POLITICAL SPEECHES & DOCUMENTS
President Obama’s Weekly Address: Securing Our Fiscal Future
President Obama emphasizes the importance of compromise and shared sacrifice so that we can overcome our fiscal challenges and get our economy on a stronger footing going forward.
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WEEKLY ADDRESS: A Unique Opportunity to Secure our Fiscal Future
In this week’s address, President Obama called on both parties to work together to find a balanced approach to solving our nation’s deficit problem. The President emphasized the importance of compromise and shared sacrifice so that we can overcome our fiscal challenges and move our country forward. To get our fiscal house in order, we must cut spending, but we must also close tax loopholes for special interests and ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. Through cooperation and a bipartisan approach, we can get our economy on firmer ground and give our businesses the confidence they need to create more jobs across the United States.
Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House July 16, 2011
Here’s the president’s full address:
Today, there’s a debate going on in Washington over the best way to get America’s fiscal house in order and get our economy on a stronger footing going forward.
For a decade, America has been spending more money than we’ve taken in. For several decades, our debt has been rising. And let’s be honest — neither party in this town is blameless. Both have talked this problem to death without doing enough about it. That’s what drives people nuts about Washington. Too often, it’s a place more concerned with playing politics and serving special interests than resolving real problems or focusing on what you’re facing in your own lives.
But right now, we have a responsibility — and an opportunity — to reduce our deficit as much as possible and solve this problem in a real and comprehensive way.
Simply put, it will take a balanced approach, shared sacrifice, and a willingness to make unpopular choices on all our parts. That means spending less on domestic programs. It means spending less on defense programs. It means reforming programs like Medicare to reduce costs and strengthen the program for future generations. And it means taking on the tax code, and cutting out certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest Americans.
Now, some of these things don’t make folks in my party too happy. And I wouldn’t agree to some of these cuts if we were in a better fiscal situation, but we’re not. That’s why I’m willing to compromise. I’m willing to do what it takes to solve this problem, even if it’s not politically popular. And I expect leaders in Congress to show that same willingness to compromise.
The truth is, you can’t solve our deficit without cutting spending. But you also can’t solve it without asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share — or without taking on loopholes that give special interests and big corporations tax breaks that middle-class Americans don’t get.
It’s pretty simple. I don’t think oil companies should keep getting special tax breaks when they’re making tens of billions in profits. I don’t think hedge fund managers should pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. I don’t think it’s fair to ask nothing of someone like me when the average family has seen their income decline over the past decade — and when many of you are just trying to stretch every dollar as far as it’ll go.
We shouldn’t put the burden of deficit reduction on the backs of folks who’ve already borne the brunt of the recession. It’s not reasonable and it’s not right. If we’re going to ask seniors, or students, or middle-class Americans to sacrifice, then we have to ask corporations and the wealthiest Americans to share in that sacrifice. We have to ask everyone to play their part. Because we are all part of the same country. We are all in this together.
So I’ve put things on the table that are important to me and to Democrats, and I expect Republican leaders to do the same. After all, we’ve worked together like that before. Ronald Reagan worked with Tip O’Neill and Democrats to cut spending, raise revenues, and reform Social Security. Bill Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich and Republicans to balance the budget and create surpluses. Nobody ever got everything they wanted. But they worked together. And they moved this country forward.
That kind of cooperation should be the least you expect from us — not the most you expect from us. You work hard, you do what’s right, and you expect leaders who do the same. You sent us to Washington to do the tough things. The right things. Not just for some of us, but for all of us. Not just what’s enough to get through the next election — but what’s right for the next generation.
You expect us to get this right. To put America back on firm economic ground. To forge a healthy, growing economy. To create new jobs and rebuild the lives of the middle class. And that’s what I’m committed to doing.
Thank you.
Mitch McConnell: If Obama stiff-arms us, we’ll go to the people
In a column for USA TODAY, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a Republican assessment of the talks:
By Charles Dharapak, AP
President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at the White House on Wednesday.
With the government expected to spend $1.4 trillion more than it takes in this year alone, the White House presented us with two bad options: a so-called “big deal” that, even if you accept its numbers, would have only lowered our debt from $26 trillion to about $22 trillion over the next 10 years; and a smaller deal that would cut $2 billion next year out of a $3.7 trillion budget.
Another catch: Both offers came with massive tax hikes — which we know, and the president has acknowledged, will hurt job growth.
When Republicans refused both proposals, the president responded that he only wants to tax “the rich,” but, again, the facts are clear. Raising taxes on the “top 2%” would not only create yet another roadblock for small businesses to create jobs, it would come up about $10 trillion short on our bills.
So the president can claim he only wants to tax jet owners, but Washington’s deficits and debt are so big that pretty soon he’ll have no choice but to sock it to families flying in coach as well.
In his White House e-mail, David Plouffe wrote of the GOP:
White House senior adviser David PlouffeBy Scott Olson, Getty ImagesThe President tried to make it easy for them by suggesting closing some of the most egregious loopholes for the very wealthiest Americans and special interests — so that hedge fund managers don’t pay lower taxes than firefighters and teachers, corporate jet owners don’t pay lower taxes than commercial airlines, and oil companies don’t get tax cuts at a time they are making record profits.
Congressional Republicans have not yet given an inch even though the American people, regardless of which political party they belong to, overwhelmingly approve of this common sense, balanced approach.
Our nation is climbing out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, and one of the most important things we can do to help the economy is to get our fiscal house in order and reduce our Nation’s deficit. We can’t let this moment pass us by.
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