from the White House Press Office
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Please have a seat.
A week ago today, I sent Congress the American Jobs Act. It’s a plan that will lead to new jobs for teachers, for construction workers, for veterans, and for the unemployed. It will cut taxes for every small business owner and virtually every working man and woman in America. And the proposals in this jobs bill are the kinds that have been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. So there shouldn’t be any reason for Congress to drag its feet. They should pass it right away. I'm ready to sign a bill. I've got the pens all ready.
Now, as I said before, Congress should pass this bill knowing that every proposal is fully paid for. The American Jobs Act will not add to our nation’s debt. And today, I’m releasing a plan that details how to pay for the jobs bill while also paying down our debt over time.
And this is important, because the health of our economy depends in part on what we do right now to create the conditions where businesses can hire and middle-class families can feel a basic measure of economic security. But in the long run, our prosperity also depends on our ability to pay down the massive debt we’ve accumulated over the past decade in a way that allows us to meet our responsibilities to each other and to the future.
During this past decade, profligate spending in Washington, tax cuts for multi-millionaires and billionaires, the cost of two wars, and the recession turned a record surplus into a yawning deficit, and that left us with a big pile of IOUs. If we don’t act, that burden will ultimately fall on our children’s shoulders. If we don’t act, the growing debt will eventually crowd out everything else, preventing us from investing in things like education, or sustaining programs like Medicare.
So Washington has to live within its means. The government has to do what families across this country have been doing for years. We have to cut what we can’t afford to pay for what really matters. We need to invest in what will promote hiring and economic growth now while still providing the confidence that will come with a plan that reduces our deficits over the long-term.
These principles were at the heart of the deficit framework that I put forward in April. It was an approach to shrink the deficit as a share of the economy, but not to do so so abruptly with spending cuts that would hamper growth or prevent us from helping small businesses and middle-class families get back on their feet.
It was an approach that said we need to go through the budget line-by-line looking for waste, without shortchanging education and basic scientific research and road construction, because those things are essential to our future. And it was an approach that said we shouldn't balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class; that for us to solve this problem, everybody, including the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, have to pay their fair share.
Now, during the debt ceiling debate, I had hoped to negotiate a compromise with the Speaker of the House that fulfilled these principles and achieved the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that leaders in both parties have agreed we need -- a grand bargain that would have strengthened our economy, instead of weakened it. Unfortunately, the Speaker walked away from a balanced package. What we agreed to instead wasn’t all that grand. But it was a start -- roughly $1 trillion in cuts to domestic spending and defense spending.
Everyone knows we have to do more, and a special joint committee of Congress is assigned to find more deficit reduction. So, today, I’m laying out a set of specific proposals to finish what we started this summer -- proposals that live up to the principles I’ve talked about from the beginning. It’s a plan that reduces our debt by more than $4 trillion, and achieves these savings in a way that is fair -- by asking everybody to do their part so that no one has to bear too much of the burden on their own.
All told, this plan cuts $2 in spending for every dollar in new revenues. In addition to the $1 trillion in spending that we’ve already cut from the budget, our plan makes additional spending cuts that need to happen if we’re to solve this problem. We reform agricultural subsidies -- subsidies that a lot of times pay large farms for crops that they don't grow. We make modest adjustments to federal retirement programs. We reduce by tens of billions of dollars the tax money that goes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We also ask the largest financial firms -- companies saved by tax dollars during the financial crisis -- to repay the American people for every dime that we spent. And we save an additional $1 trillion as we end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These savings are not only counted as part of our plan, but as part of the budget plan that nearly every Republican on the House voted for.
Finally, this plan includes structural reforms to reduce the cost of health care in programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Keep in mind we've already included a number of reforms in the health care law, which will go a long way towards controlling these costs. But we're going to have to do a little more. This plan reduces wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments while changing some incentives that often lead to excessive health care costs. It makes prescriptions more affordable through faster approval of generic drugs. We’ll work with governors to make Medicaid more efficient and more accountable. And we’ll change the way we pay for health care. Instead of just paying for procedures, providers will be paid more when they improve results -- and such steps will save money and improve care.
These changes are phased in slowly to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid over time. Because while we do need to reduce health care costs, I’m not going to allow that to be an excuse for turning Medicare into a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry. And I'm not going to stand for balancing the budget by denying or reducing health care for poor children or those with disabilities. So we will reform Medicare and Medicaid, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment that this country has kept for generations.
And by the way, that includes our commitment to Social Security. I've said before, Social Security is not the primary cause of our deficits, but it does face long-term challenges as our country grows older. And both parties are going to need to work together on a separate track to strengthen Social Security for our children and our grandchildren.
