There are times where I think in this country we doubt ourselves, and there are times when we're uncertain of all the changes that are taking place all across the globe. And understandably, when you see the headlines every single day and you read about ISIS and Ebola and the Russian incursions into Ukraine, there’s a sense possibly that the world is spinning so fast and nobody is able to control it.

And yet if you look at what happened at the General Assembly on the terrorist group ISIS and the need to mobilize an international community to push back against their radical violence, it was the United States that mobilized that coalition both in the Middle East and around the world.

When you look at Ebola, a humanitarian crisis in West Africa, but also a public health crisis that has the possibility of affecting people around the world, it was the United States that is committed to building the infrastructure that allows health workers to get in and start saving lives and making sure that children aren't dying on the streets.

When it came to blunting Russian aggression, it was the United States that mobilized NATO countries and the world community to stand up for the principle that people are independent and have the ability to make their own decisions about their own lives and to seek freedom and prosperity on their own terms.

On climate change, it was the United States that led the way in continuing to mobilize the world community to reduce carbon emissions that are going to affect our kids and our grandchildren.

On every single issue of importance, when there are challenges and there are opportunities around the world, it's not Moscow they call; it’s not Beijing. They call us. Because they understand that for all the challenges we sometimes face and the mistakes that we occasionally make, that America continues to be the one indispensable nation -- (applause) -- and that what we stand for –-- liberty and democracy and conservation and fairness and justice -- those are the things that people around the world aspire to and seek, and they expect the United States to be on their side.

And that's something we can be very proud of. It's a burden. It means we do more than anybody else. We're asked to respond even by folks who are critical of us. People don't always appreciate the work that we do. But in the end, it's a burden that we bear proudly because it's part of what makes us American, and it's part of what that lady with the torch in the middle of the water means. It's part of what attracts people from every corner of the globe to this country, understanding that for all our flaws there’s something essential that we stand for that nobody else does, and we're willing to put our money and time and effort and resources and occasionally our lives on behalf of that.

Now, we can only show that leadership if we also have a country that's working on behalf of its own citizens. And when I came into office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month; we were facing an economic contraction that was actually worse than the Great Depression’s in just pure economic terms. And six years later, I gave a speech at Northwestern the other day just to kind of give people an impression of what exactly has happened over the last six years.

We've lowered the unemployment rate from 10 percent down to 5.9. (Applause.) We've seen now 55 months of uninterrupted private sector job growth, the longest uninterrupted job growth in history. (Applause.) We saved an auto industry that was on the brink of collapse. (Applause.) We stabilized the financial system and have reformed it so that no bank is too big to fail at this point, and we're trying to make sure that we are avoiding the kind of reckless behavior that caused the crisis in the first place.

Millions of people have health care who didn’t have it before. (Applause.) And, by the way, health care inflation has slowed to the lowest point in 50 years, so much so that Medicare and Medicaid will now save about $188 billion because costs are lowered than anticipated -- which is part of the reason why we now have cut the deficit by more than half.

High school graduation rates are up; reading scores are up; math scores are up; college attendance is up. Energy production is the highest that it's ever been. Clean energy production, we've now increased solar power by tenfold, wind power by threefold, doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. (Applause.)

We have ended “don't ask, don't tell.” (Applause.) We stopped defending DOMA. (Applause.) All across the country now, couples who love each other are able to join in that most meaningful of unions.

There’s no economic measure, including the stock market, including corporate balance sheets, where we're not better off now than we were when I came into office. (Applause.)

But in the same way that people are anxious about what’s happening around the world, people are still anxious about what’s happening here at home. And for good reason -- because despite the growth, despite the increases in productivity, despite the recovery of the housing market, despite the drop in unemployment, the one trend that has been going on for 20, 30 years now hasn’t yet been solved, and that is, is that wages and incomes are stagnant and the prosperity that we see all around us is not broadly shared across the population. The average family in state after state, city after city, still feels as if it's tougher to get ahead now than it ever was. And most importantly, they worry about what the future holds for their kids and their grandkids.

And so everything I've done since I've been in office was not just to get back to where we were, but also to tackle this issue: How do we make sure the prosperity is broadly shared? How do we make sure that if you work hard in this country, no matter what you look like, where you come from, what faith you hold, who you love -- that if you work hard in this country you can get ahead, you can make it.

That’s what we've been fighting for. And we have achieved so much, but we still have so much to do, because on that issue the Democrats stand for one thing, one vision of the economy, and the Republicans stand for another.

We believe in raising the minimum wage. We think that if you work full-time in this country you shouldn’t live in poverty. (Applause.) Republicans disagree.

We believe in fair pay laws that make sure that women get paid the same as men for doing the same work. (Applause.) They disagree.

We believe in comprehensive immigration reform –- because we know that we are a nation of immigrants and that if we are welcoming talent from around the world and rationalizing the system we can secure our borders and make sure that America remains a beacon for people all around the world. And it will be good for our economy and will reduce our deficit. And because our workforce will be younger, we will grow faster. Republicans, so far at least in the House of Representatives, they disagree.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: I always say, don't boo, vote. (Applause.)

