See Full Text of President Obama’s Statement in Racine, Wisconsin, below:
I know that towns like Racine are still hurting from this recession. This city has the second-highest unemployment rate in the state, and I can only imagine how much pain that’s caused and how many lives have been upended. And you got, as I said, a dynamic young mayor who’s thinking day in, day out, about how to put people back to work, and the city has been cooperating with the state and federal programs to figure out how we can start incubating a bunch of growth here, but it’s still tough.
And some of you may be out of work, and you’re tired of sending out resumes and not getting a response. Maybe you’ve got a job, but the bills seem to be stacking up faster than your pay is. Maybe you’ve looked through the family budget and you’ve got no idea how you’re going to save for your retirement or send your kid to college. Or maybe you’re a young person who’s just about to get out of school and you’re wondering what your job prospects are going to be.
I hear worries like this all the time — from folks that I talk to in town halls like this, but also in the letters that I read each night from all across the country. And it’s frustrating and often it’s heartbreaking. And that’s why even though there’s — there are plenty of challenges on our plate — everything from Afghanistan to Iran to the oil spill, all critical issues that go to our long-term prosperity and security — nothing is more important than reversing the damage of the great recession and getting folks back to work.
We had to take the country through some pretty tough steps to pull us out of the freefall that we faced when I took office. And I know that sometimes people don’t remember how bad it was and how bad it could have been. But when I was sworn in, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Every — each month, we were losing 750,000 jobs. The economy was shrinking at 6 percent. It was contracting by 6 percentage points. That’s faster than it had in decades.
Today, it’s growing again. Today, we’ve added private sector jobs for five months in a row. (Applause.) So the economy is headed in the right direction. But for a lot of Americans — for Racine and a lot of other communities — it’s not heading there fast enough. Not if you’re out of work. Not if you can’t pay the mortgage. Not if you can’t take care of your family. And the truth is, from the day we walked into the White House, we knew that the crisis we faced was so severe that it was going to take months, and maybe even years, to fully heal, to dig ourselves out of one of the worst recessions in our history.
And that’s why I’ve been fighting, in addition to everything we’ve done, for additional steps to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing. We want an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who lost their job through no fault of their own. (Applause.) We want to help small business owners get the loans they need to keep their doors open and hire more workers. We want relief for struggling states so they don’t have to lay off thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers.
Obama then went on to identify those working to help turnaround the US economy and those intent on hurting the economy:
Now, you’d think this would be pretty straightforward stuff, but I’ve got to say that lately we’ve been having to wrangle around what used to be pretty noncontroversial things — providing loans for small businesses, extending unemployment insurance when 8 million people lost their jobs during the recession. But lately, there’s a minority of senators from the other party who’ve had a different idea. As we speak, they are using their power to stop this relief from going to the American people. And they won’t even let these measures come up for a vote. They block it through all kinds of procedural maneuvering in the Senate.
Now, some of this is just politics. That’s the nature of Washington. Before I was even inaugurated, there were leaders on the other side of the aisle who got together and they made the calculation that if Obama fails, then we win. Right — that was the basic theory. They figured if we just keep on saying no to everything and nothing gets done, then somehow people will forget who got us into this mess in the first place and we’ll get more votes in November. (Applause.) And, you know, that will make people pretty cynical about politics.
Now, let’s be fair though. The other party’s opposition is also rooted in some sincere beliefs about how they think the economy works. They think that our economy will do better if we just let the banks or the oil companies or the insurance industry make their own rules. They still believe that, even after the Wall Street crash, even after the BP oil well blew, that we should just keep a hands-off attitude. They think we should keep doing what we did for most of the last decade leading up to the recession.
So their prescription for every challenge is pretty much the same — and I don’t think I’m exaggerating here — basically cut taxes for the wealthy, cut rules for corporations, and cut working folks loose to fend for themselves. Basically their attitude is, you’re on your own.
Now, here’s the problem. And again, I don’t question that a lot of them sincerely subscribe to this view. Here’s the problem: We’ve already tried these ideas. Remember, we tried them for eight years. We tried them for a good part of the last decade. We know where they led us.
On Wall Street, the financial industry and its lobbyists spent years chipping away at rules and safeguards that could have prevented the meltdown of — that caused — that was caused by Lehmann Brothers and AIG. But we didn’t have those rules in place, that framework of regulation in place. So instead, we saw a disaster that nearly led to the collapse of the entire economy.
