Remarks by the President at Camp Pendleton, CA

Hangar 6 West
Camp Pendleton, California

12:45 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Marines!  (Oorah!)  Hello, Camp Pendleton!  (Oorah!)  It is great to be here, at the home of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force -- (Oorah!) -- and one of our nation’s oldest and most decorated military units, the legendary 1st Marine Division.  (Oorah!)  And I think I see some proud Navy folks here, too.  (Applause.) 

Let me thank General Nicholson for the introduction and for his outstanding leadership of our Marines in Iraq, in Afghanistan.  And that includes your command of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade out of Camp Lejeune, which we recognized last year with the Presidential Unit Citation.  Thank you, General Nicholson.

I want to thank all of your commanders for welcoming me today, including General Coglianese and General Busby.  And I want to recognize your incredible staff, noncommissioned officers, including Sergeants Major Ronald Green, Scott Helms and David Jobe. 

I want to salute Debbie Nicholson and all the spouses and military families who are here -- (applause) -- because we understand they’re the force behind the force.  (Applause.)  Just like Michelle is the force behind me.  (Applause.)  I want everyone to give a big round of applause to the amazing families who serve along with you.  (Applause.) 

And I want to acknowledge members of Congress who are here, including Susan Davis, Darrell Issa and Dana Rohrabacher.  (Applause.) 

Now, I've got to tell you the truth, I’ve been looking forward to this visit because -- and this is a little tricky to say this -- but my family and I, we've got a special place in our hearts for the Marine Corps.  (Oorah!)  Now, part of it is because every day at the White House, we’re surrounded by Marines.  (Oorah!)  In fact, we've probably got some folks here who were at the White House who are now here at Camp Pendleton.  (One person cheers.)  See?  (Laughter.)  I figured as much.   

And then, of course, every time I need kind of a hop, skip and a jump somewhere, every time I get on Marine One, I rely on some of the best aviators in the world.  I’ve seen your Honor; I've seen your Courage; I've seen your Commitment -- whether in protecting our diplomatic posts around the world, or preparing to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, or recovering from wounds received in battle. 

A few years ago, you gave a great Camp Pendleton welcome to my wife, Michelle.  And I know it’s not as exciting when I come to visit -- (laughter) -- but she says hi.  I guess I’m kind of like that Army general who once said, “The more Marines I have around, the better I like it.”  (Oorah!)  

I’m here because, for more than a decade, you -— and all our men and women in uniform -— have borne the burden in this time of war.  Ever since that awful September morning when our nation was attacked, when thousands of innocents were killed, we’ve been at war against al Qaeda.  And our fight in Afghanistan -— nearly 12 years -— has become America’s longest war.  I’m here because we recently marked another milestone in this war.  As of this past June, for the first time, Afghan forces have taken the lead for security across their entire country. 

Instead of leading the fight, our troops now have a different mission, which is to train and advise and assist Afghan forces.  And what the signals is that our war in Afghanistan has entered the final chapter.  More of our troops are coming home.  We’ll be down to 34,000 this winter.  By the end of next year -— in just 17 months -— the transition will be complete.  Afghans will take full responsibility for their security and our war in Afghanistan will be over.  (Applause.) 

None of this progress would have been possible had it not been for you.  We thank all who have served there, especially our Camp Pendleton Marines.  After our nation was attacked, you were some of the very first conventional forces in Afghanistan -— racing in, hundreds of miles by helicopter, toppling that regime and driving al Qaeda from its camps.  Then when the fight shifted to Iraq, you were there -— racing toward Baghdad and deposing a dictator.  And through years of combat -— in Tikrit, Fallujah and Ramadi -— your courage added to the glories of the Marines’ long and illustrious history. 

When we refocused on Afghanistan, you led the way again -—surging into Helmand, pushing the Taliban out of its strongholds, like Marjah and Now Zad and Sangin.  (Oorah!)  And when future generations study those fights, they will stand in awe of the unparalleled sacrifice of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines -— our “Darkhorse” Marines.  (Oorah!)  

Today, we hold close the memory of all who have made the ultimate sacrifice in these years of war.  That includes 326 fallen heroes from Camp Pendleton.  We honor all of them -— every single one.  And we stand with their families, like the Gold Star families that I had an opportunity to meet with before I came out here.  We are grateful to them.  We’re grateful for their sacrifice.  They’ve given a piece of their heart to America, and America will always honor their sacrifice. 

I know some of you recently returned from Afghanistan.  On behalf of a grateful nation, welcome home.  We send our prayers to all those who at this very moment are still in harm’s way, including your Regimental Combat Team 7, which is coming home this month.  (Oorah!)  I know some of you are getting ready to deploy in the months to come.  (Oorah!)  This is still a hard fight.  Our Afghan partners have stepped up.  They're bearing a bigger brunt of the firepower.  They're taking on a lot more casualties.  They're in the lead, but it’s still tough.  And we’re still needed.

And here’s what I want every single one of you to know.  Because of you -- the 9/11 Generation -- we are accomplishing what we set out to do.  Because of you, Osama bin Laden is no more.  (Oorah!)  Because of you, al Qaeda’s top ranks have been hammered.  The core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the way to defeat.  That happened because of you.  Because of you, more Afghans are reclaiming their communities -— their markets, their schools, their towns -- and they have a chance to forge their own future.  Because of you, more Afghans are trained and stepping up and defending their own country.  Because of you -- and to preserve the gains you fought and bled for -- we are going to make sure that Afghanistan is never again a source of attacks against our country.  (Oorah!)  That happened because of you.  

So the war in Afghanistan will end.  For you, that means fewer deployments.  It means more training time, preparing for the future -- getting back to what Marines do better than anybody else on Earth, amphibious operations.  (Oorah!)  It means more time here on the home front with your families -- your wives, your husbands, your kids.

But, of course, the end of the war in Afghanistan doesn’t mean the end of threats to our nation.  As I’ve said before, even as we decimated the al Qaeda leadership that attacked us on 9/11, al Qaeda affiliates and like-minded extremists still threaten our homeland, still threaten our diplomatic facilities, still threaten our businesses abroad.  And we've got to take these threats seriously and do all we can to confront them.  We’ve been reminded of this again in recent days. 

So I want to take a special time out to salute all our brave diplomats and tireless intelligence and military personnel who have been working around the clock to safeguard our embassies and our consulates and our fellow Americans serving overseas, including all those vigilant Marines standing guard at our embassies around the world.  They're doing an outstanding job.  (Applause.)

As for these extremists, here’s what those who would cowardly attack our civilians don’t get.  The United States is never going to retreat from the world.  We don't get terrorized. We’re going to keep standing up for our interests.  We're going to keep standing up for the security of our citizens.  We're going to keep standing up for human rights and dignity for people wherever they live.  We’re going to keep working with our allies and our partners.  We're going to keep offering a future of hope and progress -- in stark contrast to terrorists who only know how to kill and destroy and maim.  And like generations before us, the United States of America is going to remain the greatest force for freedom that the world has ever known.  

You are an integral part of that.  That's what you do, serving in uniform every single day.  But this is not just a job for our military.  It takes diplomacy.  It takes development.  It takes trade.  It takes intelligence to stay true to our values as a nation.  This is a complicated time.  The world is going through big changes, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.  And we have to have a military strategy to protect ourselves.  But we've also got to lead with our values and our ideals and all elements of our power. 