We believe in rebuilding our infrastructure all across the country, our roads, our bridges, our water mains, our sewer lines. It's not sexy, but we've got $2 trillion worth of deferred maintenance. If we put people back to work right now it's not just going to benefit guys in hard hats and gals in hard hats, it's going to benefit all of us, because it will make the economy more productive, it will create jobs not just in construction, but in engineering and in advertising and manufacturing. Huge opportunities there, but unfortunately, so far at least, we can't get Republicans to cooperate.

We believe in investing in early childhood education. We know every dollar we put into early childhood education we get $7 back in kids who are doing better, and not dropping out at the same rates, and less likely to be involved in the criminal just system, more likely to go to college and more likely to succeed and be successful citizens. The other side doesn’t think that's a commitment we should make.

We believe in things like family leave, because we think that if a parent sees a sick child they should be able to get time off and be able to afford to take a day off for a sick child or a sick parent.

On each and every one of these issues there’s a contrast. And what it really boils down to is do you think our economy does best, do you think our society does best, do you think our politics do best when everybody is in the game, when everybody is getting a fair shot, when prosperity is broadly shared and economic growth is based on the idea of a growing, thriving middle class and ladders for opportunity for people who want to get into that middle class. And the other side thinks, no, no, what we should just be doing is allowing prosperity to all stay at the top, and maybe trickle down; eliminate regulations on banks, or credit card companies, or polluters, and that that somehow is going to unleash the power of the American economy.

And history is on our side. Facts are on our side. And the good news is the American people are on our side. On issue after issue when you actually ask folks, they agree with us -- by wide margins.

But here’s the catch. Democrats have a congenital disease
-- we do not vote in midterm elections. We don't vote at the same rates in midterm elections as we do at presidential elections. And when you combine that with gerrymandering and the shenanigans around voting rights that you see in state after state, what ends up happening is, is that we have more folks who agree with us, but all too often, they end up winning some of these elections.

And we just can't afford that right now. Too much is at stake. I’ve run my last campaign. Michelle is deeply grateful. (Laughter.) But the issues I’m fighting for, the issues that I will continue to fight for even after I leave this office, those issues are at stake. And we’ve got to be willing to fight for them. We’ve got to feel a sense of urgency about this at a time when, frankly, the press and Washington, all it does is feed cynicism.

Most of you don't know the statistics I just gave you. And the reason you don't know them is because they elicit hope. They're good news. They shouldn’t be controversial. And that's not what we hear about. We hear about phony scandals, and we hear about the latest shiny object, and we hear about how Washington will never work.

But you know what, cynicism is a choice. Cynicism didn't send a man on the moon. Cynicism never cured a disease. Cynicism didn't win women or blacks the right to vote. Cynicism never built a business or created a job. Cynicism is a choice. And hope is a better choice. (Applause.)

And when I ran in 2008, I talked about hope. And sometimes people ask me -- even in the photo line I took just now, people asked, oh, how do you do it? Everything is so negative. Seems like there’s so many problems. How do you do it, Mr. President? And I tell people -- and this is true -- I’ve never been more hopeful than I am now.

I look back at what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last six years -- why why wouldn’t I feel hopeful? (Applause.) Why wouldn’t I feel hopeful about what we can do in the next two if we’ve got a Congress that is willing to work and reflects the decency and the values of the American people?

I am profoundly optimistic about America. I need you to be also. And then I need you to express your optimism not just in voting yourselves, but in getting involved. We’ve got a month. And the work that we do, the money we raise, the doors that we knock on, the phone calls that we make, can make a difference, because some of these races will be decided by a few hundred votes, a few thousands votes. But the consequences of just us voting an extra one percent or two percent could make the difference as to whether we’re able to preserve a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions; could end up making a difference in terms of whether poor kids around the county have a decent shot at life; could end up making a difference in terms of whether we’re able to fund the science and the research that is so important for our future. Just one or two percent. (Applause.)

So bottom line is this: If you feel, as I do, fundamentally hopeful about the American people, and fundamentally hopeful about what we can do together, then this next month I need you to have the same kind of urgency that you have during a presidential election. Get involved. And this is a great place to start.

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

END
4:32 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 07, 2014

Remarks by the First Lady at Grassroots Campaign Event for Candidate Mary Burke -- Madison, Wisconsin

Overture Center for the Performing Arts
Madison, Wisconsin

12:42 P.M. CDT

MRS. OBAMA: Well, hello, Madison! (Applause.) Oh, thank you all so much. I am thrilled to be back. You know why I came back? Because I love your -- our next governor of Wisconsin, Mary Burke. Let’s give her a round of applause! (Applause.) She is amazing, amazing. Mary is amazing. I love her. I love her because she’s smart. I love her because she’s a decent person. I love her because it’s hard to find decent people who are willing to do this. (Laughter.) And when we find them, we have to support them.

I love her because she’s doing this for the right reasons, and because she cares to deeply about the people of Wisconsin. I’ve seen that in the time I’ve spent with her. She cares about this state. And we know that because we can just look at what she’s done with her life.

Mary reached the pinnacle of success as a top executive of a global company, but she left that job to lead the Board of Directors of the Madison Boys and Girls Clubs -- we love our Boys and Girls Clubs. (Applause.) And why did she do it? Because she wanted to help kids here in this state.

Then, as you know, she became Secretary of Commerce because she wanted to fight for middle-class families and for small businesses. (Applause.) And then, as she mentioned, she started a program to help young people from underserved communities go to college.

