allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of
the globe, values that drive our citizens still. Every day, Americans
meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers. Time
and again, they lend a hand to their neighbors and give back to their
country. They take pride in their labor and are generous in spirit.
These aren't Republican values or Democratic values that they're living
by, business values or labor values, they're American values.
Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our
biggest institutions--our corporations, our media, and, yes, our
Government--still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions
are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our
country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure or a
banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's
doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear
each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The
more that TV pundits reduce serious debates to silly arguments, big
issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away. No wonder there's so
much cynicism out there. No wonder there's so much disappointment.
I campaigned on the promise of change. Change we can believe in, the
slogan went. And right now I know there are many Americans who aren't
sure if they still believe we can change or that I can deliver it.
But remember this: I never suggested that change would be easy or that
I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be
noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and
make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it
is.
Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it
safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers. We can do
what's necessary to keep our poll numbers high and get through the next
election, instead of doing what's best for the next generation.
But I also know this: If people had made that decision 50 years ago or
100 years ago or 200 years ago, we wouldn't be here tonight. The only
reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to
do what was hard, to do what was needed even when success was uncertain,
to do what it took to keep the dream of this Nation alive for their
children and their grandchildren.
Now, our administration has had some political setbacks this year, and
some of them were deserved. But I wake up every day knowing that they
are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this
country have faced this year. And what keeps me going, what keeps me
fighting, is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of
determination and optimism, that fundamental decency that has always
been at the core of the American people, that lives on.
It lives on in the struggling small-business owner who wrote to me of
his company, "None of us," he said, ". . . are willing to consider,
even slightly, that we might fail." It lives on in the woman who said
that even though she and her neighbors have felt the pain of recession,
"We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." It lives on in the
8-year-old boy in Louisiana who just sent me his allowance and asked if
I would give it to the people of Haiti. And it lives on in all the
Americans who've dropped everything to go someplace they've never been
and pull people they've never known from the rubble, prompting chants
of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" when another life was saved.
The spirit that has sustained this Nation for more than two centuries
lives on in you, its people. We have finished a difficult year. We have
come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade
stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this
moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our
Union once more.
Thank you. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
***
Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
Barack Obama
January 25, 2011
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished
guests, and fellow Americans: Tonight I want to begin by congratulating
the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new Speaker,
John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we're also mindful of the
empty chair in this Chamber, and we pray for the health of our
colleague and our friend Gabby Giffords.
It's no secret that those of us here tonight have had our differences
over the last 2 years. The debates have been contentious; we have
fought fiercely for our beliefs. And that's a good thing. That's what a
robust democracy demands. That's what helps set us apart as a nation.
But there's a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause. Amid all the
noise and passion and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us
that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part
of something greater, something more consequential than party or
political preference.
We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where
every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound
together as one people, that we share common hopes and a common creed,
that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than
those of our own children, that they all deserve the chance to be
fulfilled. That too is what sets us apart as a nation.
Now, by itself, this simple recognition won't usher in a new era of
cooperation. What comes of this moment is up to us. What comes of this
moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight,
but whether we can work together tomorrow.
I believe we can, and I believe we must. That's what the people who
sent us here expect of us. With their votes, they've determined that
governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws
will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans. We will
move forward together or not at all, for the challenges we face are
bigger than party and bigger than politics.
At stake right now is not who wins the next election. After all, we
just had an election. At stake is whether new jobs and industries take
root in this country or somewhere else. It's whether the hard work and
industry of our people is rewarded. It's whether we sustain the
leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but the
light to the world.
We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of
us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back, corporate
profits are up, the economy is growing again.
But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone. We
measure progress by the success of our people, by the jobs they can
find and the quality of life those jobs offer, by the prospects of a
small-business owner who dreams of turning a good idea into a thriving
enterprise, by the opportunities for a better life that we pass on to
our children.
That's the project the American people want us to work on--together.
Now, we did that in December. Thanks to the tax cuts we passed,
Americans' paychecks are a little bigger today. Every business can
write off the full cost of new investments that they make this year.
And these steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the
economy and add to the more than 1 million private sector jobs created
last year.
But we have to do more. These steps we've taken over the last 2 years
may have broken the back of this recession, but to win the future,
we'll need to take on challenges that have been decades in the making.
