Barack Obama

“ And that's what this debate on the budget is all about -- about whether we are willing to do what needs to be done not only to get our economy moving right now, but to put it on the road to lasting, shared prosperity. It can be easy to lose sight of this. It's easy for pundits to get on TV and put their ratings ahead of their own sense of responsibility, and try to oversimplify what's at stake. It can be difficult to break free from the partisanship that's held sway in Washington for so many years. ”

“ We're trying to create the jobs of the future and we're trying to get this economy moving again -- fix the banking system so that you start seeing more economic activity. I have confidence that you will find a job. I have confidence in you. (Applause.) But in the meantime -- in the meantime the most that I can do is to make sure that you've got unemployment insurance that you can rely on, that you've got COBRA that you can rely on, that your family is able to get some support during these difficult times, and then to try to get these jobs created as quickly as possible. ”

“ When you've got big banks, Citicorp or Bank of America or, you know, Wells Fargo, that controls 70 percent of the banking system, and all of them are weakening, you can't afford to have all those banks all at once start going under. Even though the deposits might be guaranteed, you've got the entire economy resting on that credit. We've got to get that credit lending, because they can take down businesses large and small alike if we don't make sure that they are still providing loans. ”

“ So when I say that we should make it easier for unions to organize and observe Davis-Bacon, all I'm trying to do is to restore some balance to our economy so that middle-class families who are working hard -- (applause) -- they're not on welfare, they're going to their jobs every day, they're doing the right thing by their kids -- they should be able to save, buy a home, go on a vacation once in a while. You know, they should be able to save for retirement, send their kids to college. ”

“ The Recovery Act that we put forward contained some provisions in it that I don't think anybody should be able to argue with -- that we're providing extended unemployment insurance to people who have lost their jobs; that we are allowing -- if you've lost your job, right now you can get COBRA, but you can't afford COBRA -- so subsidizing health insurance for people who have lost their jobs; investing in our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure, so that we are more competitive over the long term. ”

“ The fact that you've been working steadily for 13 years post-felony seems to me a message that you made amends for your past mistakes and that you are rehabilitated and that you've proven yourself in the job market. ”

“ It goes against our most basic sense of what's fair and what's right. It offends our values.
But these bonuses, outrageous as they are, are a symptom of a much larger problem. And that's the system and culture that made them possible -- a culture where people made enormous sums of money, taking irresponsible risks that have now put the entire economy at risk. So we're going to do everything we can to deal with these specific bonuses.
And I know Washington is all in a tizzy and everybody is pointing fingers at each other and saying it's their fault, the Democrats' fault, the Republicans' fault. ”

“ So what we've tried to do is to say let's, right now, just focus on getting the economy back on track, reducing unemployment, creating jobs, making sure our school systems still have teachers, cops are still on the streets, firefighters are still in the station house. Let's do what we need to do to get through this difficult time. Let's make some investments in health care, energy, education that will lay the foundation for long-term economic growth. ”

“ So when the economy started slowing down, and in some markets like Miami and here in California, the housing market starts really weakening, and suddenly some of these subprime loans start defaulting, this whole house of cards just began to collapse.
Now, a lot of people say, well, why not just let the banks fail? Right? See, somebody is clapping. Why not just, you know -- they were making all these bad bets; why don't we just let them fail, let them go bankrupt? What's the problem? ”

“ But what's just as important is that we make sure we don't find ourselves in this situation again, where taxpayers are on the hook for losses in bad times, and all the wealth generated in good times goes to those who are at the very top of the income ladder. That's the kind of ethic we've had for too long. That's the kind of approach that led us into this mess. That is something we have to change if we're truly going to turn our economy around and move this country forward. ”

“ Now, there are some people -- there have been just a handful of states, two or three, who have said, we don't want to take some of the unemployment insurance because what we said was that a portion of this unemployment insurance -- you have to make it more available to people who are temporary workers or part-time workers because the labor force has changed and there are a lot of people, particularly women, who, you know, they may have children, they may be working part-time, but when they lose that job it's tough for them. ”

“ Part of the problem that we've had with our economy over the last decade at least is that -- well, there are a number of problems. Number one, it turns out that a huge amount of the growth that was claimed was in the financial services industry. And now we find out that a bunch of that stuff was just a paper growth that wasn't real and vanished as soon as somebody pulled the curtain.
Another part of the problem with our economy and the way it was growing was that wages and incomes for ordinary working families were flat for the entire decade. ”

“ That's why we're creating a fund that will help support up to $1 trillion in loans, including auto loans and college loans. (Applause.) That's why we've launched a housing plan that will help responsible homeowners save money by refinancing their mortgage loans. (Applause.)
Now, none of this will make any difference, however, unless we strengthen our economy over the long term; unless we put our economy on a firmer footing by rebuilding its foundation. And that's exactly the purpose of the budget I'm submitting to Congress. ”

“ But let's also start making some tough choices about the deficit as soon as we get out of this recovery.
So, for example, we can't keep on providing the insurance companies huge subsidies under Medicare for a program called Medicare Advantage that doesn't make our seniors any healthier than the regular Medicare plan. (Applause.) We need to go ahead and use that money for other things.
We can't keep on giving these huge procurement contracts to defense industries that end up being 50, 60, 100 percent over budget -- very good for contractors, not so good for taxpayers. ”