So we know where Mary’s heart is. We know who she’s going to stand for as Governor. (Applause.) We know that when it comes to fighting for kids and families, when it comes to creating jobs and preparing our young people to fill those jobs, no candidate is more passionate, more effective, and more committed than Mary Burke. So I am proud to be here today for her. (Applause.) And I am proud to support her as the next governor of Wisconsin. And you all, I’m proud of you for supporting her, as well. (Applause.)

I also want to recognize a couple of our outstanding Wisconsin leaders -– Congressman Mark Pocan is here. (Applause.) Our candidate for Attorney General, Susan Happ. (Applause.) So we are so grateful for their leadership and their service.

But most of all, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to be here today, for what you’re doing. Now, as you all know, I was just here in Wisconsin last week. So I’m sorry if you’re getting sick of me, but I’m back. (Laughter.) But there’s a reason why I wanted to come back. I wanted to come here to Madison to talk a little more with a lot of you, particularly our young people who are here -- and I don’t want to leave out those of you who are young at heart, too. (Applause.)
But for our young people, more than anyone else, this election is about you. It’s about your hopes and your dreams, and the world you want to pass onto your kids and your grandkids, truly. But despite that fundamental truth, I know that too many young people feel that elections just don’t matter -- I know that. They feel that politics doesn’t really make a difference, so they figure, why bother to show up and vote? And if there is anyone here who feels this way or knows someone who feels this way, then I’d just ask you to consider some facts -- and I talked about these facts when I was in Milwaukee, but they’re worth repeating.

I want you to think about all the change we’ve seen these past six years under this President, Barack Obama. (Applause.) Now, I can’t believe this -- we’ve been in office for six years, so there might be some of you who are really too young to remember what things were like back in 2008 when Barack first took office.

Our economy was literally on the brink of collapse. Wall Street banks were folding, if you can imagine that. Businesses were losing 800,000 jobs every single month. Young people were panicking about whether they’d ever be able to find jobs after graduating. Folks on TV, the pundits, the prognosticators worried about whether we were headed for another Great Depression –- and this wasn’t just talk, it was actually a real possibility. This was the mess that Barack had been handed on day one as President of the United States. This is what awaited him.

So now I want you to think about how things look today, just six years later. By almost every economic measure, we are better off today than when Barack Obama took office. That is a fact. (Applause.)

Here’s just some of the proof: Our businesses have created more than 10 million new jobs since 2010 –- that’s including the 236,000 jobs created last month alone. (Applause.) And this is the longest uninterrupted run of private sector job growth in our nation’s history -- do you realize that? In our history. (Applause.) The unemployment rate for young people is down from a 10.6 percent high in 2009 to 2.6 [6.2] percent today. (Applause.)

More of our young people are graduating from college than ever before. We’ve expanded financial aid. (Applause.) And for millions of students, we’ll be capping federal student loan payments at no more than 10 percent of your income -- boy, I wish I had had that when I was your age. (Laughter.) So close! Because this President believes that you all shouldn’t be buried in debt like we were when you’re just starting out in life. (Applause.)

Under the Affordable Care Act -- (applause) -- millions of our young people have health care because they can stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26 years old. (Applause.) So when you guys graduate from school, if you can’t find a job right away, you won’t be left out in the cold just praying that you don’t get sick or hurt.

And for the last six years, we’ve had a President who shares our most fundamental values -- a President who ends hurtful policies like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” -- (applause) -- a President who believes, truly believes that everyone in this country should have a chance to succeed no matter what they look like, or how much money they have, or who they love. (Applause.)
So for all my young people, and for all the people here in Madison and throughout this state, if anyone ever tells you that elections don’t matter, you tell them to look back at the last six years. Tell them about all those two elections did to change the course of history in this country. And tell them that the same is true this year, right here in Wisconsin.

You see, this November, you all have the opportunity to elect a leader who truly reflects your values, someone who will truly take Wisconsin in a new direction. (Applause.) Yes! This November, you all can elect a leader who will fight to create jobs for you when you graduate and make sure those jobs pay a decent wage. (Applause.) That’s in your hands.

You can elect a leader who will build good schools and make college more affordable for all of our kids, a leader who will fight for equal pay for women -- (applause) -- a leader who will support our right as women to make our own decisions about our bodies and about our health care. (Applause.) Ladies, that’s the kind of leader Mary Burke will be, and that’s why we need to do everything we can to elect her as the next governor of Wisconsin. (Applause.) It’s on us.

Now, I know that some of you might still be cynical about elections because you feel like there’s too much money in politics, like special interests have too much influence. And it’s true -- they do. But I want you to remember, particularly young people, that they had plenty of money and influence back in 2008 and 2012, and we still won those elections. (Applause.) We won those elections because of young people like all of you. We won it because of you, our young people.

For years, people had counted you out. That was the conventional wisdom. I heard it throughout all of our campaigns. They said, young people don’t care, young people aren’t engaged and won’t show up on Election Day. But boy, did you show them -- you proved them wrong for Barack Obama. (Applause.) I was so proud to see young people out there knocking on doors, taking time out of their lives to make calls. You used every kind of social media tool available -– things I’d never heard of before -– (laughter) -- and you inspired people across the country to get to the polls and cast their votes. That’s what you did for Barack.