Many people watching tonight can probably remember a time when finding
a good job meant showing up at a nearby factory or a business downtown.
You didn't always need a degree, and your competition was pretty much
limited to your neighbors. If you worked hard, chances are you'd have a
job for life, with a decent paycheck and good benefits and the
occasional promotion. Maybe you'd even have the pride of seeing your
kids work at the same company.
That world has changed. And for many, the change has been painful. I've
seen it in the shuttered windows of once booming factories and the
vacant storefronts on once busy Main Streets. I've heard it in the
frustrations of Americans who've seen their paychecks dwindle or their
jobs disappear, proud men and women who feel like the rules have been
changed in the middle of the game.
They're right. The rules have changed. In a single generation,
revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work, and
do business. Steel mills that once needed 1,000 workers can now do the
same work with 100. Today, just about any company can set up shop, hire
workers, and sell their products wherever there's an Internet
connection.
Meanwhile, nations like China and India realized that with some changes
of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started
educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on
math and science. They're investing in research and new technologies.
Just recently, China became the home to the world's largest private
solar research facility and the world's fastest computer.
So yes, the world is changed. The competition for jobs is real. But
this shouldn't discourage us. It should challenge us. Remember, for all
the hits we've taken these last few years, for all the naysayers
predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous
economy in the world. No workers are more productive than ours. No
country has more successful companies or grants more patents to
inventors and entrepreneurs. We're the home to the world's best
colleges and universities, where more students come to study than any
place on Earth.
What's more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an
idea: the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own
destiny. That's why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked
everything to come here. It's why our students don't just memorize
equations, but answer questions like: "What do you think of that idea?
What would you change about the world? What do you want to be when you
grow up?"
The future is ours to win. But to get there, we can't just stand still.
As Robert Kennedy told us: "The future is not a gift. It is an
achievement." Sustaining the American Dream has never been about
standing pat. It has required each generation to sacrifice and struggle
and meet the demands of a new age.
And now it's our turn. We know what it takes to compete for the jobs
and industries of our time. We need to outinnovate, outeducate, and
outbuild the rest of the world. We have to make America the best place
on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit
and reform our Government. That's how our people will prosper. That's
how we'll win the future. And tonight I'd like to talk about how we get
there.
The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation.
None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will
be or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn't
know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic
revolution. What we can do--what America does better than anyone else--
is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We're the nation
that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of
Edison and the Wright brothers, of Google and Facebook. In America,
innovation doesn't just change our lives. It is how we make our living.
Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation. But because it's
not always profitable for companies to invest in basic research,
throughout our history, our Government has provided cutting-edge
scientists and inventors with the support that they need. That's what
planted the seeds for the Internet. That's what helped make possible
things like computer chips and GPS. Just think of all the good jobs--
from manufacturing to retail--that have come from these breakthroughs.
Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch
of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to
the Moon. The science wasn't even there yet. NASA didn't exist. But
after investing in better research and education, we didn't just
surpass the Soviets, we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new
industries and millions of new jobs.
This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we
needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen
since the height of the space race. And in a few weeks, I will be
sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We'll invest
in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean
energy technology, an investment that will strengthen our security,
protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.
Already, we're seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary
Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company. After
September 11, they volunteered their best roofers to help repair the
Pentagon. But half of their factory went unused, and the recession hit
them hard. Today, with the help of a Government loan, that empty space
is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all
across the country. In Robert's words, "We reinvented ourselves."
That's what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented
ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers,
we've begun to reinvent our energy policy. We're not just handing out
money. We're issuing a challenge. We're telling America's scientists
and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their
fields and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we'll fund
the Apollo projects of our time.
At the California Institute of Technology, they're developing a way to
turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, they're using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of
our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break
our dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to
have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm
asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we
currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but
they're doing just fine on their own. [Laughter] So instead of
subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.
Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy
jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they're selling.
So tonight I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035,
80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources.
Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and
natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all, and I urge
Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.
Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to
America's success. But if we want to win the future, if we want
innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas, then we also
have to win the race to educate our kids.
Think about it. Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs
will require education that goes beyond a high school education. And
yet as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high
school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many
other nations. America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young
people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us,
as citizens and as parents, are willing to do what's necessary to give
every child a chance to succeed.
