Perhaps not the worst speech he’s given, but boring, long-winded and at times appalling nonetheless.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought – and several thousand gave their lives.
We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.
These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.
This is a perfectly solid, inoffensive opening to the speech and so far nobody should have a problem with it. But of course that’s not why Obama is on TV – so wait for it…
Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.
Again, inoffensive. But it’s early yet.
We can do this. I know we can, because we’ve done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known. My grandfather, a veteran of Patton’s Army, got the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. My grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line, was part of a workforce that turned out the best products on Earth.
The two of them shared the optimism of a Nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger; that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share – the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.
Obama’s grandparents were Reds. They brought up his mother as a red-diaper baby in a pinko church outside of Seattle and they let him hang around a known communist (and admitted pedophile) in Frank Marshall Davis when he was under their care as a kid in Hawaii. So while the sentiment that we want to return to the optimism of the post-WWII era is nice, and we all look back on that time as a Golden Age of sorts, let’s not go overboard – the fact is that by the late 1940’s you had a Republican Congress which greatly cut taxes and slashed government spending, and a left-wing Democrat president who ran in 1948, much as Obama will this year, against a “do-nothing Congress.”
This is the Golden Age he’s touting. That’s called irony.
The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.
American values aren’t about fair shots and fair shares. American values are about hard work, reward for talent and performance, expanding opportunities and freedom. It’s certainly true that keeping those opportunities on the rise for future generations is on the table as a major issue, but Obama’s runaway spending has made those opportunities far more difficult to access – so he’s hardly the right arbiter of how the choices for America’s future should shake out.
Let’s remember how we got here. Long before the recession, jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Technology made businesses more efficient, but also made some jobs obsolete. Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren’t, and personal debt that kept piling up.
In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn’t afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people’s money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn’t have the authority to stop the bad behavior.
How come those mortgages were sold to dupes and rubes? Why would a bank issue a mortgage to somebody who can’t afford to pay it? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, yeah – Fannie and Freddie guaranteed ’em. And who stood against anyone trying to rein in those two abominations? Why, Obama and his Democrat buddies in the Senate. Now he’s talking about houses of cards?
It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hard-working Americans holding the bag. In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect.
Think the housing crisis is over? Think his policies have fixed the problems?
Lots of people know that U.S. home prices have plummeted down to 2003 levels (or lower). Unfortunately, not many know about the far more extreme decline in housing starts — an equally tangible activity that arguably has more to say about U.S. economic health.
Unlike home prices, housing starts today are nowhere close to where they were in 2003 — in fact they’ve fallen to levels that are far below anything in living memory…
…That is, unless you’re 90 years old.
That’s right. Housing starts today have declined to the same number as 1922, even though the U.S. has three times the population.
This is the State of the Union speech. He’s talking about the State of the Union, circa 2008. How come Obama won’t talk about what’s going on in the housing sector now?
Guess you can’t really blame that on Bush in 2012, can you?
So not a whole hell of a lot about the current performance of the housing sector in this speech. As you go through it, you’ll notice there’s something else of fairly large significance he doesn’t even touch. It rhymes with Obamaglare.
Those are the facts. But so are these. In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. Together, we’ve agreed to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion. And we’ve put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.
As if Dodd-Frank will prevent a crisis on Wall Street if and when the European banking sector and sovereign debt goes to pieces. How idiotic.
Obama apparently doesn’t read the Daily Mail out of London, because if he did he’d hear about how his puppet-master George Soros thinks we’ll have riots in the streets here and the global economy is due for a collapse thanks to the problems with the Euro. Maybe Soros isn’t as impressed with Dodd-Frank as Obama is, or maybe Obama doesn’t have a clue.
By the way, three million jobs in 22 months ain’t all that hot. That’s 136,000 jobs a month (the actual figure is 3.1 million jobs over the last 22 months, which comes to 141,000 per month). If Obama wants to get unemployment down to where it was before the beginning of the recession in 2007 by the end of his [choke, choke] second term, as of October of last year the number he’d need per month is a lot bigger than that.
