Excerpts From Obama's Economic Speech

A couple of days ago, President Obama gave a speech on the economy before supporters at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. In that speech, he clearly laid out the difference between the plan of Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) and his own plan. Here are some excerpts from that speech:

Now, this isn’t some abstract debate.  This is not another trivial Washington argument.  I have said that this is the defining issue of our time -- and I mean it.  I said that this is a make-or-break moment for America’s middle class -- and I believe it.  The decisions we make in the next few years on everything from debt and taxes to energy and education will have an enormous impact on this country and on the country we pass on to our children.


At stake is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties, but between two paths for our country.  And while there are many things to discuss in this campaign, nothing is more important than an honest debate about where these two paths would lead us. . .


Governor Romney and his allies in Congress believe deeply in the theory that we tried during the last decade -- the theory that the best way to grow the economy is from the top down.  So they maintain that if we eliminate most regulations, if we cut taxes by trillions of dollars, if we strip down government to national security and a few other basic functions, then the power of businesses to create jobs and prosperity will be unleashed, and that will automatically benefit us all.  


That’s what they believe.  This is their economic plan.  It has been placed before Congress.  Governor Romney has given speeches about it, and it’s on his website.  So if they win the election, their agenda will be simple and straightforward.  They have spelled it out:  They promise to roll back regulations on banks and polluters, on insurance companies and oil companies.  They’ll roll back regulations designed to protect consumers and workers.  They promise to not only keep all of the Bush tax cuts in place, but add another $5 trillion in tax cuts on top of that. . .


Now, your next question may be, how do you spend $5 trillion on a tax cut and still bring down the deficit?  Well, they tell us they’ll start by cutting nearly a trillion dollars from the part of our budget that includes everything from education and job training to medical research and clean energy.


Now, I want to be very fair here.  I want to be clear.  They haven’t specified exactly where the knife would fall.  But here’s some of what would happen if that cut that they’ve proposed was spread evenly across the budget:  10 million college students would lose an average of $1,000 each in financial aid; 200,000 children would lose the chance to get an early education in the Head Start program.  There would be 1,600 fewer medical research grants for things like Alzheimer’s and cancer and AIDS; 4,000 fewer scientific research grants, eliminating support for 48,000 researchers, students and teachers.


Now, again, they have not specified which of these cuts they choose from.  But if they want to make smaller cuts to areas like science or medical research, then they’d have to cut things like financial aid or education even further.  But either way, the cuts to this part of the budget would be deeper than anything we’ve ever seen in modern times.


Not only does their plan eliminate health insurance for 33 million Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act --


-- according to the independent Kaiser Family Foundation, it would also take away coverage from another 19 million Americans who rely on Medicaid -- including millions of nursing home patients, and families who have children with autism and other disabilities.  And they proposed turning Medicare into a voucher program, which will shift more costs to seniors and eventually end the program as we know it. . .


But here's the problem:  The only tax breaks and deductions that get you anywhere close to $5 trillion are those that help middle-class families afford health care and college and retirement and homeownership.  Without those tax benefits, tens of millions of middle-class families will end up paying higher taxes.  Many of you would end up paying higher taxes to pay for this other tax cut. 


And keep in mind that all of this is just to pay for their new $5 trillion tax cut.  If you want to close the deficit left by the Bush tax cuts, we’d have to make deeper cuts or raise middle-class taxes even more.


This is not spin.  This is not my opinion.  These are facts.  This is what they’re presenting as their plan.  This is their vision.  There is nothing new -- just what Bill Clinton has called the same ideas they’ve tried before, except on steroids. . .


I believe their approach is wrong.  And I’m not alone.  I have not seen a single independent analysis that says my opponent’s economic plan would actually reduce the deficit.  Not one.  Even analysts who may agree with parts of his economic theory don’t believe that his plan would create more jobs in the short term.  They don’t claim his plan would help folks looking for work right now. . .


As for the long term, remember that the economic vision of Mr. Romney and his allies in Congress was tested just a few years ago.  We tried this.  Their policies did not grow the economy.  They did not grow the middle class.  They did not reduce our debt.  Why would we think that they would work better this time?


We can’t afford to jeopardize our future by repeating the mistakes of the past -- not now, not when there’s so much at stake.