But then, what happened in 2008 and 2012 reminded us of a simple truth: that at the end of the day, the folks running those special interest groups and the folks who poured millions of dollars into those elections, they each just still have one vote. And so do each of us. And those votes are what decides elections in this country. And every single one of those votes is critical, because Mary’s race is going to be tight -- in fact, we know that races like this can be won or lost by just a few thousand or even a few hundred votes.

And this is always a statistic when I go to state -- a state -- that amazes me, that just really brings home how close these elections are. In the governor’s race here back in 2010, that race was decided by about 62,000 votes. And that might sound like a lot, but when you break it down, that’s about 10 votes per ward. Just 10 votes per ward made the difference in that election.

Now, I know that every single one of you here today knows 10 people that didn’t vote in that last election and who you can get out to the polls in this one. You know 10 people, especially our young people -- you know 10 people in your dorm, in that hallway, sleeping in in your frat and sorority. (Laughter.) You know 10 people that you met at that party last Saturday night after you spent all day in the library studying, of course. (Laughter.) You all, young people, you know 10 people in your lives who aren’t focused, who don’t know what’s at stake. You know 10 people that you can energize.

And everyone here is in that position. Find your 10 people -- think like that. It takes 10 more people to change the course of an election. So let’s be clear: This one is on us. Let’s just understand that: This is on us. We can’t wait around for anyone else to do this for us.

So here in Wisconsin, as Mary said, we need you out there every day between now and November the 4th doing what you know how to do. You knock on those doors, make those calls, get everyone you know out for Mary. And I don’t know if Mary mentioned this -- you can just go to the website BurkeForWisconsin.com -– young people, BurkeForWisconsin.com. (Laughter.) You may have to help some of the young-at-heart people find the website. (Laughter.) I know, it’s me, too. My children think I’m really an idiot when it comes to technology. But when you get to the website, just click on “take action,” and that’s where you can sign up to volunteer and find the campaign office closest to you. Or you can just find one of the folks here today with a clipboard, and you can sign up right now to get out there -- we got clipboard people! I love to see our clipboard -- that’s a sign of pure political organization right there. Love it, I love it. (Applause.)

So you can sign up right now to volunteer and get folks out there to vote. And then, on Election Day, when you head to the polls to vote for Mary, bring everyone you know along with you. Because just because they registered and you talked to them last week, you know your friends. (Laughter.) That doesn’t mean they’re actually going to wake up and do it, right? So you’ve got to go get them. Bring your roommate, bring your teammate, bring that cute guy or girl you have that crush on -- that’s a good reason to connect. (Laughter.) Just a tip! Trust me, they’ll be impressed. (Applause.) Don’t leave anyone behind, because getting out and voting for Mary isn’t just the right thing to do, it isn’t just your civic responsibility -- it’s the first step to bringing greater opportunity and equality for everyone across this state. Yes! (Applause.)

And I want you all to make no mistake about it, if you all don’t show up to vote on November the 4th, then you’ll just be leaving this election to other folks –- folks who might have very different values and priorities. And if that happens, and we don’t elect leaders like Mary Burke who will put people first instead of just fighting for special interests, then we know what the consequences will be.

We will see even more folks interfering in women’s private decisions about our health care. We will see more folks denying that climate change even exists. We’ll see more opposition to immigration reform and raising the minimum wage for hard-working families.

So I want to be very clear: If you think people who work 40 or 50 hours a week shouldn’t have to live in poverty in the wealthiest nation on earth, if you don’t want women’s bosses making decisions about their birth control, if you think every person in this country should have the chance to go to college and build a good life for themselves, then you have to step up, and you have to get everyone you know to step up and get out there and vote this November. (Applause.)

Because in the end, that’s really what’s at stake in these elections –- the future that we want to leave to all of you, the country you inherit, the country we want to build for our young people -- for all of you all. And I’m thinking about a young person I met when I was here in Wisconsin last week -- Savion Castro, who’s actually standing right there. (Applause.) Thank you for letting me embarrass you, Savion. (Laughter.)

But Savion is a sophomore here in Madison. In fact, I met Savion at a roundtable in Milwaukee and I was so impressed with his story. Savion was raised by a single mother who became disabled by a workplace injury. And for much of his childhood, his family was essentially homeless, and Savion bounced between friends and grandparents.

But the summer after fifth grade, Savion was selected for a special program that put him on track to go to college. (Applause.) And he worked hard to get accepted to this university. In his freshman year, Savion earned himself a 3.7 GPA. (Applause.) Last summer, he spent his mornings mentoring kids from the very same program that helped him get to college, and, equally impressive, he spent his afternoons and evenings working on Mary’s campaign. (Applause.)

When he was asked why he was working on the Burke campaign, this was his reply -- this is a quote from him -- he said, “I was one of the kids who benefitted from the kind of work that Mary has been doing for years here in Wisconsin.” (Applause.) So you can see why I’m impressed by this young man.

But see, here’s the thing -- as I travel across the country, I meet thousands of kids just like Savion. They’re all out there. And you know them -- the kids who face so many challenges in their lives, but who are so hungry to succeed. The kids who worked so hard to lift themselves up and still have time to reach back and pull others up after them. (Applause.) The kids who stay away from gangs and drugs, who do their homework, who pick up extra hours, who are working to support their families. Those kids are why we’re here today. (Applause.) Because kids like Savion, they never give up -- and neither can we. We cannot give up on these kids.