But it does mean keeping our military the absolute best in the world.  We've got to be vigilant about that.  As the war in Afghanistan ends, it’s true, our military, including our Marine Corps, will be leaner.  Budgets will be tighter.  And that’s only natural.  Part of ending a war responsibly is moving off a perpetual wartime footing.  It’s time to use some of the money we’ve been spending on war to do some nation-building right here at home.  (Applause.)

But what we can't do is repeat the mistakes of history.  We've seen in the past where after a war we hollowed out our military, left our military unprepared.  We’ve got right now the best-led, best-trained, best-equipped military in human history. Our Marine Corps is the finest expeditionary force in the world. (Oorah!)  And as Commander-in Chief, I’m going to keep it that way.  (Oorah!) 

Now, to do that, we're going to need some help out of Washington.  Congress couldn’t agree on a plan to reduce the deficit in what I consider a sensible way, so instead what we've got is these big, across-the-board cuts called the sequester.  The sequester kicked in.  It includes defense.  And we're already starting to see the effects.  Here at Pendleton, you’re feeling it.  Hardworking folks are getting furloughed, families getting by on less, fewer ships available for your training exercises, the commissary your families rely on closed a day a week.  We can do better than that.  That's not how a great nation should be treating its military and military families.

And, by the way, cuts in other non-defense areas of the budget affect our troops and our military families as well.  Our military -- part of what makes us best is we've got extraordinary recruits.  But if we want the best-qualified recruits, we shouldn't be cutting investments in education.  We should be increasing our investments in education.  (Applause.) 

Our wounded warriors, our veterans, depend on new technologies for their recovery and their health care, so we shouldn’t be slashing investments in science and medical research.  We should continue to be the world leader in science and research. 

So that’s why I’m going to keep on working to get rid of the sequester.  You get up and do your jobs every day; let’s make sure Washington gets up and does its job.  (Oorah!)  And what makes me frustrated is sometimes the very folks who say they stand with our military proudly are the same ones who are standing in the way of fixing the sequester.  (Oorah!)  It’s important to look at deeds and not words.

Now, keep in mind it is true that for our national security we've always got to look and make sure we're dealing with our deficits and our debt.  If our economy is strong, that means the military will be strong.  If our economy is weak, that weakens our military.  But our deficits right now are falling at the fastest rate in decades.  We've cut them in half and they keep on moving in the right direction.  In that context, Congress needs to agree on a responsible plan that reduces our deficits but also keeps our military strong; also invests in education; also invests in research; also invests in our infrastructure.

That’s what you deserve.  That’s what your families deserve.  That's what I’m fighting for and that is my commitment to you.  (Applause.)  

Keeping our military strong requires something else, and that's taking care of our extraordinary wounded warriors.  Here at Pendleton, you’re doing outstanding work.  For those who can, we want to get our troops back to where they want to be -- back with their units.  For those with Traumatic Brain Injury, we’re going to keep making unprecedented investments in new care and new treatments.  For those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, we’re going keep saying it as loud as we can -- it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help.  It is a sign of strength.  And we’re here to help you recover and stand tall again. 

We've got to make sure that we're doing everything we can for our wounded warriors.  And I'm pleased to see the hospital here is making progress -- that's going to be an outstanding new facility that will be helpful. 

Keeping our military strong also means ensuring the safety of everyone who puts on the uniform.  No military unit can succeed without discipline, without trust, and without cohesion. So I want you to hear it directly from me, the Commander-in-Chief:  It undermines what this military stands for and it undermines what the Marine Corps stands for when sexual assault takes place within our units.  And that’s why we are going to work together -- all of us --to stop these crimes of sexual assault, and uphold the honor and the integrity that defines the finest military on Earth.  (Applause.)  And that message is coming all the way from the top. 

Keeping our military strong means keeping our military families strong.  Michelle and Vice President -- Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, they’ve made this their mission.  And because of their efforts, Joining Forces, more Americans are stepping up to support your families.  (Applause.)  And that includes more companies hiring our talented military spouses.  After everything you’ve done for America, every American ought to be doing something to support your families.  (Applause.)   

As this time of war ends, some of you will be taking off the uniform and returning to civilian life.  And just as we gave you the tools to succeed on the battlefield, I want to make sure we’re giving you the tools to succeed in the next stage of your lives as well.

So we’ve improved transition assistance to help you find a job that’s worthy of your skills.  We’re helping you and your families pursue your education under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and making sure that instead of ripping you off, schools that give you the education you paid for are being held accountable. 

We’re making sure more states and more industries are recognizing your military skills with licenses and credentials you need for a civilian job.  When I first came into office, I was meeting medics who had been treating folks on the battlefield, and when they went back to school because they wanted to be a nurse, they had to start all over again at nursing 101.  And here they are, dealing with some of the worst injuries possible, and they’re not getting any credit for it, which means it’s costing them time, costing them money.  We’re changing all that.  If you’ve done the job on the battlefield with bullets coming at you, you can sure as heck do the job back here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

Then we issued a challenge to the private sector, and so far America’s businesses have hired or trained 290,000 veterans and military spouses, and they’ve committed to hiring hundreds of thousands more.  So more vets are finding jobs.  The unemployment rate for vets is coming down.  And we’re going to keep saying to every company in America, if you want somebody who knows how to get the job done, hire a veteran.  (Oorah!)  Hire a veteran.  (Applause.)  Your generation has carried us through this time of war; well, you’re going to help us write the next great chapter in American history, right here at home. 

Now, few embody that truth more than a Marine who’s here today, Captain Matthew Lampert.  Matt is one of our Marine special operators.  He and his team were in Afghanistan cleaning out a compound, and then, in a terrible incident, an IED took both of his legs.  Matt survived.  And soon he had a new mission -- getting back to his unit, back to his team.  “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”  (Oorah!) 

So Matt endured excruciating rehab, therapy that could last all day, month after month, rebuilding his strength.  Recovery was slow -- taking his first shaky steps on short prosthetics; then a new pair of knees; then full legs, taking him back to normal height.  Stepping forward with two canes, then just one, then none.  Learning to walk again.  Learning to run -- in his uniform, then his body armor.  And then, just 18 months after he was injured and lost both legs, Matt -- a double amputee -- returned to his unit and redeployed to Afghanistan.  (Oorah!)   (Applause.) 

For a time, Matt even served as team leader.  And today, Matt and his company are preparing for their next deployment -- to the Pacific.  His wife, Camille, also a Marine, is working to become a test pilot because, Matt says, she likes to “fly aggressively.”  (Laughter.)  And this inspiring Marine couple is looking ahead to serving their country for many years to come. 

Matt and Camille, please wave.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  

There are stories like Matt and Camille’s throughout our Marine Corps.  They represent what’s best in our Marine Corps.  “Semper Fidelis.”  (Oorah!)  That’s the ethic of your lives:  Always faithful.  Always faithful to each other -- the few and the proud.  Always faithful to your Corps -- for 237 years.  Always faithful to your country, for whom you wear the eagle, globe and anchor.  After all you’ve given to our nation, you have to know your nation will always be faithful to you. 

As your Commander-in-Chief, that’s my commitment to you.  That’s the commitment America must uphold to you and your family for all the years to come.

Semper Fi.  God bless you all.  God bless the Marine Corps, and God bless the United States of America.  (Oorah!)  (Applause.)