As in 261,000 jobs a month. Or almost double the figure he’s bragging on here. That’s an extraordinarily low bar he’s setting for himself.
The state of our Union is getting stronger. And we’ve come too far to turn back now. As long as I’m President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.
And what the hell does that mean? “Fighting obstruction with action” is the kind of crap one might expect from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez. It’s also the kind of thing Obama is doing over and over. Don’t give me Cap and Trade? Fine. I’ll sic Lisa Jackson on the coal industry without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress. Don’t go into recess so I can appoint left-wing moonbats as federal regulators? Fine. I’ll declare you into recess and appoint those people anyway.
Fighting obstruction with action. The Founders would be proud, right?
No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits. Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last – an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.
Please.
This blueprint begins with American manufacturing.
On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.
One should think GM is back on top. After all, Obama only plowed $23 billion of your money into GM. Don’t ask for it back – it’s gone.
You tell me what company wouldn’t be doing better with a $23 billion infusion of capital. And you tell me whether you think that for $23 billion somebody could have built a new car company not encumbered by Obama’s friends at the United Auto Workers and not subject to the federal government screwing over its bondholders.
By the by – how’s that Chevy Volt doing at the dealerships?
We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back.
You bet, and you lost $23 billion of our money. Let’s hope the Chinese are OK with us welching on our debts – though that probably isn’t likely.
What’s happening in Detroit can happen in other industries. It can happen in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Raleigh. We can’t bring back every job that’s left our shores. But right now, it’s getting more expensive to do business in places like China. Meanwhile, America is more productive. A few weeks ago, the CEO of Master Lock told me that it now makes business sense for him to bring jobs back home. Today, for the first time in fifteen years, Master Lock’s unionized plant in Milwaukee is running at full capacity.
Padlocks will bring American business back.
Hey, what state is Milwaukee in? Oh, yeah – Wisconsin. Is Obama aware that Wisconsin’s economy is actually in the midst of a growth spurt? Wonder how that happened. Wonder what happened in Wisconsin. Can anybody fill us in on what that might be? We seem to remember Wisconsin being in the news in the last year, but gosh, we just can’t remember what that was…
So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.
We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it.
So let’s change it. First, if you’re a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn’t get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home.
More special treatment in the tax code isn’t going to fix anything. If Obama was serious about manufacturing, he’d do something about energy costs for manufacturers for example – the average annual electricity cost nationwide is up $300 over the last 20 years in 2010 dollars, meaning the average American is spending more on the light bill than at any time since 1996. That’s for households. Factories use a whole lot more electricity than cribs in the burbs. Think that cost increase isn’t retarding manufacturers?
Rather than making the tax code more complicated, why not simplify it and lower the corporate tax rate to something which isn’t the highest in the civilized world? Not a single word said about that tonight.
Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here.
An alternative minimum tax for corporations? Yeah, that’s really pro-growth. And it takes talent to propose redistributing income from one corporation to another. Think the Occupy people are too stoned to watch this speech, or what?
Third, if you’re an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you’re a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers.
Once again, Obama is proposing a social engineering project for Corporate America using the tax code as his vehicle. The tax code already has 186 million pages to it, or some essentially similar number. What’s a few thousand more when Washington gets the power to play around with everybody’s bottom line?
My message is simple. It’s time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I’ll sign them right away.
Dirtying up the tax code isn’t simple. Never has been. If Obama wanted a simple message, he would have proposed wiping out the tax code and replacing it with a flatter, lower rate for corporations and coming up with policies which reduced the cost of doing business here. He did anything but that tonight.
We’re also making it easier for American businesses to sell products all over the world. Two years ago, I set a goal of doubling U.S. exports over five years. With the bipartisan trade agreements I signed into law, we are on track to meet that goal – ahead of schedule. Soon, there will be millions of new customers for American goods in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Soon, there will be new cars on the streets of Seoul imported from Detroit, and Toledo, and Chicago.