“ Because we know that enhancing America's competitiveness will also require reducing our dependence on foreign oil and building a clean energy economy, this budget will spark the transformation we need to create green jobs and launch renewable energy companies right here in California. It makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy. ”

“ And if we continue to provide some guarantees and help depositors and help strengthen some of the banks that are weakened, then my expectation is, is that we're going to be able to work our way out of this problem, and we are going to be able to get back to a point where banks are lending, businesses are investing, jobs are being created, and the economy gets back on its feet. ”

“ What can your administration do to make sure that people get the wages that they're entitled to in this terrible economic downturn?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, look, I have already said that we are going to promote Davis-Bacon. We think it is important that unions have the opportunity to organize themselves. (Applause.)
Now, you know, sometimes, you know, the business press says, oh, that's anti-business. And whenever I hear that I'm always reminded of what Henry Ford said when he first started building the Model T -- and he was paying his workers really well. ”

“ Number one, there was almost uniform consensus among both conservative and liberal economists that when you have the economy on such a free-fall, that you need a big stimulus to try to make sure that goods and services are still being purchased, and that the decline in demand, as consumers pull back, is being filled. If you don't, then the recession gets even worse. ”

“ When we make loans that are less than the normal quality, even with the SBA guarantee, the regulators tend to criticize us. And when they criticize us, they make us set aside reserves as if the loan is going to be bad, and that eats into our capital. That's part of the problem that banks are having right now and why they needed the TARP money. Not all banks are bad banks, as you know, and as a community bank that's been around for 85 years, we haven't even taken TARP money. We want to make SBA loans, but we don't want to get our hands slapped by the regulators when we try to help these people. ”

“ We can't afford our kids to be mediocre at a time when they're competing against kids in China and kids in India who are actually in school about a month longer than our kids. So there's a whole bunch of reforms that we're going to have to do.
And the last point that I always make -- so I'll make this again -- is we've got to do our jobs as parents. You can't put all the burden on a teacher. (Applause.) You can't put all the burden on a teacher. ”

“ But that's only going to happen if we pull together and focus on the big things -- focus on the long term. We've got to get past this petty bickering, the constant trivialization of politics, and focus on getting the job done. ”

“ These are just a few of the 396,000 jobs we will create or save in California -- and the 3.5 million jobs we'll create or save across America over the next two years. (Applause.)
We are also taking unprecedented steps to unlock our frozen credit markets so families can get the loans they need to buy a home or a car, and businesses can pay for inventory or make payroll. That's why earlier this week, we took a sweeping step to free up loans for entrepreneurs, helping them start and grow the small businesses that employ half of our private-sector workers. ”

“ And we've got to make sure that we've got regulations that don't allow companies to take these huge risks that are so big that they can sort of hold us hostage. We can't let them fail because it would bring the entire banking system down and hurt a lot of innocent people, but on the other hand, they act irresponsibly. ”

“ You can't have a 5th grade class with 40 kids. There's no teacher who can deal with 40 kids all at the same time, especially if many of them are at different levels in terms of reading and math skills and so forth. So we've got to do something about that.
But what's also true, though, is we've got to provide better teacher training. There are teachers who may not know their subject matter as well as they should. They've got to be given more time to -- for professional development. We've got to have more flexibility, I believe, in terms of how we reward teachers. ”

“ It's not like suddenly they're going to have to go to the poor house. But what that does is it allows us to pay for health care reform for a lot of people who are out there working every day but are just one illness away from bankruptcy. ”

“ Number three, that people who have been here for a long time and put down roots here have to have some mechanism over time to get out of the shadows, because if they stay in the shadows, in the underground economy, then they are oftentimes pitted against American workers. Since they can't join a union, they can't complain about minimum wages, et cetera, they end up being abused, and that depresses the wages of everybody, all Americans. ”

“ So I will -- and I will also say this -- I will also say this, that my obligation is to make sure that we've improved our economy, that we've gotten serious on health care, made significant progress on energy, made education more affordable, and improved the excellence of our educational system K-12, that we have started controlling our deficits. ”

“ So for everybody in Washington who's busy scrambling, trying to figure out how to blame somebody else, just go ahead and talk to me, because it's my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don't make them. ”

“ It doesn't work that way for you -- you don't get to choose between paying your mortgage bills or your medical bills. You don't get to choose between paying your kids' tuition and saving enough for retirement. ”

“ If you're not making sure your child does their homework, if you're not reading to them, instilling a sense of excellence and a thirst for knowledge in them, then they're not going to do very well, no matter how good your teacher is. ”

“ I can't do it without you, the American people. That's why I'm here today, because it will take all of us talking with one another and all of us working together to see our nation through this difficult time and bring about that brighter day. ”

“ Number one is, a lot of these community banks give Small Business Administration loans, SBA loans, that are guaranteed by the federal government, but the problem is, is that historically what they've done is they get the loans and then they sell them on what's called the secondary market. They sell them to other parties who invest in these loans. The problem is all these secondary markets have all frozen up right now, because everybody is so nervous about all these losses that have been happening on Wall Street. ”

“ And what we need to do is to invest in research and development around this clean-energy auto technology. And one of the things that we've committed to doing in our budget is to spend $15 billion every single year in new technologies that maintain cutting-edge auto technologies that will ensure that good, efficient, clean cars are made right here in the United States of America. ”

“ Well, we need to get back to that philosophy, because that's what all of you do. You're out there earning a living, and we've got to reward people who are working hard, not the bubble-and-burst economy we've experienced in recent years. ”