END
1:11 P.M. PDT

Remarks by the President on Responsible Homeownership

Desert Vista High School
Phoenix, Arizona

1:00 P.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hey!  Hello, Phoenix!  (Applause.)  Hello, Arizona!  (Applause.)  It is --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you, Obama!

THE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  It is good to be here.  (Applause.) 

I want to say thank you to the Thunder for hosting us here today.  (Applause.)  Well, we are so glad to be here.  I want you to give it up for somebody who’s been fighting for homeowners and working families every single day, who’s with me today -- Secretary Shaun Donovan, Secretary of HUD.  There he is right there.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  We’ve got Congressman Ed Pastor who’s here as well.  (Applause.)  We’ve got your Mayor, Greg Stanton, here.  (Applause.)  Doing an outstanding job.  And to all the mayors and state legislators and tribal leaders who are here today, thank you.  (Applause.) 

Give Jorge a big round of applause for his introduction.  (Applause.)  To your superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Baca.  (Applause.)  Your principal, Dr. Anna Battle.  (Applause.)  And I appreciate everybody at Desert Vista for having me here today.  (Applause.)  It is good to see the students are pretty enthusiastic about being back in school.  (Laughter.)  I’m not sure I would have been that enthusiastic starting on the 6th.  (Laughter.) 

And I know this isn’t your typical school -- second day of school.  So I want to give a special shout-out to the new seniors, class of 2014.  (Applause.)  You are aware that you’re not finished yet.  (Laughter.)  Senior year, that’s sometimes tempting.  I want you all to stay focused.

Over the past couple weeks, I have been --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Happy birthday, Mr. President!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  It was my birthday two days ago.  (Laughter.)  Got some singers here.

AUDIENCE:  Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, Mr. President.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  I am now 52, and Michelle says that I don’t look a day over 51.  (Laughter.)

So over the last few weeks, I’ve been visiting towns all across the country, talking about what we need to do to secure a better bargain for the middle class -- a national strategy to make sure that everybody who works hard has a chance to succeed in the 21st century economy.

And I think people in Arizona especially understand the challenges that are out there, because for the past four and a half years, together, we fought our way back from a devastating recession that cost millions of jobs for Americans.  A lot of folks lost their homes; a lot of folks lost their savings.  And what the recession showed was the long erosion of middle-class security that had been taking place for decades. 

But we fought back.  We took on a broken health care system. We took on a housing market that was in free fall.  We invested in new technologies to reverse our addiction to foreign oil.  We changed a tax code that had become tilted a little bit too much in favor of the wealthiest Americans at the expense of working families.  (Applause.)  We saved the auto industry.  We’ve now got GM that plans to hire a thousand new workers right next door in Chandler to make sure we’re building some of the best cars in the world right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.) 

Our businesses have created 7.3 million new jobs over the past 41 months.  We now sell more products made in America to the rest of the world than ever before.  Our exports are way up.  We produce more renewable energy than ever before, more natural gas than anybody else.  Health care costs have been growing at the slowest rate in 50 years.  And our deficits are coming down at the fastest rate in 60 years.  So we’re making progress.  (Applause.)

So thanks to the efforts of a lot of people like you, we’ve cleared away the rubble of the financial crisis.  We’re starting to lay the foundation for more stable, more durable economic growth.  But as any middle-class family will tell you, we’re not yet where we need to be.  Because even before the crisis hit, we had lived through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, but most families were working harder and harder just to get by. 

And reversing this trend should be -- must be -- Washington’s highest priority.  It’s my highest priority.  (Applause.)  I want to make sure that in America, it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love -- you should be able to make it when you try.  You should be able to make it.  (Applause.) 

Now, unfortunately, for the last year or so, we’ve had an endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals that shift focus away from what do we need to do to shore up middle-class families and create ladders of opportunity for folks to get into the middle class.  And as Washington heads towards another budget debate, the stakes could not be higher. 

And that’s why I’m traveling around, laying out my ideas for how we have to build the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class:  a good job with good wages; a home to call your own; a good education;  affordable health care that’s there for you when you get sick; a secure retirement even if you’re not rich; the opportunity -- the ladders of opportunity for people to earn their way into the middle class, to work their way out of poverty.  Those are the elements that I think all of us believe in, but right now we're not delivering as much as we should on those promises.

Now, last Tuesday, I went to Tennessee to talk about the first cornerstone, which is how do we make sure that we're creating good middle-class jobs here in the United States of America.  Today I've come to Phoenix to talk about the second component, which is the most tangible cornerstone that lies at the heart of the American Dream, at the heart of middle-class life -- and that's the chance to own your own home.  (Applause.) The chance to own your own home.   

We've got a lot of young people here who are thinking about college, they're going to get a higher education, they're going to find a job, they're going to find somebody they love, they're going to want to own a home.  And the reason they will is because a home is the ultimate evidence that here in America, hard work pays off, that responsibility is rewarded. 

I think about my grandparents’ generation.  When my grandfather served in World War II, he fought in Patton's Army -- when he got back, this country gave him a chance to go to college on the G.I. Bill, but it also gave him the chance to buy his first home with a loan from the FHA.  To him, and to generations of Americans before and since, a home was more than just a house. It was a source of pride and a source of security.  It was a place to raise kids, to put down roots; a place where you could build up savings for college, or to start a business, or to retire with some security. 

And buying a home required responsibility on everybody’s part.  You had to save up to buy a home.  And then banks were supposed to give you a fair deal, with terms you could understand, and buyers were supposed to live within their means and make sure that they could make their payments.  So in that earlier generation, houses weren’t for flipping around, they weren’t for speculation -- houses were to live in, and to build a life with. 

And unfortunately, over time, responsibility too often gave way to recklessness.  You had reckless lenders who sold loans to people they knew couldn’t afford them.  And let's face it, we also had some reckless buyers who knew they couldn’t afford them and still took out loans.  And all this created a housing bubble. And especially in some places like Arizona, it was devastating  when that bubble finally burst -- triggered a recession.  Millions of Americans who had done everything right were hurt badly by the actions of other people.  Housing prices plummeted.

By the time I took office, home values had fallen almost 20 percent from the year before.  New housing starts had fallen nearly 80 percent from their peak.  Hundreds of thousands of construction workers had lost their jobs.  A record number of people were behind on their mortgage payments.  And a lot of people here in Phoenix, they saw that devastation.  This was part of Ground Zero for the housing bubble bursting.

So less than a month after I took office, I came here to Arizona and I laid out steps to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners get back on their feet.  And the truth is it's been a long, slow process.  The housing market is so big that it was going to take some time to heal when it got hurt that badly.  It's taken longer than any of us would like.  But during that time, we helped millions of Americans save an average of $3,000 each year by refinancing at lower rates.  We helped millions of responsible homeowners stay in their homes, which was good for their neighbors because you don't want a bunch of foreclosure signs in your neighborhood. 

Where Congress wouldn’t act, we went ahead and acted, so over the past few years, we had the Department of Justice stand up for buyers who had been discriminated against or conned by predatory lending.  And we won a settlement that gave more money to victims of discrimination in one year than in the previous 23 years combined.  (Applause.)   

We worked with states to force big banks to repay more than $50 billion to more than 1.5 million families -- largest lending settlement in history.  (Applause.)  We extended the time that folks who had lost their jobs could delay their payment on their mortgages while they kept looking for work.  We cracked down on the bad practices that led to the crisis in the first place.  I mean, you had some loans back there in the bubble that were called “liar’s loan.”  Now, something that's called a liar's loan is probably a bad idea.  (Laughter.) 