In the Gulf, we don’t yet know what caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. But what we do know is that for decades, the oil industry has been able to essentially write its own rules and safety regulations. Industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. And oil and gas companies were allowed to basically fill out their own safety inspection forms.
In Washington, nearly a decade of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires led to little more than sluggish growth, a shrinking middle class, your paychecks flat-lined. Wages and incomes did not go up. Even when the economy was growing, it wasn’t growing for you. And for all the party’s moralizing about fiscal discipline, because it is true that part of what we inherited is a real significant problem in terms of spending at the federal level, the economic policies they put in place turned a $237 billion surplus into a $1.3 trillion deficit. (Applause.)
So when I — you know, there were a couple of signs when I came in, said, you know, do something about spending. I’m game to do something about spending, but let’s just remember how we got into this fix. (Applause.)
Now, I’ve never believed that government has all the answers. That’s now how America thinks. Government can’t and should not replace businesses as the engines of growth and job creation in our economy. Government should live within its means. We should root out waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars wherever and whenever we can. Too much regulation can stifle competition and hurt businesses.
But if you think about the history of this country, we’ve always recognized that there are times when only government has been able to do what individuals couldn’t do and what corporations would not do. That’s how we have railroads and highways and public schools and police forces. That’s how we’ve made possible scientific research that led to the medical breakthroughs and technological wonders that all of us take for granted now. That’s why we have Social Security and a minimum wage and laws to protect the food we eat and the water we drink and the air we breathe. (Applause.) That’s why we have rules to ensure that mines are safe and that oil companies pay for the spills that they cause. (Applause.)
And there have always been those who said no to these policies and these ideas. I mean, you look back on the history books. There were people who said that Social Security was socialism, said that Medicare was a government takeover. There were automakers who said that installing seat belts was unnecessary, unaffordable, and would ruin the auto industry. There were skeptics who thought that cleaning our water and our air would bankrupt our economy. Right here in Wisconsin — if you look at the lake now and look at the lake, what it was like 30 years ago, 40 years ago. And there were people who said, well, there’s nothing we can do about all the sludge and drudge and whatever is going on in there.
But they were wrong. They were wrong then, and they’re wrong today. (Applause.) So I want everybody to understand, this debate that we’re having in Washington is not about big government or small government. It’s about responsible government. It’s about accountable government. It’s about whose side government is on. It should be on the side of the American people. (Applause.) A government that breaks down barriers to opportunity and prosperity. That’s the kind of government we need. That’s the kind of government I’m trying to give you. (Applause.)
So I just want everybody to remember, we’ve tried the other side’s theories. We know what their ideas are. We know where they led us. So now we’ve got a choice. We can return to what we know did not work, or we build a stronger future. (Applause.) We can go backwards, or we can go forward. And I don’t know about you, but I want to move forward in this country. (Applause.)
As we speak, right now, we’re on the verge of passing the most comprehensive financial reform since the Great Depression — a reform that will prevent a crisis like this from happening again. It will protect our economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility of a few on Wall Street. It will protect consumers against unfair practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders. It’s a reform that makes sure taxpayers never have to engage in a bailout for Wall Street’s mistakes.
Obama pushed back hard again the GOP Leader in the House who likened the financial crisis to an ant:
But I have to tell you, you would think this would be a bipartisan issue — don’t you? I mean, you’d think everybody would say, all right, what we were doing, that didn’t work; we’ve really got to tighten things up a little bit. But right now most of our friends on the — in the other party are planning to vote against this reform. The leader of the Republicans in the House said that financial reform was like — I’m quoting here — “using a nuclear weapon to target an ant.” That’s what he said. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly 8 million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes, their life savings.
He can’t be that out of touch with the struggles of American families. And if he is, then he’s got to come here to Racine and ask people what they think. (Applause.) Do you think we should fix — I mean, maybe I’m confused. Do you think that the financial crisis was an ant and we just needed a little ant swatter to fix this thing? Or do you think that we need to restructure how we regulate the financial system so you aren’t on the hook again and we don’t have this kind of crisis again? (Applause.)
When you ask men and women who have been out of work for months at a time, who talk about how they’ve been barely hanging on, they don’t think this financial crisis was something where you just need a few tweaks. They know it’s what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this doesn’t happen again. And so there may be those in Washington who want to maintain the status quo, but we want to move America forward.