It took a shamefully long time to get those trade agreements done, but Obama gets credit for at least having the intelligence to sign them. But is his claim of doubling exports in less than five years legitimate? Well, the New York Times says it is so far, but even Obama’s propaganda outfit of record doubts it will stay that way since the macro forces which have exports up from $140 billion a month two years ago to $180 billion a month now are beginning to dissipate.
I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products. And I will not stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules. We’ve brought trade cases against China at nearly twice the rate as the last administration – and it’s made a difference. Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires. But we need to do more. It’s not right when another country lets our movies, music, and software be pirated. It’s not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they’re heavily subsidized.
Tonight, I’m announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing finance or new markets like Russia. Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you – America will always win.
This is a shameful bit of demagoguery which will serve little purpose in terms of promoting trade. Rattling sabers at the Chinese is a stupid idea when you still require them to buy your debt. Get your house in order, then engage in whatever trade war with Beijing your little heart desires.
Since when is Russia a new market?
I also hear from many business leaders who want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills. Growing industries in science and technology have twice as many openings as we have workers who can do the job. Think about that – openings at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work.
That’s inexcusable. And we know how to fix it.
Here’s where Obama begins campaigning for governor of all 57 states rather than president. To wit…
Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie’s tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant.
And Jackie Bray’s story involves the federal government…how?
I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did. Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My Administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers – places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.
Again, there is absolutely no reason why the federal government needs to be involved in partnerships between companies and community colleges. Local politicians and state economic development authorities, sure. The President and the Congress? Not bloody likely – mayhap that’s why we’re running the deficit we’re running.
And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help they need. It’s time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.
Seriously? What are we going to have, a federal government which sends you off to get re-trained for a new job and then places you in one? What could possibly go wrong with THAT scheme?
Maybe individuals ought to be motivated to do these things for themselves. If you’re confused by the maze of training programs out there, are you really employable? And can’t the market produce a website to help folks navigate the information and help they need? Hasn’t Obama ever seen Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com? They do advertise on TV from time to time, y’know.
These reforms will help people get jobs that are open today. But to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, our commitment to skills and education has to start earlier.
For less than one percent of what our Nation spends on education each year, we’ve convinced nearly every State in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning – the first time that’s happened in a generation.
Sure, the standards are going up. Performance is flat. And our return on our investment dollar, particularly measured against the rest of the world, is the worst.
But challenges remain. And we know how to solve them.
At a time when other countries are doubling down on education, tight budgets have forced States to lay off thousands of teachers. We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000. A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance. Every person in this chamber can point to a teacher who changed the trajectory of their lives. Most teachers work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies – just to make a difference.
Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.
He’s running for governor again. Does Bobby Jindal, who’s embarking on the most aggressive program of school choice, accountability and decentralization ever attempted in modern American history, really need Obama to co-opt that plan from Washington? Don’t think so. Some of what Obama says here isn’t wrong. But the federal government’s role in K-12 education has been nothing if not destructive over the past 50 years, and it’s long past time for Washington to get the hell out of the way and let local people run local schools.
We also know that when students aren’t allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.
Holy cow.
If that is not the single most idiotic idea ever proposed in a State of the Union address, we’d hate to see what was.
What if a 17-year old kid invents better software that keeps PC’s from getting viruses? What if that kid is in a position to go to work full-time and make millions, and he doesn’t want to sit in a classroom anymore? Is Obama going to put him in jail?
Or what if another 17-year old kid is so obnoxious, unruly and destructive that he destroys the educational experience of everybody else in his class? Is Obama going to require that the school subject 25 other kids to this hellion until he turns 18 or gets convicted of a crime?
An entire book could be written about how incredibly stupid this idea is. It’s No Child Left Behind on steroids. Obama’s going to resolve the high school dropout problem by legislative fiat. Talk about a politician with absolutely zero idea of what the practical limits of government are.
Harry Reid was actually laughing at this suggestion, as if to say “Fat chance of THAT happnin’, Barry.”
The teachers’ unions like to scream about Republican efforts to meddle with their profession. By that standard they should be rioting in the streets in reaction to the idea that the kids who can’t make it through high school should be forced to stay there and pollute the place for everybody who’s there to work and learn.