So because of all these actions we've been taking, our housing market is beginning to heal.  Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in seven years.  Sales are up nearly 50 percent. Construction is up nearly 75 percent.  New foreclosures are down by nearly two-thirds.  Millions of families have been able to come up for air -- they’re no longer underwater on their mortgages.  (Applause.)   

And just like the crisis hit Phoenix very hard, thanks to some great leadership here locally, Phoenix has also led one of the biggest comebacks in the country.  (Applause.)  So you should be proud of what you've done here.  Home prices in Phoenix have risen by nearly 20 percent over the last year.  New home sales are up by more than 25 percent.

This morning, right before I came here, I visited Erickson Construction -- (applause.)  We've got some Erickson folks here. And they were explaining how right when the bubble hit, Erickson shrank to less than a hundred workers.  Today they're employing 580 people -- and they’re hiring even more people -- (applause)  -- because the housing market is bouncing back.   

So that's one of the things about housing.  It's not just important for the person who owns the house; our economy is so impacted by everything that happens in housing.  Consumers feel better when their home values are in a better place, so they're more willing to spend.  A lot of people who want to start a business, their savings may be locked up in their house.  Construction workers, contractors, suppliers, carpet makers, all these folks are impacted by the housing industry.

So we've made progress, and that's helped to move the economy forward.  But we've got to build on this progress.  We're not where we need to be yet.  We've got to give more hardworking Americans the chance to buy their first home.  (Applause.)  We have to help more responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages, because a lot of them still have a spread between the rates they're paying right now on their mortgage and what they could be getting if they were able to refinance. 

And we’ve got to turn the page on this kind of bubble-and-bust mentality that helped to create this mess in the first place.  (Applause.)  We got to build a housing system that is durable and fair and rewards responsibility for generations to come.  That's what we’ve got to do.  (Applause.)

So I’ve already put forward a bunch of ideas that will help accomplish that.  And, look, the fact of the matter is Congress hasn’t enacted all of them, so I’d like you to encourage members of Congress to take some of these actions.  (Applause.)

But like the other actions that we’ve taken, these will not help the neighbors down the street who bought a house that they couldn’t afford, and then walked away from it and left a foreclosed home behind.  We don't want to help speculators who bought multiple homes just to make a quick buck. 

What we want to do is put forward ideas that will help millions of responsible, middle-class homeowners who still need relief.  And we want to help hardworking Americans who dream of owning their own home fair and square, have a down payment, are willing to make those payments, understand that owning a home requires responsibility.  And there are some immediate actions we could take right now that would help on that front, that would make a difference.  So let me just list a couple of them. 

Number one:  Congress should pass a good, bipartisan idea to allow every homeowner the chance to save thousands of dollars a year by refinancing their mortgage at today’s rates.  (Applause.) We need to get that done.  We’ve been talking about it for a year and a half, two years, three years.  There’s no reason not to do it.  (Applause.) 

Step number two:  Now that we’ve made it harder for reckless buyers to buy homes that they can’t afford, let’s make it a little bit easier for qualified buyers to buy the homes that they can afford.  (Applause.)  So Shaun Donovan has been working with the finance industry to make sure we’re simplifying overlapping regulations; we’re cutting red tape for responsible families who want to get a mortgage but keep getting rejected by the banks.  We need to give well-qualified Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis a fair chance to get a loan if they’ve worked hard to repair their credit.

And step three is something that you don’t always hear about when it comes to the housing market, and that is fixing our broken immigration system.  It would actually help our housing market.  (Applause.)

It’s pretty simple:  When more people buy homes and play by the rules, home values go up for everybody.  And according to one recent study, the average homeowner has already seen the value of their home boosted by thousands of dollars just because of immigration.  And the good news is, with the help of your Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, the Senate has already passed a bipartisan immigration bill.  It’s got the support of CEOs and labor and law enforcement.  (Applause.)   This could help homeownership here.

So I want you to encourage Republicans in the House of Representatives to stop dragging their feet.  Let’s go ahead and get this done.     

Step number four:  We should address the uneven recovery by rebuilding the communities hit the hardest by the housing crisis, including many right here in Arizona.  Let’s put construction back -- construction workers back to work repairing rundown homes, tearing down vacant properties so that the value of homes in those surrounding areas start picking up.  We can put people to work right now and improve the remaining housing stock that's out there.  (Applause.)  Places that are facing a longer road back from the crisis should have their country’s help to get back on their feet. 

Step five:  We should make sure families that don’t want to buy a home or can’t yet afford to buy one still have a decent place to rent.  (Applause.)   It’s important for us to encourage homeownership, but a lot of people rent and there’s nothing wrong with renting.  And we got to make sure that we are creating affordable opportunities when it comes to rental properties.

In the run-up to the crisis, banks and governments too often made everybody feel like they had to own a home, even if they weren’t ready and didn't have the payments.  That’s a mistake we should not repeat.  Instead, let’s invest in affordable rental housing.  Let’s bring together cities and states to address local barriers that drive up rents for working families.  (Applause.)  

So if we help more Americans refinance their homes, if we help qualified families get a mortgage, we reform our immigration system, we rebuild the hardest-hit communities, we make sure that folks have a decent place to rent if they're not yet able to buy -- all these steps will give more middle-class families the chance to either buy their own home now or eventually buy their own home.  It's going to give more relief to responsible homeowners.  It gives more options to families who aren’t yet ready to buy.  All that is going to improve the housing market and will improve the economy.

But -- and this is the last key point I want to make -- as home prices rise, we can’t just re-inflate another housing bubble.  I hope everybody here in Arizona learned some hard lessons from what happened.  Housing prices generally don't just keep on going up forever at the kind of pace it was going up.  It was crazy.  So what we want to do is something stable and steady. And that's why I want to lay a rock-solid foundation to make sure the kind of crisis we went through never happens again.  We've got to make sure it doesn't happen again.  (Applause.)  

And one of the key things to make sure it doesn't happen again is to wind down these companies that are not really government, but not really private sector -- they're known as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  For too long, these companies were allowed to make huge profits buying mortgages, knowing that if their bets went bad, taxpayers would be left holding the bag.  It was “heads we win, tails you lose.”  And it was wrong.  And along with what happened on Wall Street, it helped to inflate this bubble in a way that ultimately killed Main Street.

So the good news is, right now there’s a bipartisan group of senators working to end Fannie and Freddie as we know them.  And I support these kinds of reform efforts.  And they're following four core principles for what I believe this reform should look like. 

First, private capital should take a bigger role in the mortgage market.  I know that sounds confusing to folks who call me a socialist -- I think I saw some posters there on the way in. (Laughter.)  But I actually believe in the free market.  And just like the health care law that we put in place, Obamacare -- (applause) -- which, by the way, if you don't have health insurance or you're buying it at exorbitant rates on the individual market, starting on October 1st, you can join a marketplace and be part of a pool that gives you much lower premiums, saves you a lot of money.  (Applause.)

But in the same way that what we did with health care was to set up clear rules for insurance companies to protect consumers, make it more affordable, but still built on the private marketplace, I believe that our housing system should operate where there's a limited government role and private lending should be the backbone of the housing market.  And that includes, by the way, community-based lenders who view their borrowers not as a number, but as a neighbor.  So that's one principle.