So this is how we can reduce spending: by scouring the budget for every dime of waste and inefficiency, by reforming government spending, and by making modest adjustments to Medicare and Medicaid. But all these reductions in spending, by themselves, will not solve our fiscal problems. We can’t just cut our way out of this hole. It’s going to take a balanced approach. If we’re going to make spending cuts -- many of which we wouldn’t make if we weren’t facing such large budget deficits -- then it’s only right that we ask everyone to pay their fair share.
You know, last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner gave a speech about the economy. And to his credit, he made the point that we can’t afford the kind of politics that says it’s “my way or the highway.” I was encouraged by that. Here’s the problem: In that same speech, he also came out against any plan to cut the deficit that includes any additional revenues whatsoever. He said -- I'm quoting him -- there is “only one option.” And that option and only option relies entirely on cuts. That means slashing education, surrendering the research necessary to keep America’s technological edge in the 21st century, and allowing our critical public assets like highways and bridges and airports to get worse. It would cripple our competiveness and our ability to win the jobs of the future. And it would also mean asking sacrifice of seniors and the middle class and the poor, while asking nothing of the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.
So the Speaker says we can’t have it "my way or the highway," and then basically says, my way -- or the highway. (Laughter.) That’s not smart. It’s not right. If we’re going to meet our responsibilities, we have to do it together.
Now, I’m proposing real, serious cuts in spending. When you include the $1 trillion in cuts I’ve already signed into law, these would be among the biggest cuts in spending in our history. But they’ve got to be part of a larger plan that’s balanced –- a plan that asks the most fortunate among us to pay their fair share, just like everybody else.
And that’s why this plan eliminates tax loopholes that primarily go to the wealthiest taxpayers and biggest corporations –- tax breaks that small businesses and middle-class families don’t get. And if tax reform doesn't get done, this plan asks the wealthiest Americans to go back to paying the same rates that they paid during the 1990s, before the Bush tax cuts.
I promise it’s not because anybody looks forward to the prospects of raising taxes or paying more taxes. I don’t. In fact, I’ve cut taxes for the middle class and for small businesses, and through the American Jobs Act, we’d cut taxes again to promote hiring and put more money into the pockets of people. But we can’t afford these special lower rates for the wealthy -– rates, by the way, that were meant to be temporary. Back when these first -- these tax cuts, back in 2001, 2003, were being talked about, they were talked about temporary measures. We can’t afford them when we’re running these big deficits.
Now, I am also ready to work with Democrats and Republicans to reform our entire tax code, to get rid of the decades of accumulated loopholes, special interest carve-outs, and other tax expenditures that stack the deck against small business owners and ordinary families who can’t afford Washington lobbyists or fancy accountants. Our tax code is more than 10,000 pages long. If you stack up all the volumes, they’re almost five feet tall. That means that how much you pay often depends less on what you make and more on how well you can game the system, and that's especially true of the corporate tax code.
We’ve got one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, but it’s riddled with exceptions and special interest loopholes. So some companies get out paying a lot of taxes, while the rest of them end up having to foot the bill. And this makes our entire economy less competitive and our country a less desirable place to do business.
That has to change. Our tax code shouldn’t give an advantage to companies with the best-connected lobbyists. It should give an advantage to companies that invest in the United States of America and create jobs in the United States of America. And we can lower the corporate rate if we get rid of all these special deals.
So I am ready, I am eager, to work with Democrats and Republicans to reform the tax code to make it simpler, make it fairer, and make America more competitive. But any reform plan will have to raise revenue to help close our deficit. That has to be part of the formula. And any reform should follow another simple principle: Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it.
It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million. Anybody who says we can’t change the tax code to correct that, anyone who has signed some pledge to protect every single tax loophole so long as they live, they should be called out. They should have to defend that unfairness -- explain why somebody who's making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15 percent on their taxes, when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that -- paying a higher rate. They ought to have to answer for it. And if they’re pledged to keep that kind of unfairness in place, they should remember, the last time I checked the only pledge that really matters is the pledge we take to uphold the Constitution.
Now, we’re already hearing the usual defenders of these kinds of loopholes saying this is just “class warfare.” I reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare. I think it’s just the right the thing to do. I believe the American middle class, who've been pressured relentlessly for decades, believe it’s time that they were fought for as hard as the lobbyists and some lawmakers have fought to protect special treatment for billionaires and big corporations.
Nobody wants to punish success in America. What’s great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it and everybody should be able to try -– the idea that any one of us can open a business or have an idea and make us millionaires or billionaires. This is the land of opportunity. That’s great. All I’m saying is that those who have done well, including me, should pay our fair share in taxes to contribute to the nation that made our success possible. We shouldn’t get a better deal than ordinary families get. And I think most wealthy Americans would agree if they knew this would help us grow the economy and deal with the debt that threatens our future.