Hopefully the GOP will make major hash out of this idiocy. Who came up with the idea to put that in this speech? Was that guy a recess appointment?
When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.
Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid. We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who’ve done just that. Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly. Some use better technology. The point is, it’s possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.
Obama’s running for governor again. The federal government’s role in higher education is precisely what has caused the runaway inflation in college tuition – the last thing we need is some sort of price control package to destroy what’s left of the quality in the system.
Let’s also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country face another challenge: The fact that they aren’t yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else.
That doesn’t make sense.
I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. That’s why my Administration has put more boots on the border than ever before. That’s why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office.
The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now. But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, and defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away.
Translation: send me a law that allows me to turn as many illegals into Democrat machine voters as possible, and I’ll sign it right away.
If Obama wants to propose expanding the H1 visa program and allow people who have job skills to transfer into it even if they might be illegal, that could be negotiated. That’s not what he’s talking about – he wants the DREAM Act, and that’s a non-starter.
You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country. That means women should earn equal pay for equal work. It means we should support everyone who’s willing to work; and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.
After all, innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses. So let’s pass an agenda that helps them succeed. Tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow. Expand tax relief to small businesses that are raising wages and creating good jobs. Both parties agree on these ideas. So put them in a bill, and get it on my desk this year.
Hang on – first he says that the federal government should regulate who gets paid what based on their gender, then he says that he wants to help small business succeed? Yeah, this is a guy who knows what he’s talking about.
Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking place in our federally-financed labs and universities could lead to new treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched. New lightweight vests for cops and soldiers that can stop any bullet. Don’t gut these investments in our budget. Don’t let other countries win the race for the future. Support the same kind of research and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new American jobs and new American industries.
Why does it have to be a federal lab which makes lighter-weight Kevlar? Nobody will really complain about medical research, and everybody would agree that we need a robust R&D program in the Defense Department. But Thomas Edison didn’t draw a federal salary, and neither did Bill Gates or Henry Ford. Get out of the way and the private sector will do just fine with innovation, thanks – and then there’s this little issue Obama never really does discuss about how the federal government is dead-ass broke.
Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy. Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.
Those numbers are largely BS. Politifact rated the statement as Mostly True, though the fact is that oil production nationwide is generally pretty flat over that time frame – 2011 is only projected to be 13 percent higher than 2008, which was the lowest production within that period. And what’s driving the increase is the Bakken play, which is happening mostly on privately-owned land in Montana and North Dakota. Production on federal lands is at an atrocious pace – it’s down 40 percent since 2000.
As for this business about opening up 75 percent of the offshore oil and gas resources, we’ll believe it when we see it. Obama has had three years to actually do something about that and he’s gone in an entirely opposite direction.
But with only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, oil isn’t enough. This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – a strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.
We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly one hundred years, and my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade. And I’m requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.
If he’s so bullish on natural gas, why is Obama siccing the EPA on the industry? He’s talking the talk, and that’s all he’s doing.
The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy. And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock – reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.
Now Obama is having an Al Gore moment – he’s saying that the feds invented hydrofracking. Which is unmitigated horseshit regardless of what the Washington Post might have you believe.
What’s true for natural gas is true for clean energy. In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries. Because of federal investments, renewable energy use has nearly doubled. And thousands of Americans have jobs because of it.
At least for a while. Just ask the folks who used to work at Solyndra. Or Evergreen Energy. Or Beacon Power. Or Vestas. Or any of the other companies led into the market due to wasteful federal investments in technologies which lose money.
When Bryan Ritterby was laid off from his job making furniture, he said he worried that at 55, no one would give him a second chance. But he found work at Energetx, a wind turbine manufacturer in Michigan. Before the recession, the factory only made luxury yachts. Today, it’s hiring workers like Bryan, who said, “I’m proud to be working in the industry of the future.”
Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don’t always come right away. Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. I will not walk away from workers like Bryan. I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs.
Translation: re-elect me, and I’ll kill the oil industry and give you more Solyndras. Because that strategy proved itself to be awesome in Spain. By the way, where are these subsidies for the oil companies he’s talking about? If he’s talking about tax credits, he should say so – though even there we’d have a strong argument that he’s full of it.