So if anyone here is mistaken about whether this kind of stuff is important, and what positions politicians take, and what’s in their heart and what they care about, in the end, it all affects these kids. It affects their opportunity, it affects who they can be, how they see themselves in the world. This is real stuff.

See, and here’s the thing -- we can do this. That’s the thing I know. We can do this. (Applause.) If women and minorities and young people show up, Mary wins -- she wins. If we each find our 10, Mary wins. (Applause.) She wins if we’re more organized, if we’re more passionate -- Mary wins. If we keep stepping up and bringing others along, then I know that we can keep making that change we believe in. I know we can elect Mary Burke as governor of Wisconsin.

Thank you all so much. God bless. (Applause.)

END
1:05 P.M. CDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 06, 2014

Remarks by the President at DNC Event

Zaytinya Restaurant
Washington, D.C.

5:31 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Well, calling José a cook is like calling Michael Jordan a basketball player. (Laughter.) I mean, anybody who has had a chance to eat at his restaurants knows that his food is outstanding, but more importantly, for those of you who know José, this is somebody who is the quintessential American success story and has consistently given back time and time and time again to help feed people and help provide opportunities to folks who otherwise wouldn't have it. And Michelle loves him and I love him, and he’s just a great, great friend and a great fellow citizen. So please give José a big round of applause. (Applause.) I'm just resentful I'm not staying for dinner. (Laughter.)

We also have here and I want to acknowledge the woman who’s going to be the next mayor of D.C. -- Muriel Bowser. (Applause.) Where’s Muriel? Stand up. She had to go? She had to go? Well, I love her anyway. She had to go campaign. She’s already got votes here.

I'm going to be very brief at the top, and then what I want to do is spend most of the time in a discussion with all of you. Obviously the headlines right now are dominated by what’s happening overseas. We have a deadly terrorist organization, ISIL, that poses a significant threat to the stability of the Middle East and ultimately poses a threat to us. And we've been able to organize an international coalition to start taking them on, and that's going to be a process of us rolling back some of the gains they’ve made. But because of the unity that we’ve seen not only in the Arab world but also around the world, I'm confident we're going to be able to get that accomplished.

We're spending a lot of time working on Ebola. And although I know there are understandable fears here in the United States, we're very confident that the chances of an outbreak here are exceedingly low. On the other hand, this speaks to the broader need for us to build a public health infrastructure around the world so that when epidemics like this happen, that we're able to catch it at the source quickly, save lives, but also make sure that the American people are safe. And so once again, Americans are showing leadership in addressing this crisis.

We have been critical in mobilizing the world community to blunt Russian aggression in Ukraine. And so across the board -- when I was at the United Nations I think there was a display of the fact that America remains the one indispensable nation, and when there are problems around the world, folks generally don't call Moscow or Beijing, they call us. And they expect that we're going to be able to stand with them in moments of need, and that we'll stand for principles and ideals that helped build our country and helped create the kind of growing prosperity around the world that I think too many folks take for granted but has been an extraordinary achievement for humankind over the last several decades.

But what I want to mainly focus on just briefly is what’s happening here at home. I gave a speech last week at Northwestern University in which I argued -- not based on opinion, but based on fact -- that there’s almost no economic measure by which we are not doing better now than we were when I came into office.

Unemployment has now dropped from over 10 percent down to 5.9 percent. (Applause.) One of the fastest drops in a year, by the way, that we've seen in the last 30. We've seen manufacturing stronger than any time since the 1990s and the auto industry has come back. We have seen the deficit cut by more than half, and part of that is because not only have we been able to provide 10 million people health insurance that didn’t have it before, but we've actually slowed health care inflation to the point where it's now estimated that Medicare will save $188 billion over 10 years -- not by cutting benefits to seniors who need it, but rather because we are starting to have a smarter health care system that is delivering higher quality at lower cost.

On the education front, we've seen the high school dropout rate go down, college enrollment rate go up, reading scores and math scores going up. On issues of crime, this is the first time in 40 years where the federal prison population and the crime rate has gone down at the same time because of smarter policies that we're putting in place in collaboration with state and local governments.

On energy, we now produce more oil and natural gas than ever before. We are actually producing more oil than we import for the first time in almost two decades. And we've doubled clean energy, producing three times as much wind energy than we've ever produced and about 10 times as much as we were producing when I first came into office -- all of which has meant that we have reduced carbon emissions by a greater amount than any other country on Earth. In fact, we've actually produced more jobs here in the United States -- 10 million in the last -- over 10 million over the last 55 months -- more jobs than Japan, Europe, and every other industrialized country combined -- which gives you some sense of the progress that we've made.

But here’s the catch. Despite all this, despite the fact that the stock market is booming, despite the fact that corporate balance sheets -- not according to me, but according to Bloomberg -- are at their strongest that they’ve been essentially in the postwar era -- despite all that, people I think remain concerned about the economy. And why is that? Well, the reason is because wages and income have not gone up at the same pace as growth has gone up and unemployment has come down. And it speaks to an issue that for decades now we've been wrestling with, and that is the fact that a smaller and smaller share of the wealth and income and productivity that is generated by this economy is going to the vast majority of people. And so they worry about their futures, and more importantly, they worry about their kids’ futures.