There are some folks who are against raising the limit on what companies like BP have to pay if they cause an environmental disaster. A few of them said they were against the $20 billion fund that we set up to make sure that workers and businesses in the Gulf whose livelihoods have been harmed by the oil spill would get compensation. The top Republican on the energy committee apologized to BP. Did you all read about that? He apologized to BP that we had made them set up this fund. Called it “a tragedy” that we had made them pay for the destruction that they had caused. Now, I got to say, they pulled it back after — he meant it, but then they kind of walked it back. (Laughter.)
I mean, the tragedy is what the people of the Gulf are going through right now. That’s the tragedy. And our government has a responsibility to hold those who caused it accountable. (Applause.) They want to take us backwards. We want to move forward. (Applause.)
Some of these same folks want to maintain the status quo where we just rely on oil and other fossil fuels for all of our energy needs, even though we know that our dependence on these energy sources is a problem because they’re finite. They’re going to run out, and that jeopardizes our national security and our prosperity and our planet.
So I want to move forward. I believe it is time for this country to embrace a clean energy future. (Applause.) I don’t want clean energy jobs to go to China. I don’t want them to go to Germany. I want those industries to take root right here in the United States of America. (Applause.)
So already — already we’ve provided entrepreneurs and small business owners with tax credits and loan guarantees that’s led to 720,000 clean energy jobs — will lead to over 700,000 jobs in 2012. These are good-paying, middle-class, American jobs. I’ve seen them. I’ve gone to wind turbine plants where they’re creating wind turbines, and gone to solar plants where they’re making the latest generation of solar panels. And we’ve created an entire new advanced battery industry here in the United States. So where we were only getting 2 percent of that market, we’re now going to be getting 40 percent of that market. That was all done through the Recovery Act. (Applause.)
We’ve got to build on that progress, not undo it. That’s why we need to pass legislation that makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses. We’ve got to have a national mission to change the way we use energy and produce energy. And you know what, it will be good for our economy. It is going to drive our economy in the 21st century. It is not time for us to look backwards, it’s time for us to look forward right now when it comes to energy policy in this country. (Applause.)
So, look, these are incredibly challenging times for America, especially for families who’ve been hurt by this recession. And, you know, one of the things that I’ve tried to do is always be straight with you when I was running and as President. The problems we face aren’t going to go away overnight. No President, no politician, has the power to make that happen.
There will be some who tell you that the closer you get to election day — (laughter) — but the fact is some of these challenges have been building up for decades. Making sure that our schools are prepared to — are preparing our kids to compete in this new global economy; making sure that our health care system is efficient and provides good, quality care to everybody; making sure that we are at the forefront of a clean energy future; getting our budgets under control — all those issues are issues that have been building up for decades.
So we’re not going to fix them overnight, but what we can do is make a choice about which direction we want to take this country. What we can do is what we’ve always done, which is shape our own destiny as a nation.
The interests of the status quo, they’re always going to have the most vocal defenders, the most powerful defenders. There will always be lobbyists for the banks and the insurance industry that doesn’t want more regulation, for companies that would prefer to see tax breaks instead of more investment on infrastructure or education. And let’s face it — for some of us, just voters, the prospects of change are kind of scary, even when we know the status quo isn’t working for us.
I mean, you remember all the fear-mongering that was going on during the health care debate — right, remember? All of you were told, you’re going to lose your health care. It’s going to be socialized. The government is going to come in and death panels are going to be set up and — remember that? And now, we’re about three, four months into it, and everybody is looking around and — (laughter.) But at the time — at the time it was scary.
And the other thing is, there are no powerful interests to lobby for a clean energy future that may be starting years from now, or the research that may lead to the life-saving medical breakthrough a decade from now. There aren’t powerful lobbyists for the student who may not be able to afford a college education right now but if they got that college education would end up starting a business that would create thousands of jobs here in Wisconsin.
It’s our job as a nation to advocate for the America that we hope for, to fight for the future that we want for the next generation — even if it’s not always popular, even if it’s not easy, even if we’re not benefiting in the short term. And if we do that now, if we set up that foundation, I am positive that we are going to create the kind of America that we want for the next generation. Our better days are ahead of us, not behind us, but we got to fight for that future. I want to fight with you. I want to fight alongside you for that future, Racine. (Applause.) And I’m absolutely positive that if we can unify the country, if we have the courage to change, then nothing can stop us.
Thank you. Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I’m going — thank you. (Applause.)