We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation. So far, you haven’t acted. Well tonight, I will. I’m directing my Administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power three million homes. And I’m proud to announce that the Department of Defense, the world’s largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history – with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.
We’ve got plenty of cash to piss away on windmills and solar power. It’s not like Obama didn’t just propose to gut the military budget; why not spend what’s left on uneconomic energy?
Of course, the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy. So here’s another proposal: Help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. Their energy bills will be $100 billion lower over the next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that creates these jobs.
Obama’s skyrocketing power costs will do more to eliminate energy waste than any federal corporate giveaway program. Problem solved.
Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America’s infrastructure. So much of America needs to be rebuilt. We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges. A power grid that wastes too much energy. An incomplete high-speed broadband network that prevents a small business owner in rural America from selling her products all over the world.
We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges? Where’d that $800 billion you blew out the door in 2009 go, Mr. President? Thought that swag was supposed to fix all the roads and bridges. And the broadband idea has already produced some of the most glittering examples of wasteful federal spending in American history.
During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. After World War II, we connected our States with a system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today.
In the next few weeks, I will sign an Executive Order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.
Hey, here’s an idea, Mr. I-Think-Big-About-What-This-Great-Nation-Can-Do-When-It-Sets-Its-Mind-To-It: there’s this pipeline that some private-sector folks want to run down from Canada to Houston, and they want to call it the Keystone XL. Word is, it won’t cost the federal government a dime and it’ll create 20,000 jobs THIS YEAR. Except you just crapped all over the project and now the folks who were going to build it are now going to build one west, so they can ship oil to China instead of here.
Yep. Same spirit that built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. For sure.
There’s never been a better time to build, especially since the construction industry was one of the hardest-hit when the housing bubble burst. Of course, construction workers weren’t the only ones hurt. So were millions of innocent Americans who’ve seen their home values decline. And while Government can’t fix the problem on its own, responsible homeowners shouldn’t have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.
That’s why I’m sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage, by refinancing at historically low interest rates. No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks. A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won’t add to the deficit, and will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust.
There we go – he addresses housing after all. He says we’ll soak the banks to pay for a plan to let every homeowner refinance their mortgage. Because that’ll do wonders to fix that sector rather than letting the market clear like the people who know the industry have said we need to do.
Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a Government and a financial system that do the same. It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody.
We’ve all paid the price for lenders who sold mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, and buyers who knew they couldn’t afford them. That’s why we need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior. Rules to prevent financial fraud, or toxic dumping, or faulty medical devices, don’t destroy the free market. They make the free market work better.
Ugh. Obama and smart regulations. Like this one? Or this? Or this?
There is no question that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly. In fact, I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his. I’ve ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that don’t make sense. We’ve already announced over 500 reforms, and just a fraction of them will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years. We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill – because milk was somehow classified as an oil. With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.
Bad spilled-milk jokes aside, Obama’s bragging on his regulatory forbearance is breathtakingly dishonest. From Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, writing last month at National Review…
According to data available from the Office of Management and Budget, President Obama has issued 50 percent more “economically significant regulations” (those with an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more) per year than President Clinton and 44 percent more than George W. Bush.
Unfortunately, when it comes to regulations, it’s not just that there are more of them: The Obama administration’s regulatory actions are also more expensive. The average annual cost of major regulations under the Bush administration was $4.9 billion. Under Obama, the average cost has ballooned to $12.5 billion — that’s a cost increase of more than 150 percent to American businesses and consumers.
Our laissez-faire president continues…
I’m confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency looking over his shoulder. But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women differently from men.
Right. Because Republicans are for poisoning your kids with mercury (perhaps from those new lightbulbs?), unsafe food, toxic water and oil spills.
Does anybody not find something hideously wrong with the idea that the government can tell a company in a free society who it can and cannot do business with and at what price? Sure, we all hate insurance companies. But it seems like when you put them in the little populist box Obama builds, only a well-connected and lobbied-up few of them will survive; and if you think it’s a pain dealing with them now, wait until they’re basically the same as the power company.