And as I said at Northwestern, some of these are long-term trends. They’re not going to be reversed overnight, but there’s some things we know would make a difference. We know that if we invested in rebuilding our infrastructure around the country that we would put not only construction workers to work, not just engineers and others who work on the project, but we would grow the economy generally at a faster clip, which means unemployment would come down faster and it would tighten the labor markets, which means wages would start going up.

We know that an increase in the minimum wage is something that the majority of Americans agree with, a majority of small businesses thing is a good idea, because they understand that if people have more money in their pockets they spend more and that's good for business ultimately.

We know that fair pay laws, equal pay for equal work, is not just good for women, it's good for families, and ultimately it's good for businesses. (Applause.)

So there are a set of ideas that we know would make a difference right now. And there’s one reason that they’re not being pursued, and that includes, by the way, immigration reform. José has spoken movingly about his own experiences as an immigrant and he’s Exhibit A of what happens when we give immigrants an opportunity to take root in this country and create businesses and jobs. (Applause.) There’s one reason why this isn't moving. The reason it's not moving is because we've got a Congress that has been resistant to common-sense ideas that historically have been bipartisan.

And so this election that's coming up is about whether or not we are prepared to do the work -- to vote, to turn out, to create the kind of Congress that can actually partner with me. And if I've got some Republicans who are willing to partner, I'm game. If not, let’s get some Democrats in there. But we have an opportunity right now to really build on the momentum that we've already created and consolidate our position as the country that is best situated to thrive in the 21st century.

But that means us making good decisions now in order for us to fully realize that possibility, that potential, not just for ourselves but for the next generation. We got to make sure we got a Congress that understands that this is not just about politics. This is about the kind of America we're leaving to our kids and our grandkids.

And that’s where you come in. That's why you're so helpful. And I look around the room and I see people who have devoted enormous time and enormous energy to this effort, and I could not be more grateful to you. But you can't stop now. This is crunch time. We've got one month. I'm going to need everybody here to make sure that you're working as hard as you can so that we can deliver a Congress that is befitting the enormous effort and energy and fundamental decency of the American people.

All right? Thank you, guys. Thank you. (Applause.)

END
5:42 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 06, 2014

Remarks by the President After Meeting on Ebola

Roosevelt Room

4:04 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I just had an opportunity to get a full briefing from my entire team across administrations -- across agencies on the aggressive steps that we are taking to fight the Ebola epidemic, to stop the epidemic at its source in West Africa but also to make sure that we are doing everything we need to do to prevent an outbreak here in the United States.

As I’ve said from the start of this outbreak, I consider this a top national security priority. This is not just a matter of charity -- although obviously the humanitarian toll in countries that are affected in West Africa is extraordinarily significant. This is an issue about our safety. It is also an issue with respect to the political stability and the economic stability in this region.

And so it is very important for us to make sure that we are treating this the same way that we would treat any other significant national security threat. And that’s why we’ve got an all-hands-on-deck approach -- from DOD to public health to our development assistance, our science teams -- everybody is putting in time and effort to make sure that we are addressing this as aggressively as possible.

I know that the American people are concerned about the possibility of an Ebola outbreak, and Ebola is a very serious disease. And the ability of people who are infected who could carry that across borders is something that we have to take extremely seriously. At the same time, it is important for Americans to know the facts, and that is that because of the measures that we’ve put in place, as well as our world-class health system and the nature of the Ebola virus itself -- which is difficult to transmit -- the chances of an Ebola outbreak in the United States is extremely low.

Procedures are now in place to rapidly evaluate anybody who might be showing symptoms. We saw that with the response of the airplane in Newark and how several hospitals across the United States have been testing for possible cases. In recent months we’ve had thousands of travelers arriving here from West Africa, and so far only one case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, and that’s the patient in Dallas. Our prayers are obviously with him and his family.

We have learned some lessons, though, in terms of what happened in Dallas. We don’t have a lot of margin for error. The procedures and protocols that are put in place must be followed. One of the things that we discussed today was how we could make sure that we’re spreading the word across hospitals, clinics, any place where a patient might first come in contact with a medical worker to make sure that they know what to look out for, and they’re putting in place the protocols and following those protocols strictly. And so we’re going to be reaching out not only to governors and mayors and public health officials in states all across the country, but we want to continue to figure out how we can get the word out everywhere so that everybody understands exactly what is needed to be done.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, we’re constantly reviewing and evaluating the measures that we already have in place to see if there are additional improvements. We continue to look at any additional steps that can be taken to make sure that the American people are safe, which is our highest priority.

And finally, we had a discussion about what we’re doing on site in West Africa. There’s been already extraordinary work done by the Department of Defense in conjunction with the CDC in standing up isolation units and hospital beds. We are making progress. The environment is difficult because the public health system there has very few resources and is already extraordinarily fragile.

And I’ll be very honest with you -- although we have seen great interest on the part of the international community, we have not seen other countries step up as aggressively as they need to. And I said at the United Nations, and I will repeat, that this is an area where everybody has to chip in and everybody has to move quickly in order for us to get this under control. Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die, and it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent.

So I’m going to be putting a lot of pressure on my fellow heads of state and government around the world to make sure that they are doing everything that they can to join us in this effort. We’ve got some small countries that are punching above their weight on this, but we’ve got some large countries that aren’t doing enough. And we want to make sure that they understand that this is not a disease that’s going to discriminate, and this is something that all of us have to be involved in.