A second principle is we can't leave taxpayers on the hook for irresponsibility or bad decisions by some of these lenders or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  (Applause.)  We've got to encourage the pursuit of profit, but the era of expecting a bailout after you pursue your profit and you don't manage your risk well -- well, that puts the whole country at risk.  And we're ending those days.  We're not going to do that anymore.  (Applause.)

The third principle is we should preserve access to safe and simple mortgage products like the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage.  That’s something families should be able to rely on when they're making the most important purchase of their lives.  (Applause.)  

Number four, we've got to keep housing affordable for first-time homebuyers -- like all these young people.  When they're ready to buy a house, we've got to make sure it's affordable.  Families who are working to climb their way into the middle class, we've got to do what we can to make housing affordable.  And that means we've got to strengthen the FHA so it gives today’s families the same kind of chance it gave my grandparents to buy a home, and it preserves those rungs on the ladder of opportunity. 

And we've got to support, as I said, affordable rental housing.  And, by the way, we've also got to keep up our fight against homelessness.  (Applause.)  The Mayor of Phoenix has been doing a great job here in Phoenix on that front.  We've got to continue to improve it.  (Applause.)   

Since I took office, we helped bring one in four homeless veterans off the streets.  (Applause.)  We should be proud of that.  Here in Phoenix, thanks to the hard work of everyone from Mayor Stanton to the local United Way to US Airways, you’re on track to end chronic homelessness for veterans, period, by 2014. (Applause.) 

But we've got to keep going, because nobody in America, and certainly no veteran, should be left to live on the streets.  (Applause.) 

So here's the bottom line:  Put all these principles together, that's going to protect our entire economy and it will improve the housing market not just here in Phoenix, but throughout the state and throughout the country. 

We're also going to need to make sure, though, that we're protecting individual homeowners.  We've got to give them the tools that they can protect themselves.  So we've got a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that we created.  (Applause.)  And it's laying down new rules of the road that everybody can count on when they’re shopping for a mortgage.  They’re designing a new, simple mortgage form that will be in plain English, so you can actually read it without a lawyer -- (applause) -- although, you may still want a lawyer obviously.  I'm not saying you don't.  I'm just saying you'll be able to read it.  (Laughter.)  There won't be a lot of fine print.  That way you know before you owe. (Laughter and applause.) 

And the Senate finally confirmed Richard Cordray as the head of this -- head watchdog for the CFPB.  (Applause.)  So he's out there aggressively protecting consumers and homeowners. 

When it comes to some of the other leaders we need to look out for the American people, the Senate still has a job to do.  Months ago, I nominated a man named Mel Watt to be our nation’s top housing regulator.  He is an outstanding member of Congress. And during that time, he was on the Housing Committee -- worked with banks, worked with borrowers to protect consumers, to help responsible lenders provide credit.  He is the right person for the job.  Congress and the Senate should give his nomination an up or down vote without any more obstruction or delay.  We don't have time for those kinds of games.  (Applause.) 

So I want to be honest with you.  No program or policy is going to solve all the problems in a multi-trillion dollar housing market.  The housing bubble went up so high, the heights it reached before it burst were so unsustainable, that we knew it was going to take some time for us to fully recover.  But if we take the steps that I talked about today, then I know we will restore not just our home values, but also our common values.  We’ll make owning a home a symbol of responsibility, not speculation -- a source of security for generations to come, just like it was for my grandparents.  I want it to be just like that for all the young people who are here today and their children and their grandchildren.  (Applause.)

And if we stay focused on middle-class security and opportunities to get into the middle class, if we take the strategy that I'm laying out for the entire economy -- for jobs and housing and education, health care, retirement, creating ladders of opportunity -- then we will secure that better bargain for all Americans, where hard work is once again rewarded with a shot at a middle-class life, which means more Americans will know the pride of that first paycheck.  More Americans will know the satisfaction of flipping the sign to “Open” on their own business.  More Americans will know the joy of scratching the child’s height on the door of their new home -- with pencil, of course.  (Laughter.) 

We can do all this if we work together.  And it won’t be easy.  But if we take just a few bold steps -- and if Washington will just end the gridlock, set aside the slash-and-burn partisanship -- (applause) -- actually try to solve problems instead of scoring political points, our economy will grow stronger a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now. (Applause.) 

And as long as I've got the privilege to serve as your President, that's what I'm going to be fighting for. 

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

                        END           1:35 P.M. MST

Remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice At USAID’s Saving Lives at Birth Event

Washington, D.C.
 

Good afternoon everyone.  Thank you, Raj, for that kind introduction and for inviting me to be part of this wonderful event.  You are doing an outstanding job as USAID Administrator.  And I want especially to commend the dedicated staff of USAID for your commitment to our country and to our world.  You’ve all done a remarkable job advancing the President’s vision to elevate development alongside diplomacy and defense as an equal pillar of our national security strategy. 

Of course, I also want to join Raj in thanking our partners who have worked with USAID over the past three years to make the Saving Lives at Birth initiative a real success.  So thank you to the Government of Norway, Grand Challenges Canada, and the UK’s Department for International Development, and of course the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

As Raj said, this is, in fact, my first public speaking engagement as National Security Advisor.  When I was at the UN I had to speak almost every day, and in this job I don’t get out much. (Laughter)

But I wanted to come here today because it’s important that we underscore that economic development and saving lives matters greatly – it matters to the United States, it matters to President Obama, and it matters to me personally. 

That’s because right now, somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, a young, probably terrified woman is going into labor.  As any mother can tell you, and as I can tell you, it’s never easy.  And it’s always at least a little bit scary—even when you’re blessed to enjoy the wonders of modern medicine.  But this woman is giving birth in a remote village with very limited resources.  Electricity is spotty, if it exists at all.  Any equipment is outdated and rudimentary.  There are no trained doctors, nurses or even probably midwives to assist her delivery.  Before she’s even started to push, she’s 136 times more likely to die giving birth than if she were living in a developed country. 

So the crucial question is: how can we help her?  How can we make sure that she isn’t one of the 150,000 women who die each year in child birth?  How can we make sure that her baby isn’t one of the 1.6 million who die within 48 hours of birth or one of the 1.2 million still births that occur each year? 

Thanks to the Saving Lives at Birth initiative, we now have some new answers. 

If her labor becomes obstructed, a local attendant might soon be able to reach for an Odon device, making it easier for the baby’s head to pass through the birth canal.  I just took a look at the Odon device and I recalled my experience my first time giving birth, when I had to become familiar with the forceps. I was really looking at this thing, hoping that it would look better net-net (laughter) compared to the forceps. But the good news is, you can use it anywhere and it’s inexpensive. It probably doesn’t leave any damage to the head. But the bad news is, you still gotta work it in there. (Laughter). But, it’s progress.  

If the baby has trouble breathing once it’s born, a clinic might be able to use a new kind of affordable C-PAP device that costs one-fortieth the amount of standard hospital equipment here in the west but is equally effective in pushing oxygen through the baby’s airways.

And, in the future, if a mother knows she is HIV positive, as soon as she gives birth at home or somewhere away from a medical facility, she’s able to rip open a Pratt pouch—just like you would rip open a fast-food packet of ketchup—and deliver a fresh dose of anti-retroviral drugs to her newborn baby so that she doesn’t have to pass the disease on to her precious child.

These are just some examples. And they aren’t just steps in the right direction; they are potential game-changers.  And they started right here. 