And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. The new rules we passed restore what should be any financial system’s core purpose: Getting funding to entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and getting loans to responsible families who want to buy a home, start a business, or send a kid to college.
So if you’re a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers’ deposits. You’re required to write out a “living will” that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail – because the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again. And if you’re a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can’t afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.
Tell this crap to your buddy John Corzine. And by the way, Richard Cordray was appointed as a “recess appointment” when there was no recess. A bit of irony, then, that he’s being tasked with stopping lawless behavior by banks or brokers when he’s in his job thanks to a president who directly pissed on the Constitution to put him there.
We will also establish a Financial Crimes Unit of highly trained investigators to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people’s investments. Some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because there’s no real penalty for being a repeat offender. That’s bad for consumers, and it’s bad for the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals who do the right thing. So pass legislation that makes the penalties for fraud count.
A Financial Crimes Unit? Sounds Soviet. Would these highly-trained investigators be drawn from the ranks of the folks who were checking out Asian porn on government computers while Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford were stealing their clients blind?
And tonight, I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.
Right. Let’s put Eric Holder on the case. Because nobody’s better at insuring fair play or restoring integrity to the system or upholding the rule of law than Eric Holder.
A return to the American values of fair play and shared responsibility will help us protect our people and our economy. But it should also guide us as we look to pay down our debt and invest in our future.
Right now, our most immediate priority is stopping a tax hike on 160 million working Americans while the recovery is still fragile. People cannot afford losing $40 out of each paycheck this year. There are plenty of ways to get this done. So let’s agree right here, right now: No side issues. No drama. Pass the payroll tax cut without delay.
Is actually paying for the payroll tax cut drama? Is it a side issue? Obama knows that money comes out of Social Security, which is broke, right? If so, how come he couldn’t find the money to pay for it like the Republicans asked? Not to be dramatic or anything, y’know.
When it comes to the deficit, we’ve already agreed to more than $2 trillion in cuts and savings. But we need to do more, and that means making choices. Right now, we’re poised to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
Here comes class warfare. You ready?
Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else – like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we’re serious about paying down our debt, we can’t do both.
Actually, we can’t do either. We need rich people to pay a whole lot more in taxes. We’ll need them to earn a hell of a lot more money in order to generate that revenue, because trying to soak them will merely lead to tax avoidance and capital flight. And those “investments” are going to have to get cut. Besides, isn’t this the guy who wanted to yank half a trillion dollars out of the defense budget a couple weeks ago? Who’s he kidding?
The American people know what the right choice is. So do I. As I told the Speaker this summer, I’m prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors.
Great. Let’s get a bill to you block-granting Medicaid to the states and capping federal expenditures, repealing Obamacare, making Medicare a premium-support program like Paul Ryan and Ron Wyden suggested and means-testing Social Security while bumping the retirement age to 70 or 72 over the next generation. We might get something done in Washington this year after all.
But in return, we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes. And my Republican friend Tom Coburn is right: Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. In fact, if you’re earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn’t get special tax subsidies or deductions. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up. You’re the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages. You’re the ones who need relief.
Since when should the federal government have the ability to command 30 percent of your earnings? Our readers assumedly recognize what Obama is demanding here is a doubling of the top capital gains rate; what effect does the president believe that will have on our economic performance – and for that matter federal tax receipts? By the way, he’s lying about Coburn’s ideas – Coburn suggests whacking tax deductions in return for lowering the rates. That’s what Obama’s debt commission, of which Coburn was a member, suggested last year and he promptly ignored them.
You’ve got to admire the Mussolini-esque arrogance of our president, though, in claiming himself fit to be the arbiter of who should pay what in taxes. Remember what happened to Mussolini.
Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.