So the bottom line is, is that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure, number one, that the American people are safe; I’m confident that we’re going to be able to do that. But we’re also going to need to make sure that we stop this epidemic at its source. And we’re profoundly grateful to all our personnel -- our medical personnel, our development personnel, our military personnel who are serving in this effort. It’s because of their professionalism, their dedication and their skill that we are going to be able to get this under control, but this is a faraway place, with roads that in many cases are impassable, areas that don’t have even one hospital. We’re having to stand up, essentially, a public health infrastructure in many of these areas that haven't had it before, and that requires an enormous amount of effort.

I’m very grateful for the people who are on the front lines making this work. It’s a reminder once again of American leadership. But even with all the dedicated effort that our American personnel are putting in, there are going to be -- they need to be joined by professionals from other countries who are putting up similar effort and similar resources. And so I hope they’re going to be paying attention over the next several weeks so we can get on top of this.

Thank you.

Q What do you say to the American people who remain nervous in spite of your assurances?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I just explained to them that the nature of this disease -- the good news is, is that it’s not an airborne disease. We are familiar with the protocols that are needed to isolate and greatly reduce the risks of anybody catching this disease, but it requires us to follow those protocols strictly, and that’s exactly what we are in the process of doing. And the CDC is familiar with dealing with infectious diseases and viruses like this. We know what has to be done and we’ve got the medical infrastructure to do it. But this is an extraordinarily virulent disease when you don’t follow the protocols.

And so the key here is just to make sure that each step along the way -- whether it’s a hospital admissions desk, whether it is the doctors, the nurses, public health officials -- that everybody has the right information. If they have the right information and they’re following those protocols, then this is something that we’re going to be able to make sure does not have the kind of impact here in the United States that a lot of people are worried about. But that requires everybody to make sure that they stay informed. Most particularly, we’ve got to make sure that our health workers are informed.

We’re also going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screening, both at the source and here in the United States. All of these things make me confident that here in the United States, at least, the chances of an outbreak, of an epidemic here are extraordinarily low.

But let’s keep in mind that, as we speak, there are children on the streets dying of this disease -- thousands of them. And so obviously my first job is to make sure that we’re taking care of the American people, but we have a larger role than that. We also have an obligation to make sure that those children and their families are safe as well, because ultimately the best thing we can do for our public health is also to extend the kind of empathy, compassion and effort so that folks in those countries as well can be rid of this disease.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Q Are you looking to the private sector --

THE PRESIDENT: A lot of volunteering. Thank you, everybody.

END
4:15 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 05, 2014

Remarks by the President at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial Dedication

Washington, D.C.

12:21 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Please be seated. To all our disabled veterans -- our extraordinary wounded warriors -- we gather here today, on this gorgeous autumn day in America, because each of you endured a moment that shaped the arc of your lives and that speaks to our debt as a nation.

Maybe it was there on the battlefield, as the bullets and shrapnel rained down around you. Maybe it was as you lay there, the medics tending to your wounds. Perhaps it was days or months later, in that hospital room, when you finally came to. Perhaps it was years later, as you went about your day, or in the midnight hour, when the memories came rushing back like a flood.

Wherever you were, whatever your story, it was the moment that binds each of you forever -- that moment of realization that life would not be the same. Your foot. Your hand. Your arm. Your leg -- maybe both. Your sight. Your peace of mind. A part of you was gone.

Speaking to his fellow veterans of the Civil War, the great Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once said, “As I look into your eyes I feel…that a great trial in your youth made you different…different from what we could have been without it.” And he said, we learned “a lesson early which has given a different feeling to life” -- a sense of duty that burns like a fire in the heart.

To Lois Pope, Art Wilson and everyone at the memorial foundation and our incredible veterans service organizations who devoted so many years of effort, especially our friends at the Disabled American Veterans; to all the architects and craftspeople who lent your talents to bring this memorial to life; members of Congress, Secretaries Jewell and McDonald; distinguished guests; and most of all, to our veterans who have come to know “a different feeling to life,” and to your families -- it’s a great honor to be with you here today.

For more than two centuries, Americans have left everything they have known and loved -- their families and their friends -- and stepped forward to serve: to win our independence, to preserve our Union, to defend our democracy, to keep safe this country that we love. And when the guns fall silent, our veterans return home, ready to play their part in the next chapter of our American story. As a nation, we have not always fulfilled our obligations to those who served in our name. This is a painful truth. And few have known this better than our veterans wounded in war.

In the first years after our Revolution -- when our young nation still resisted the idea of a standing army -- veterans of the Continental Army returned to towns that could be indifferent to their service. One veteran -- his hand mangled by a British musket ball -- was deemed, like many veterans, as “unfit for labor.” And frustrated by his inability to secure a disability pension, he wrote that “many of those who aided in conquering the enemy are suffering under the most distressing poverty.” After the Civil War, and again after the First World War, our disabled veterans had to organize and march for the benefits they had earned. Down the decades, our nation has worked to do better -- to do right by these patriots. Because in the United States of America, those who have fought for our freedom should never be shunned and should never be forgotten.