By the way, if you need proof that revolutionary ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, you should learn a little bit more about this Odon device that I was describing.  It’s the brain child of an Argentinean auto mechanic with no medical training who was trying to fish the cork out of a wine bottle using nothing but a plastic bag. Now, don’t ask me how that’s supposed to work.  His “eureka” moment came in the middle of the night when he realized the same trick could help deliver babies.  His wife told him to roll over and go back to sleep, but today, a major manufacturer is planning to collaborate to take the device to scale for use across the developing world. 

So, we live in an era of furious change and unlimited technological potential.  So we can’t just keep doing the same things the way they’ve been done before.  We need to harness our power for progress and put it to work improving the lives of people around the world.  That’s the spirit the Obama Administration has brought to all of our development work. 

The United States leads the world when it comes to providing humanitarian assistance, but we’ve also shifted our efforts towards empowering countries to lead their own development.  That is how to break the cycle of poverty and dependence that still holds so many nations back.

That’s why American initiatives like Feed the Future and the New Alliance for Food Security aren’t just about bringing food to hungry people.  They’re about building stronger agricultural systems so that countries can feed themselves. 

President Obama’s Global Health Initiative is working with an increasing number of partners and countries who have stepped up to join with us as equals, sharing the responsibility for building stronger, self-sustaining health systems. 

Our 1,000 Days partnership seeks to improve maternal and child nutrition during that critical window from conception through a child’s second birthday, because we know that early interventions can impact a child’s growth and development for the rest of her life.     

We’ve put a priority on ending preventable child and maternal deaths.  And now, for the first time since the AIDS epidemic began ravaging populations all around the world, the treatments and interventions that we’ve employed—including preventing mother-to-child transmission—have put the dream of an AIDS-free world and an AIDS-free generation within our grasp. 

Hunger and disease, poverty and desperation— these do more than destroy individual lives.  They erode our common humanity, even as they threaten the security of our interconnected world.  On the other hand, when we give more people the tools to succeed on their own, we’re investing in a secure and prosperous future for all, at home and abroad. 

That’s why we host these kinds of competitions.  In just three years, more than 1,500 innovators have answered our call for new ideas to help mothers give birth in rural or impoverished areas.  Some of our past winners are already making a profound difference in countries where their projects are being piloted and scaled.  But we need more eureka moments and more unorthodox partnerships to meet persistent global challenges.

We don’t yet know who among this year’s finalists will take home the grants—we’ll find out in just a few minutes—but, I do hope that all of you will keep on innovating. 

There’s still too many women like that young mother in Africa and her baby who continue to need our help.  They cannot wait for change to happen by chance or accident.  They need students and designers, researchers and entrepreneurs like you to lead the change.  And as you do, the United States will continue to stand with you, finding ways to support your success, so that we can keep saving lives together. 

Thank you very much.

Remarks by the President on Jobs for the Middle Class, 07/30/13

Amazon Chattanooga Fulfillment Center
Chattanooga, Tennessee

2:00 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Chattanooga!  (Applause.)  It is good to be back in Tennessee.  (Applause.)  It’s great to be here at Amazon.  (Applause.) 

I want to thank Lydia for the introduction and sharing her story.  Give Lydia a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  So this is something here.  I just finished getting a tour of just one little corner of this massive facility -- size of 28 football fields.  Last year, during the busiest day of the Christmas rush, customers around the world ordered more than 300 items from Amazon every second, and a lot of those traveled through this building.  So this is kind of like the North Pole of the south right here.  (Applause.)  Got a bunch of good-looking elves here.     

Before we start, I want to recognize your general manager, Mike Thomas.  (Applause.)  My tour guide and your vice president, Dave Clark.  (Applause.)  You've got the Mayor of Chattanooga, Andy Berke.  (Applause.)  And you've got one of the finest gentlemen I know, your Congressman, Jim Cooper.  (Applause.)  So thank you all for being here.

So I’ve come here today to talk a little more about something I was discussing last week, and that’s what we need to do as a country to secure a better bargain for the middle class -– a national strategy to make sure that every single person who's willing to work hard in this country has a chance to succeed in the 21st century economy.  (Applause.) 

Now, you heard from Lydia, so you know -- because many of you went through it -- over the past four and a half years, we’ve been fighting our way back from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and it cost millions of Americans their jobs and their homes and their savings.  And part of what it did is it laid bare the long-term erosion that’s been happening when it comes to middle-class security.  

But because the American people are resilient, we bounced back.  Together, we've righted the ship.  We took on a broken health care system.  We invested in new American technologies to reverse our addiction to foreign oil.  Changed a tax code that had become tilted too much in favor of the wealthy at the expense of working families.  Saved the auto industry, and thanks to GM and the UAW working together, we're bringing jobs back here to America, including 1,800 autoworkers in Spring Hill.  (Applause.)  1,800 workers in Spring Hill are on the job today where a plant was once closed. 

Today, our businesses have created 7.2 million new jobs over the last 40 months.  This year, we’re off to our best private-sector jobs growth since 1999.  We now sell more products made in America to the rest of the world than ever before.  (Applause.)  We produce more renewable energy than ever.  We produce more natural gas than anybody else in the world.  (Applause.)  Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years.  Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.  (Applause.)

So thanks to hardworking folks like you, thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people, we’ve been able to clear away some of the rubble from the financial crisis.  We've started to lay a new foundation for a stronger, more durable America -- the kind of economic growth that’s broad-based, the foundation required to make this century another American century. 

But as I said last week, and as any middle-class family will tell you, we’re not there yet.  Even before the financial crisis hit, we were going through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, but most families were working harder and harder just to get by.  And reversing that trend should be Washington’s highest priority.  (Applause.)  It’s my highest priority. 

But so far, for most of this year, we’ve seen an endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals.  And we keep on shifting our way -- shifting our attention away from what we should be focused on, which is how do we strengthen the middle class and grow the economy for everybody.  (Applause.)  And as Washington heads towards yet another budget debate, the stakes couldn’t be higher. 

And that’s why I’m visiting cities and towns like this -– to lay out my ideas for how we can build on the cornerstone of what it means to be middle class in America.  A good job with good wages.  A good education.  (Applause.)  A home to call your own.  (Applause.)  Affordable health care that’s there for you when you get sick.  (Applause.)  A secure retirement even if you’re not rich.  (Applause.)  More chances for folks to earn their way into the middle class as long as they’re willing to work for it.  And, most importantly, the chance to pass on a better future for our kids.  (Applause.)

So I’m doing a series of speeches over the next several weeks, but I came to Chattanooga today to talk about the first and most important cornerstone of middle-class security, and that's a good job in a durable, growing industry.  (Applause.)

It’s hard to get the other stuff going if you don't have a good job.  And the truth is everything I’m going to be talking about over the next several weeks really is about jobs.  Because preparing our children and our workers for the global competition they’ll face, that’s about jobs.  A housing finance system that makes it easier and safer to buy and build new homes, that’s about jobs in the construction industry.  Health care that frees you from the fear of losing everything after you’ve worked so hard, and then having the freedom to maybe start your own business because you know you’ll be able to get health care, that’s about jobs.  And, obviously, retirement benefits speak to the quality of our jobs.

And let me say this, it’s something everybody here understands:  Jobs are about more than just paying the bills.  Jobs are about more than just statistics.  We’ve never just defined having a job as having a paycheck here in America.  A job is a source of pride, is a source of dignity.  It’s the way you look after your family.  (Applause.)  It’s proof that you’re doing the right things and meeting your responsibilities and contributing to the fabric of your community and helping to build the country.  That's what a job is all about.  It’s not just about a paycheck.  It’s not just about paying the bills.  It’s also about knowing that what you’re doing is important, that it counts. 