Buffett’s secretary doesn’t pay more in taxes than Buffett does. Buffett pays 10,000 times more even if he’s paying at the capital gains rate and she’s paying at the top income rate. And by the way, the average American doesn’t pay anywhere close to the 15 percent capital gains rate Buffett pays – your average tax filer makes 65K and has a total tax burden around nine percent in federal income tax. Buffett’s a nice guy who probably pays his secretary a lot more than 65K, but maybe she ought to ask him to pay her a good chunk of that in Berkshire Hathaway stock so that she can get cap gains income on it and thus make out better on April 15th.
But that’s between Buffett and his secretary and it’s none of our goddamned business. And it’s particularly none of Obama’s goddamned business.
We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich. It’s because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don’t need and the country can’t afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference – like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That’s not right. Americans know it’s not right. They know that this generation’s success is only possible because past generations felt a responsibility to each other, and to their country’s future, and they know our way of life will only endure if we feel that same sense of shared responsibility. That’s how we’ll reduce our deficit. That’s an America built to last.
Paying your fair share. That’s Obama’s re-election slogan. Nobody is going to be inspired by this, whether Axelrod and Plouffe and the rest of the Alinsky Youth Corps might think otherwise or not. As for his senior on a fixed income, what does Obama’s debasement of the currency through trillion-dollar deficits underwritten by the Fed, insane energy policies, ethanol mandates and other inflationary policies do for her? Gasoline is up more than 80 percent since he took office, ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. He thinks he’s a friend to those folks? Rich fatcats haven’t robbed them of their folding money; Obama has.
I recognize that people watching tonight have differing views about taxes and debt; energy and health care. But no matter what party they belong to, I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right now: Nothing will get done this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken.
Can you blame them for feeling a little cynical?
The greatest blow to confidence in our economy last year didn’t come from events beyond our control. It came from a debate in Washington over whether the United States would pay its bills or not. Who benefited from that fiasco?
One assumes he’s talking about his presiding over the first downgrade of America’s credit rating in financial history. Sure didn’t spend too much time on THAT horror show.
I’ve talked tonight about the deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. But the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad – and it seems to get worse every year.
Some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics. So together, let’s take some steps to fix that. Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow. Let’s limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact. Let’s make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa – an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.
Yeah, yeah yeah. We’ll come in with all kinds of ethics reform in Congress, and that’s a great idea. Why Obama didn’t ask for term limits for members of Congress, like 70 percent of the American people favor, is a good question. But what you don’t hear him say is “you enact these reforms and I’ll reciprocate with similar ethics improvements within the executive branch.”
Not a word of that.
Some of what’s broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything – even routine business – passed through the Senate. Neither party has been blameless in these tactics. Now both parties should put an end to it. For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days.
Why bother? You can just declare they’re in a recess whenever you want and put your guy in an office. Who needs rules when you won’t follow them?
The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.
Or you could actually do your job and present Congress with a plan to do so and let them vote on it. But since you can’t even present a budget like you’re legally obligated to do, far be it for anybody to expect so much of you.
Finally, none of these reforms can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas.
This guy wants us all to get along? Really?
I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. That’s why my education reform offers more competition, and more control for schools and States. That’s why we’re getting rid of regulations that don’t work. That’s why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program.
This is where the lies start coming out machine-gun style.
On the other hand, even my Republican friends who complain the most about Government spending have supported federally-financed roads, and clean energy projects, and federal offices for the folks back home.
The point is, we should all want a smarter, more effective Government. And while we may not be able to bridge our biggest philosophical differences this year, we can make real progress. With or without this Congress, I will keep taking actions that help the economy grow. But I can do a whole lot more with your help. Because when we act together, there is nothing the United States of America can’t achieve.
Huh?
That is the lesson we’ve learned from our actions abroad over the last few years.
Ending the Iraq war has allowed us to strike decisive blows against our enemies. From Pakistan to Yemen, the al Qaeda operatives who remain are scrambling, knowing that they can’t escape the reach of the United States of America.
From this position of strength, we’ve begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. Ten thousand of our troops have come home. Twenty-three thousand more will leave by the end of this summer. This transition to Afghan lead will continue, and we will build an enduring partnership with Afghanistan, so that it is never again a source of attacks against America.
All who believe we’ll have an enduring partnership with Afghanistan, say aye. But wait – this is where it gets awesome.