That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and
communities. It's family that first instills the love of learning in a
child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework
gets done. We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of
the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the
science fair. We need to teach them that success is not a function of
fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.
Our schools share this responsibility. When a child walks into a
classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high
performance. But too many schools don't meet this test. That's why
instead of just pouring money into a system that's not working, we
launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all 50 States, we
said, "If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher
quality and student achievement, we'll show you the money."
Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in
a generation. For less than 1 percent of what we spend on education
each year, it has led over 40 States to raise their standards for
teaching and learning. And these standards were developed, by the way,
not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic Governors
throughout the country. And Race to the Top should be the approach we
follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that's
more flexible and focused on what's best for our kids.
You see, we know what's possible from our children when reform isn't
just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals,
school boards and communities. Take a school like Bruce Randolph in
Denver. Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in
Colorado, located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97
percent of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first
in their families to go to college. And after the first year of the
school's transformation, the principal who made it possible wiped away
tears when a student said, "Thank you, Ms. Waters, for showing that we
are smart and we can make it." That's what good schools can do, and we
want good schools all across the country.
Let's also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child's
success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In
South Korea, teachers are known as nation builders. Here in America,
it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same
level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making
excuses for bad ones. And over the next 10 years, with so many baby
boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new
teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and
math.
In fact, to every young person listening tonight who's contemplating
their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of
our Nation, if you want to make a difference in the life of a child,
become a teacher. Your country needs you.
Of course, the education race doesn't end with a high school diploma.
To compete, higher education must be within the reach of every American.
That's why we've ended the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that went to
banks and used the savings to make college affordable for millions of
students. And this year, I ask Congress to go further and make
permanent our tuition tax credit, worth $10,000 for 4 years of college.
It's the right thing to do.
Because people need to be able to train for new jobs and careers in
today's fast-changing economy, we're also revitalizing America's
community colleges. Last month, I saw the promise of these schools at
Forsyth Tech in North Carolina. Many of the students there used to work
in the surrounding factories that have since left town. One mother of
two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry
since she was 18 years old. And she told me she's earning her degree in
biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs
are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their
dreams too. As Kathy said, "I hope it tells them to never give up."
If we take these steps, if we raise expectations for every child and
give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they
are born until the last job they take, we will reach the goal that I
set 2 years ago: By the end of the decade, America will once again have
the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
One last point about education: Today, there are hundreds of thousands
of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens.
Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do
with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge
allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of
deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and
universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them
back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.
Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the
issue of illegal immigration. And I am prepared to work with
Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws, and
address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the
shadows. I know that debate will be difficult. I know it will take time.
But tonight, let's agree to make that effort. And let's stop expelling
talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research
labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this
Nation.
The third step in winning the future is rebuilding America. To attract
new businesses to our shores, we need the fastest, most reliable ways
to move people, goods, and information, from high-speed rail to high-
speed Internet.
Our infrastructure used to be the best, but our lead has slipped. South
Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do. Countries in
Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do.
China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our
own engineers graded our Nation's infrastructure, they gave us a D.
We have to do better. America is the nation that built the
transcontinental railroad, brought electricity to rural communities,
constructed the Interstate Highway System. The jobs created by these
projects didn't just come from laying down track or pavement. They came
from businesses that opened near a town's new train station or the new
off-ramp.
So over the last 2 years, we've begun rebuilding for the 21st century,
a project that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit
construction industry. And tonight I'm proposing that we redouble those
efforts.
We'll put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges.
We'll make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and
pick projects based [on]* what's best for the economy, not politicians.
Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to
high-speed rail. This could allow you to go places in half the time it
takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying,
without the pat-down. [Laughter] As we speak, routes in California and
the Midwest are already underway.
Within the next 5 years, we'll make it possible for businesses to
deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98
percent of all Americans. This isn't just about--this isn't about
faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every
part of America to the digital age. It's about a rural community in
Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small-business owners will be able to
sell their products all over the world. It's about a firefighter who
can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device, a
student who can take classes with a digital textbook, or a patient who
can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor.
All these investments--in innovation, education, and infrastructure--
will make America a better place to do business and create jobs. But to
help our companies compete, we also have to knock down barriers that
stand in the way of their success.