I've got a different vision for America.  I believe that you can’t bring down the debt without a strong and growing economy.  And I believe you can’t have a strong and growing economy without a strong and growing middle class.


This has to be our North Star -- an economy that’s built not from the top down, but from a growing middle class, that provides ladders of opportunity for folks who aren't yet in the middle class. . .


I see an America with the best-educated, best-trained workers in the world; an America with a commitment to research and development that is second to none, especially when it comes to new sources of energy and high-tech manufacturing.  I see a country that offers businesses the fastest, most reliable transportation and communication systems of anywhere on Earth.


I see a future where we pay down our deficit in a way that is balanced -- not by placing the entire burden on the middle class and the poor, but by cutting out programs we can’t afford, and asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute their fair share. . .


In an age where we know good jobs depend on high skills, now is not the time to scale back our commitment to education.  (Applause.)  Now is the time to move forward and make sure we have the best-educated, best-trained workers in the world. . .


But, look, if we want our country to be a magnet for middle-class jobs in the 21st century, we also have to invest more in education and training.  I want to recruit an army of new teachers, and pay teachers better -- and train more of them in areas like math and science.


I have a plan to give 2 million more Americans the chance to go to community colleges just like this one and learn the skills that businesses are looking for right now.  I have a plan to make it easier for people to afford a higher education that’s essential in today’s economy.


And if we truly want to make this country a destination for talent and ingenuity from all over the world, we won’t deport hardworking, responsible young immigrants who have grown up here or received advanced degrees here.  We’ll let them earn the chance to become American citizens so they can grow our economy and start new businesses right here instead of someplace else.


Now is not the time to go back to a greater reliance on fossil fuels from foreign countries.  Now is the time to invest more in the clean energy that we can make right here in America.


My plan for energy doesn’t ignore the vast resources we already have in this country.  We’re producing more oil than we have in over a decade.  But if we truly want to gain control of our energy future, we’ve got to recognize that pumping more oil isn’t enough. . .


So my plan would end the government subsidies to oil companies that have rarely been more profitable -- let’s double down on a clean energy industry that has never been more promising.


And I want to put in place a new clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation -- an approach that would make clean energy the profitable kind of energy for every business in America.


With growing competition from countries like China and India, now is not the time for America to walk away from research and development.  Now is the time to invest even more -- so that the great innovations of this century take place in the United States of America. . .


With growing competition from countries like China and India, now is not the time for America to walk away from research and development.  Now is the time to invest even more -- so that the great innovations of this century take place in the United States of America. . .


At a time when we have so much deferred maintenance on our nation’s infrastructure -- schools that are crumbling, roads that are broken, bridges that are buckling -- now is not the time to saddle American businesses with crumbling roads and bridges.  Now is the time to rebuild America.


So my plan would take half the money we’re no longer spending on war -- let’s use it to do some nation-building here at home.  Let’s put some folks to work right here at home.


My plan would get rid of pet projects and government boondoggles and bridges to nowhere.  (Laughter.)  But if we want businesses to come here and to hire here, we have to provide the highways and the runways and the ports and the broadband access, all of which move goods and products and information across the globe. . .


And finally, I think it’s time we took on our fiscal problems in an honest, balanced, responsible way.  Everybody agrees that our deficits and debt are an issue that we’ve got to tackle.  My plan to reform the tax code recognizes that government can’t bring back every job that’s been outsourced or every factory that’s closed its doors.  But we sure can stop giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America. . .


if you really want to get the deficit under control without sacrificing all the investments that I’ve talked about, our tax code has to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more -- just like they did when Bill Clinton was President; just like they did when our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot. . .


So, Governor Romney disagrees with my vision.  His allies in Congress disagree with my vision.  Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes.  It’s the reason we haven’t reached a grand bargain to bring down our deficit -- not with my plan, not with the Bowles-Simpson plan, not with the so-called Gang of Six plan.


Despite the fact that taxes are lower than they’ve been in decades, they won’t work with us on any plan that would increase taxes on our wealthiest Americans.  It’s the reason a jobs bill that would put 1 million people back to work has been voted down time and time again.  It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington today. . .


This November is your chance to render a verdict on the debate over how to grow the economy, how to create good jobs, how to pay down our deficit.  Your vote will finally determine the path that we take as a nation -- not just tomorrow, but for years to come.