As the tide of war recedes, a wave of change has washed across the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunis to Cairo; from Sana’a to Tripoli. A year ago, Qadhafi was one of the world’s longest-serving dictators – a murderer with American blood on his hands. Today, he is gone. And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change can’t be reversed, and that human dignity can’t be denied.
Yeah, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are kicking ass right now. Bastions of freedom, those places are. And very peaceful. And exactly what are we doing to get rid of Assad, again? Other than calling for him to step down six months ago, that is.
How this incredible transformation will end remains uncertain. But we have a huge stake in the outcome. And while it is ultimately up to the people of the region to decide their fate, we will advocate for those values that have served our own country so well. We will stand against violence and intimidation. We will stand for the rights and dignity of all human beings – men and women; Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We will support policies that lead to strong and stable democracies and open markets, because tyranny is no match for liberty.
Bang-up job you’re doing on that score right now, Mr. President.
And we will safeguard America’s own security against those who threaten our citizens, our friends, and our interests. Look at Iran. Through the power of our diplomacy, a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program now stands as one. The regime is more isolated than ever before; its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions, and as long as they shirk their responsibilities, this pressure will not relent. Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.
Don’t think the Iranians are too anxious about us right now. And it’s a damn shame we don’t have a president with some real stones, because a Ronald Reagan would have said it’s time for the people of Iran to claim their freedom and throw off the shackles the mullahs have put on them. Tear down this wall, and so on.
You don’t get that from Obama.
But you do get this. Oh, you’ll love this part.
The renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe. Our oldest alliances in Europe and Asia are stronger than ever. Our ties to the Americas are deeper. Our iron-clad commitment to Israel’s security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history. We’ve made it clear that America is a Pacific power, and a new beginning in Burma has lit a new hope. From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.
Renewal of American leadership, he says. Stronger European and Asian alliances than ever, he says. Ties to the Americas are deeper, he says. Close military cooperation with Israel, he says. We’re back, he says. Wow.
Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That’s not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they’ve been in years. Yes, the world is changing; no, we can’t control every event. But America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs – and as long as I’m President, I intend to keep it that way.
They like us in Tokyo because the military helped them a great deal when they had the earthquake. Not sure where Obama gets the idea they like us in Berlin any more than they ever did. Pretty obvious why they like us in Cape Town. And the $2 billion to capitalize their offshore oil industry and the sweetheart deal Obama gave to Embraer ought to be plenty enough to buy the Brazilians’ love. One wonders how it is that we’re giving defense contracts to a company founded and still partially owned by a government which is in bed with Iran, but hey – they love us in Rio.
That’s why, working with our military leaders, I have proposed a new defense strategy that ensures we maintain the finest military in the world, while saving nearly half a trillion dollars in our budget. To stay one step ahead of our adversaries, I have already sent this Congress legislation that will secure our country from the growing danger of cyber-threats.
Right. The people who actually know about defense had a great opinion on this defense strategy of Obama’s.
Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they served us. That includes giving them the care and benefits they have earned – which is why we’ve increased annual VA spending every year I’ve been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our Nation.
With the bipartisan support of this Congress, we are providing new tax credits to companies that hire vets. Michelle and Jill Biden have worked with American businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. And tonight, I’m proposing a Veterans Job Corps that will help our communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that America is as strong as those who defend her.
So rather than engage in pro-growth policies which would create jobs in which veterans would be in heavy demand thanks to skills they learned in the military, Obama’s solution is to throw more federal money we don’t have to employ vets as public employees for broke state and local governments. Which sounds like an insanely stupid idea except that as public employees they’re pretty likely to be in unions, have dues automatically pulled out of their paychecks and involuntarily support Democrats like Obama when it’s campaign season.
And now we’re back to the inoffensive stuff again. About how in the military the mission is what’s important and nothing else is.
Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who’ve been sent here to serve can learn from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.
One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates – a man who was George Bush’s defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.
All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn’t deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job – the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other – because you can’t charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there’s someone behind you, watching your back.
So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we’re joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.
Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
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