So we should be doing everything we can as a country to create more good jobs that pay good wages.  Period.  (Applause.)

Now, here’s the thing, Chattanooga, the problem is not that  we don't have ideas about how we could create even more jobs.  We’ve got a lot of ideas out there.  There are plenty of independent economists, plenty of business owners, people from both parties agree on some of the ingredients that we need for creating good jobs.  And you’ve heard them debated again and again over these past few years.  I proposed a lot of these ideas myself.  Just two years ago, I announced the American Jobs Act -- full of ideas that every independent economist said would create more jobs.  Some were passed by Congress.  But I got to admit, most of them weren’t.  Sometimes there were ideas that historically had Republican support and for some reason suddenly Republicans didn’t want to support them anymore.

Putting people back to work rebuilding America’s infrastructure.  Equipping our kids and our workers with the best skills.  Leading the world in scientific research that helps to pave the way for new jobs in new industries.  Accelerating our clean energy and natural gas revolutions.  Fixing a broken immigration system so that American workers aren’t undercut, undermined because some businesses are unscrupulous and hiring folks and not paying them decent wages.  (Applause.) 

Independent economists say immigration reform would boost our economy by more than a trillion dollars.  So we’ve got ideas out there we know can work.  And if we don’t make these investments, if we don’t make these reforms, then we might as well be waving the white flag to the rest of the world, because they’re moving forward.  They’re not slowing down.  China, Germany, India -- they’re going.  And we can’t just sit by and do nothing.  Doing nothing doesn’t help the middle class.  (Applause.) 

So today, I came here to offer a framework that might help break through some of the political logjam in Washington and try to get Congress to start moving on some of these proven ideas.  But let me briefly outline some of the areas I think we need to focus on if we want to create good jobs, with good wages, in durable industries -– areas that will fuel our future growth.

Number one -- jobs in American manufacturing.  (Applause.)  Over the past four years, for the first time since the 1990s, the number of manufacturing jobs in America hasn’t gone down, it’s actually gone up.  (Applause.)  So the trend lines are good; now we’ve got to build on that progress.  I want to offer new incentives for manufacturers not to ship jobs overseas, but to bring them back here to America.  (Applause.)  I want new tax credits so communities hit hardest by plant closures can attract new investment.  (Applause.) 

In my State of the Union address, I asked Congress to build on a successful pilot program we’ve set up.  We want to create not just 15 manufacturing innovation institutes that connect businesses and universities and federal agencies to help communities left behind by global competition to become centers of high-tech jobs.  Today, I’m asking Congress to build on this bipartisan support and triple that number from 15 to 45 -- these hubs -- where we’re getting businesses, universities, communities all to work together to develop centers of high-tech industries all throughout the United States that allow us to be at the forefront of the next revolution of manufacturing.  I want it made here in the United States of America.  I don't want that happening overseas.  (Applause.)

Number two -- I talked about this last week -- jobs rebuilding our infrastructure.  I look at this amazing facility and you guys, you don't miss a beat.  I mean, you've got these packages coming out.  You've got dog food and Kindles and beard trimmers.  (Laughter.)  I mean, there's all kinds of stuff around here.  But once it's packed up, it's got to get to the customer.  And how quickly and how dependably it gets to the customer depends on do we have good roads, do we have good bridges, do we have state-of-the-art airports. 

We've got about $2 trillion of deferred maintenance here in this country.  So let’s put more construction workers back on the job doing the work America needs done.  (Applause.)  These are vital projects that Amazon needs, businesses all across the country need, like widening Route 27 here in Chattanooga -- (applause) -- deepening the Jacksonville Port that I visited last week.  These are projects vital to our national pride.

We're going to be breaking ground this week at the St. Louis Arch.  Congress should pass what I've called my “Fix-It-First” plan to put people to work immediately on our most urgent repairs, like the 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare.  That will create good middle-class jobs right now.  (Applause.)  And we should partner with the private sector to upgrade what businesses like Amazon need most.  We should have a modern air traffic control system to keep planes running on time.  We should have modern power grids and pipelines to survive a storm.  We should have modern schools to prepare our kids for the jobs of tomorrow.  (Applause.)  

Number three, we need to keep creating good jobs in energy -- in wind and solar and natural gas.  Those new energy sources are reducing energy costs.  They're reducing dangerous carbon pollution.  They're reducing our dependence on foreign oil.  So now is not the time to gut investments in American technology.  Now is the time to double down on renewable energy and biofuels and electric vehicles, and to put money into the research that will shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.  (Applause.) 

And let me tell you, cheaper costs of natural gas is a huge boost to our businesses here in America, so we should develop it even more.  We've got to do it in a way that protects our air and our water for our children and future generations.  But we can do that.  We've got the technology to do it. 

Number four, we've got to export more.  We want to send American goods all around the world.  (Applause.)  A year ago, I signed a new trade agreement with Korea, because they were selling a lot of Hyundais here, but we weren't selling a lot of GM cars over there.  Since we signed that deal, our Big Three automakers are selling 18 percent more cars in Korea than they were.  (Applause.) 

So now we've got to help more of our businesses do the same thing.  I’m asking Congress for the authority to negotiate the best trade deals possible for our workers, and combine it with robust training and assistance measures to make sure our workers have the support and the skills they need for this new global competition.  And we're going to have to sharpen our competitive edge in the global job marketplace. 

Two years ago, we created something called SelectUSA.  This is a coordinated effort to attract foreign companies looking to invest and create jobs here in the United States.  And today I’m directing my Cabinet to expand these efforts.  And this October, I’m going to bring business leaders from around the world, and I'm going to connect them to state leaders and local leaders like your mayor who are ready to prove there’s no better place to do business than right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

Number five -- let's do more to help the more than 4 million long-term unemployed Americans that are out there.  (Applause.)  One of the problems is a lot of folks, they lose their jobs during this really bad recession through no fault of their own.  They've got what it takes to fill that job opening, but because they’ve been out of work so long employers won’t even give their application a fair look.  (Applause.) 

So I’m challenging CEOs to do more to get these Americans back on their feet.  And I'm going to bring together the CEOs and companies that are putting in place some of the best practices for recruiting and training and hiring workers who have been out of work for a long time, but want the chance to show that they're ready to go back to work.  (Applause.) 

And at the same time, I'm calling on our businesses to do more for their workers.  (Applause.)  Amazon is a great example of what's possible.  What you're doing here at Amazon with your Career Choice Program pays 95 percent of the tuition for employees who want to earn skills in fields with high demand -- not just, by the way, jobs here at Amazon, but jobs anywhere --  computer-aided design or nursing.  I talked to Jeff Bezos yesterday, and he was so proud of the fact that he wants to see every employee at Amazon continually upgrade their skills and improve.  And if they've got a dream they want to pursue, Amazon wants to help them pursue it.  (Applause.) 

That’s the kind of approach that we need from America's businesses.  Offering training programs, health care, retirement plans, paying better wages -- that’s not just the right thing to do, it’s actually good for your bottom line.  A recent study shows that when a company makes the list of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” its share price outperforms its competitors, because the stock market and investors, they know if a company has employees that are motivated and happy, that business is more likely to succeed.  (Applause.)  That business is more likely to succeed.