It comes down to this: We have to prioritize. Both parties agree that we need to reduce the deficit by the same amount -- by $4 trillion. So what choices are we going to make to reach that goal? Either we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes, or we’re going to have to ask seniors to pay more for Medicare. We can’t afford to do both.
Either we gut education and medical research, or we’ve got to reform the tax code so that the most profitable corporations have to give up tax loopholes that other companies don’t get. We can’t afford to do both.
This is not class warfare. It’s math. (Laughter.) The money is going to have to come from someplace. And if we’re not willing to ask those who've done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit and we are trying to reach that same target of $4 trillion, then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more: We’ve got to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor. We’ve got to scale back on the investments that have always helped our economy grow. We’ve got to settle for second-rate roads and second-rate bridges and second-rate airports, and schools that are crumbling.
That’s unacceptable to me. That’s unacceptable to the American people. And it will not happen on my watch. I will not support -- I will not support -- any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans. And I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share. We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable.
None of the changes I’m proposing are easy or politically convenient. It’s always more popular to promise the moon and leave the bill for after the next election or the election after that. That’s been true since our founding. George Washington grappled with this problem. He said, “Towards the payment of debts, there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; [and] no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.” He understood that dealing with the debt is -- these are his words -- “always a choice of difficulties.” But he also knew that public servants weren’t elected to do what was easy; they weren’t elected to do what was politically advantageous. It’s our responsibility to put country before party. It’s our responsibility to do what’s right for the future.
And that’s what this debate is about. It’s not about numbers on a ledger; it’s not about figures on a spreadsheet. It’s about the economic future of this country, and it’s about whether we will do what it takes to create jobs and growth and opportunity while facing up to the legacy of debt that threatens everything we’ve built over generations.
And it’s also about fairness. It’s about whether we are, in fact, in this together, and we’re looking out for one another. We know what’s right. It’s time to do what’s right.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Showing posts with label Boehner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boehner. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Key Points of President's Plan to "Win the Future"
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
In his State of the Union, President Obama spoke of the need to maintain America’s leadership in a rapidly changing world so that our economy is competitive – growing and working for all Americans. To do so, he is putting forward a plan to help the United States win the future by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building our global competition. At the same time, the President understands the need to reform the way our government does business and take responsibility for our deficit – by investing in what makes America stronger and cutting what doesn’t.
· Innovate: The President is calling for new investments in American innovation. The President’s Budget will help increase the nation’s R&D investments, as a share of GDP, to its highest levels since President Kennedy. He is issuing a challenge to America’s scientists and engineers to invent new clean energy technologies that will lead the world. To incentivize these innovations, the President is calling for 80 percent of America’s electricity to come from clean sources by 2035, including wind, solar, nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. He is also putting forward measures to ensure that the U.S. is the first country to put 1 million advanced technology vehicles on its roads.
· Educate: The President understands that to win the future, we have to win the race to educate our children. Building on the success of Race to the Top, he is calling on Congress to re-define and right-size the federal role in education, by replacing No Child Left Behind with a new law that raises expectations, challenges failure, rewards success, and provides greater flexibility for schools to innovate and improve results for their students. The President is also pledging to prepare an additional 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math teachers by the end of the decade. To help restore America’s global leadership in higher education, the President will continue efforts to strengthen the Pell Grant program and is calling on Congress to make permanent his American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth $10,000 for four years of college.
· Build: The President is calling for a new effort to ensure that the U.S. has the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods, and information – from roads and airports to high-speed rail and high-speed Internet. He is proposing efforts to repair and rebuild America’s infrastructure and put forward a National Wireless Initiative to help business extend the next generation of wireless coverage to 98 percent of the population.
· Reform: The President is working to reform government so that it is leaner and smarter for the 21st century, removing barriers and creating new incentives for growth. The President has ordered a review of regulations to remove needless burdens, while ensuring common sense standards to protect the American people. He also asked for efforts to merge, consolidate and reorganize federal agencies to make America more competitive. The President is urging reforms to further reduce the rate of health care cost growth, including medical malpractice liability. And to ensure that the U.S. remains the best place for businesses to invest, President Obama is calling to reform our corporate tax system, eliminating loopholes and lowering the corporate rate without adding to the deficit.
