Obama’s speech emphasized economy, jobs and taxes,
barely mentioned growth
and debt. In the 2008
election, growth was
the mantra.
President
Barack Obama Speech, Edited Transcript
Democratic
National Convention
Sep
2012
Economic Growth
Hope has been tested
by the cost of war, by one of the worst economic crises in history, and by political
gridlock. Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington on jobs, the economy, taxes and deficits, energy,
education, war and peace. Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the
largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. I’m asking you
to rally around a set of goals that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity and rebuild this economy on a stronger
foundation. We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers, the
entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise
system, the greatest engine of growth
and prosperity that the world’s ever known. I don’t believe that firing
teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow the economy.
Jobs
I began my career
helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill at a time when too many
good jobs were starting
to move overseas. And by 2008, we had
seen nearly a decade in which families struggled with costs that kept rising;
folks racking up more and more debt
just to make the mortgage or pay tuition, put gas in the car or food on the
table. And when the house of cards
collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their life
savings. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the
frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.
We can give more tax breaks to corporations that
ship jobs overseas, or
we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and
create new jobs here,
in the United States of America. We can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years. We
can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs. I’ve worked with
business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America. And
after a decade of decline, this country created over half a million
manufacturing jobs in
the last two and a half years.
Help give 2 million
workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that will lead
directly to a job.
No one who fights for
this country should have to fight for a job.
I will not let oil
companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or
collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. We can cut our oil
imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. We
have doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind
turbines and long-lasting batteries.
Taxes
I want to reform the tax code so that it’s simple,
fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 -- the same rate
we had when Bill Clinton was President; the same rate when our economy created nearly 23
million new jobs.
Governor Romney and
his friends tell us we can lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new
tax breaks for the
wealthy. We’ve been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way. I
refuse to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for owning a
home or raising their kids just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut. Now, I’ve cut taxes for those who need it --
middle-class families, small businesses.
But I don’t believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores or pay
down our deficit.
Debt
I will use the money
we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back. I’m still eager to
reach an agreement based on the principles of my bipartisan debt commission.
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