So, today, we take another step forward. With this memorial we commemorate, for the first time, the two battles our disabled veterans have fought -- the battle over there, and the battle here at home -- your battle to recover, which at times can be even harder, and certainly as longer. You walk these quiet grounds -- pause by the pictures of these men and women, you look into their eyes, read their words -- and we’re somehow able to join them on a journey that speaks to the endurance of the American spirit. And to you, our veterans and wounded warriors, we thank you for sharing your journey with us.

Here we feel your fears -- the shock of that first moment when you realized something was different; the confusion about what would come next; the frustrations and the worries -- as one veteran said -- “that maybe I wouldn’t be quite the same.”

And then here we see your resolve -- your refusal, in the face of overwhelming odds, to give in to despair or to cynicism; your decision, your choice, to overcome. Like the veteran who said, “It’s possible for a man to lose half his physical being and still become whole.”

It is here we can see your perseverance -- your unyielding faith that tomorrow can be better; your relentless determination, often through years of hard recovery and surgeries and rehab, learning the simple things all over again -- how to button a shirt, or how to write your name; in some cases, how to talk or how to walk; and how, when you’ve stumbled, when you’ve fallen, you’ve picked yourself up, you’ve carried on, you’ve never given up.

Here we get a glimpse of the wounds within -- the veteran who says, “I relive the war every day.” Because no matter what war you served in -- and whether they called it “shell shock” or “battle fatigue,” or the “1,000-yard stare” or post-traumatic stress -- you know that the unseen wounds of war are just as real as any other, and they can hurt just as much, if not more.

Here we’re reminded that none of you have made this journey alone. Beside each of you is a wife or a husband, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and neighbors and friends -- who day after day, year after year, have been there, lifting you up, pushing you further, rooting you on -- like the caregiver who said, “I loved him for who he was in his heart. And he still had that.” Today we salute all your families, and the love that never quits.

And, finally, here we see that our wounded veterans are defined not by what you can’t do, but by what you can do. Just ask Captain Dawn Halfaker. In Iraq, her Humvee was hit by an RPG. She suffered burns and broken bones, lost her right arm. She struggled physically and emotionally. But with the help of her fellow wounded warriors she came to focus, she said, “not on what I had lost, but on what I still had.” And today what she has is the respect of her fellow veterans that she mentors; a business of her own -- one that hires veterans; and a beautiful 6-month-old son. Dawn’s picture -- this member of the 9/11 Generation -- now graces this memorial, and we are honored that she is here today. And, Dawn, please stand up. (Applause.)

I’ve seen Dawn’s story over and over and over again -- in all the wounded warriors and veterans that I have the honor to meet, from Walter Reed to Bethesda to Bagram. I know in Dawn’s life, many of you see your own. Today, I want every American to see it. After everything you endured, after all the loss, you summoned the best in yourself and found your strength again. How many of you learned to walk again and stand again and run again. How you’ve competed in races and marathons and the Paralympics, on Team USA. How you found joy and love -- getting married, raising children. How you found new ways to serve -- returning to your units or starting new businesses, or teaching our children, or serving your fellow veterans, or leading in your communities.

America, if you want to know what real strength is, if you want to see the character of our country -- a country that never quits -- look at these men and women. And I’d ask all of our disabled veterans here today -- if you can stand, please stand; if not, please raise your hand so that our nation can pay tribute to your service. We thank you. We’re inspired by you. And we honor you. (Applause.)

From this day forward, Americans will come to this place and ponder the immense sacrifice made on their behalf; the heavy burden borne by a few so that we might live in freedom and peace. Of course, our reflection is not enough. Our expressions of gratitude are not enough.

Here, in the heart of our nation’s capital, this memorial is a challenge to all of us -- a reminder of “the obligations this country is under.” And if we are to truly honor these veterans, we must heed the voices that speak to us here. Let’s never rush into war -- because it is America’s sons and daughters who bear the scars of war for the rest of their lives. (Applause.) Let us only send them into harm’s way when it’s absolutely necessary. And if we do, let’s always give them the strategy, the mission, and the support that they need to get the job done. When the mission is over -- and as our war in Afghanistan comes to a responsible end in two months -- let us stand united as Americans and welcome our veterans home with the thanks and respect they deserve. (Applause.)

And if they come home having left a part of themselves on the battlefield, on our behalf, this memorial tells us what we must do. When our wounded veterans set out on that long road of recovery, we need to move heaven and earth to make sure they get every single benefit, every single bit of care that they have earned, that they deserve. (Applause.)

If they’re hurting and don’t know if they can go on, we need to say loud and clear, as family and friends, as neighbors and coworkers, as fellow citizens, and as a nation: You are not alone, it’s all right to ask for help, and we’re here to help you be strong again. Because our wounded warriors may have “a different feeling to life,” but when we are truly there for them, when we give them every opportunity to succeed and continue their enormous contributions to our country, then our whole nation is stronger, all our lives are richer.

So if you’re an American, and you see a veteran -- maybe with a prosthetic arm or leg, maybe burns on their face -- don’t ever look away. Do not turn away. You go up and you reach out, and you shake their hand, and you look them in the eye and you say those words every veteran should hear all the time: “Welcome home, thank you. We need you more than ever. You help us stay strong, you help us stay free.” (Applause.)

To every wounded warrior, to every disabled veteran -- thank you. God bless you. God bless these United States of America. (Applause.)

END
12:35 P.M. EDT