And because nobody who works full-time in America should have to live in poverty, I'm going to keep on making the case and fighting for the fact that we need to raise our minimum wage, because right now it's in lower terms than it was when Ronald Reagan took office.  (Applause.)  When folks have more money in their pockets, that’s good for Amazon; it means your customers have a little more money.  They can order a little more of that protein powder.  (Laughter.)  I noticed a lot of folks were ordering protein power.  Everybody is trying to get bulked up.  (Laughter.) 

So here's -- those are some of the ideas that we're out there, we're promoting.  We're not lacking for ideas, we're just lacking action, especially out of Washington.  (Applause.)

For most of the past two years, Washington has just taken its eye off the ball when it comes to the middle class.  And I'll tell you -- look, there are a growing number of -- the good news is there are a growing number of Republican senators who are trying to work with Democrats to get some stuff done.  (Applause.)  That’s good news. 

The bad news is that rather than keep our focus on what should be our priority -- which is growing our economy and creating good middle-class jobs -- we’ve seen a certain faction of Republicans in Congress hurt a fragile recovery by saying that they wouldn’t pay the very bills that Congress racked up in the first place, threatening to shut down the people’s government if they can’t get rid of Obamacare.  Instead of reducing our deficits with a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need, but keep vital investments that we do, this same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of important investments in education and research and our military.  All the things that are needed to make this country a magnet for good middle-class jobs, those things are being cut. 

And these moves don’t just hurt our economy in the long term; they hurt our middle class right now.  The independent Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cuts that are being made right now in Washington will cost our economy 750,000 jobs this year; 900,000 fewer jobs next year.  And a lot of the jobs at risk are at small businesses that contract with our military or our federal agencies.

Over the past four years, another 700,000 workers at the federal, state, and local levels of government have lost their jobs.  These are cops and firefighters, and about half of them are people who work in our schools.  Those are real jobs.  It doesn’t help a company like Amazon when a teacher or a cop or a firefighter loses their job.  They don't have money to place an order.  That's hundreds of thousands of customers who have less money to spend. 

If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 percent instead of 7.5 percent.  Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we’d be getting more tax revenue.

So the point is, if Washington spent as much time and energy these past two years figuring out how to grow our economy and grow our middle class as it’s spent manufacturing crises in pursuit of a cut-at-all-costs approach to deficits, we’d be much better off.  We’d be much better off.  (Applause.)

And it’s not like we don't have to cut our deficits.  As a share of the economy, we’ve cut our deficits by nearly half since I took office.  Half.  And they're projected to go down even further, but there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.  And we should do it in a way that actually helps middle-class families instead of hurts them.  (Applause.)

I’ve told Republicans that if they’re serious about a balanced, long-term fiscal plan that replaces harmful budget cuts that would get serious about a long-term plan that prevents those 900,000 jobs from being lost, that helps grow the economy, that helps the middle class, I am ready to go.  But we can't lose sight of our North Star.  We can’t allow an impasse over long-term fiscal challenges to distract us from what the middle class needs right now.

So here’s the bottom line:  If folks in Washington really want a grand bargain, how about a grand bargain for middle-class jobs?  (Applause.)  How about a grand bargain for middle-class jobs?  

I don't  want to go through the same old arguments where I propose an idea and the Republicans just say, no, because it’s my idea.  (Applause.)  So I’m going to try offering something that serious people in both parties should be able to support:  a deal that simplifies the tax code for our businesses and creates good jobs with good wages for middle-class folks who work at those businesses. 

Right now, everybody knows this -- our tax code is so riddled with loopholes and special interest tax breaks that a lot of companies who are doing the right thing and investing in America pay 35 percent in their taxes; corporations who have got fancy accountants and stash their money overseas, they pay little or nothing in taxes.  That’s not fair, and it's not good for the economy here. 

So I'm willing to simplify our tax code -- closes those loopholes, ends incentives to ship jobs overseas, lowers the rate for businesses that are creating jobs right here in America, provides tax incentives for manufacturers that bring jobs home to the United States.  Let's simplify taxes for small business owners, give them incentives to invest so they can spend less time filling out complicated forms, more time expanding and hiring. 

I'm willing to do all that that should help businesses and help them grow.  But if we’re going to give businesses a better deal, then we're also going to have to give workers a better deal, too.  (Applause.)  I want to use some of the money that we save by closing these loopholes to create more good construction jobs with infrastructure initiatives that I already talked about.  We can build a broader network of high-tech manufacturing hubs that leaders from both parties can support.  We can help our community colleges arm our workers with the skills that a global economy demands.  All these things would benefit the middle class right now and benefit our economy in the years to come.

So, again, here’s the bottom line:  I’m willing to work with Republicans on reforming our corporate tax code, as long as we use the money from transitioning to a simpler tax system for a significant investment in creating middle-class jobs.  That’s the deal.  (Applause.) 

And I'm just going to keep on throwing ideas out there to see if something takes.  (Laughter.)  I'm going to lay out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot.  But now it's time for Republicans to lay out their ideas. 

If they’ve got a better plan to bring back more manufacturing jobs here to Tennessee and around the country, then let them know -- let me know.  I want to hear them.  If they've got a better plan to create jobs rebuilding our infrastructure or to help workers earn the high-tech skills that they need, then they should offer up these ideas. 

But I've got to tell you, just gutting our environmental protection, that’s not a jobs plan.  Gutting investments in education, that’s not a jobs plan.  They keep on talking about this -- an oil pipeline coming down from Canada that’s estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs -- that’s not a jobs plan.  Wasting the country’s time by taking something like 40 meaningless votes to repeal Obamacare is not a jobs plan.  That’s not a jobs plan.  (Applause.) 

So let's get serious.  Look, I want to tell everybody here the truth.  And you know, look, I know that the politics for Obama aren't always great in Tennessee.  I understand that.  But I want everybody to just hear the honest truth.  I've run my last campaign, so I don't need to spin.  (Applause.) 

And here's the truth -- there are no gimmicks that create jobs.  There are no simple tricks to grow the economy.  Growing the economy, making sure that the middle class is strong is like getting in shape.  You can't just go on the muffin and doughnut diet and the latest fad and lose weight.  You've got to work out and you've got to eat better.  Well, the same is true for our economy.  The same is true for helping the middle class.

We've got to have a serious, steady, long-term American strategy to reverse the long-term erosion of middle-class security and give everybody a fair shot.  (Applause.)  And we know what we have to do.  It involves education.  It involves infrastructure.  It involves research.  It involves good energy policy.  And we just have to stay at it -- more good jobs that pay decent wages, a better bargain for the middle class, an economy that grows from the middle out.  That's got to be our focus. 

We can't be getting into a whole bunch of fads and pretend like you roll back Obamacare and suddenly all these jobs are going to be created, because the middle class was struggling before I came into office.  (Applause.)  The middle class was losing ground before I came into office.  (Applause.)  Jobs were getting shipped overseas before Obamacare was in place.  So we've got to be honest.  We've got to be honest about the challenges we face, but also the opportunities that are out there. 

And that's what I'm going to be focused on not just for the next few months.  I'm going to be focused for every one of the 1,270 days I've got left in my presidency on how to make sure that we've got more opportunity and more security for everybody who is willing to work hard in this country.  That's where I believe America needs to go.  (Applause.)  And we can do it if we work together, Chattanooga.  Let's get to work. 

Thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  

END               
2:32 P.M. EDT