· Responsibility: The President recognizes that both parties and both houses of Congress must come together to reduce our deficits. As a step toward achieving that goal, he is calling for a five-year freeze on all spending outside of security, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This freeze will require substantial cuts, including to programs the President supports, to allow for the investments in education and research that our economy needs. He called for a bipartisan effort to strengthen Social Security to safeguard it for future generations, and wants both parties and both houses of Congress to work together to cut spending wherever it may be appropriate, including health spending, defense spending and spending in the tax code.
INNOVATE
From the Internet to GPS, inventions by talented scientists and engineers supported by government investments have created good middle class American jobs and transformed the world. That is why the President’s Budget will help America win the future, increasing the nation’s research and development investment as a share of GDP to its highest level since President Kennedy launched the space race. President Obama’s innovation agenda includes:
· A new commitment to supporting clean energy technology, paid for by ending taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels: The President’s Budget will propose increasing clean energy technology funding by a third compared to 2010, including an expansion of the successful ARPA-E research program and a doubling of the number of Energy Innovation Hubs operating around the country. These Hubs will allow America’s scientists and engineers to gather the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy. The President’s Budget will also focus on high-value research on clean energy deployment, including more than doubling investments in energy efficiency and a more than 85 percent increase in renewable energy investment. These investments will support the “$1 a Watt” initiative to make solar energy cost competitive; increased funding for 24-hour geothermal renewable energy; and industrial efficiency to keep U.S. manufacturing competitive. To ensure that we make these investments without adding to the deficit, the President called for ending the approximately $4 billion per year in tax subsidies to oil, gas and other fossil fuel producers.
· Putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015: In 2008, the President set an ambitious goal of putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 – which would put us on a path to reducing oil consumption by 785 million barrels by 2030. While the President’s efforts to date have positioned the U.S. to meet that goal, more is needed to ensure that the U.S. is the first country to put 1 million advanced vehicles on its roads. To reach that goal, President Obama will propose in his Budget a new effort to support electric vehicle manufacturing and adoption in the U.S. through improved consumer rebates, investments in R&D, and competitive programs to encourage communities that invest in electric vehicle infrastructure. This builds on our ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil through aggressive steps including strong fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and significant investments in biofuels.
· Doubling the share of electricity generated from clean energy sources by 2035: By proposing to make sure that 80 percent of electricity comes from clean energy sources, the President is proposing new standards that will help create a market to unleash innovation across a range of energy sources, from renewable sources to nuclear power, clean coal, and natural gas. This standard would be coupled with new efforts to promote energy efficiency that save money for American families and businesses – including a new initiative to catalyze private sector investment and upgrade commercial buildings such as offices, stores, schools and other municipal buildings, universities, and hospitals. It will also build on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s efforts to site more renewable energy projects on public lands than at any point in history.
EDUCATE
To guarantee America’s continued success, no race is more important to win than the one to educate our children. That is why President Obama remains committed to the goal of preparing every student to graduate from high school ready for college and a career. The President is focused on ensuring that America reclaims its leadership in the world with the highest proportion of college graduates by the end of the decade. To transform our education system, the President called for:
· Raising expectations to reform America’s schools: Building on the success and reforms of Race to the Top, the President is pledging to work with Congress to apply a bipartisan approach to replacing No Child Left Behind. The Administration’s Blueprint for Reform calls for a re-defined federal role in education that will raise expectations for schools and students, and make room for states and school leaders to lead the way in improving results. The President’s Budget will call for bold restructuring of federal funding to focus on a new goal of college and career readiness for all students.
· Preparing 100,000 new STEM teachers: President Obama has proposed efforts to prepare 100,000 new teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math – key skills for the best jobs in America. The President’s plan will expand promising and effective teacher preparation models and prepare more of the nation’s top STEM graduates for a teaching career.
· Promoting college access and completion: The President will continue efforts to strengthen the Pell Grant, promote more affordable student loans, and revitalize and expand access to America’s community colleges. In addition, the President called on Congress to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit that’s worth up to $10,000 for four years of college and has helped millions of middle class families reinvest real dollars in their children’s higher education.
· Reforming immigration laws to stop expelling talent: The President asked Congress to work with him to reform our immigration system in a comprehensive manner so that we stop expelling talented and responsible young people, whether they were brought here by their parents as children, or come from other countries to pursue college and advanced degrees. As we work to rebuild the economy, our ability to thrive depends, in part, on restoring responsibility and accountability to our immigration system.
BUILD
President Obama called on the nation to repair our existing infrastructure and build new ways to move people, goods and information; from high-speed trains to high-speed Internet – creating middle-class jobs and strengthening our ability to win the future by competing in a global economy. The President’s plan to redouble our efforts on infrastructure includes:
· Repairing roads, bridges and transit: The President’s Budget will outline a comprehensive, six-year plan to leverage our resources to repair crumbling roads, bridges, and transit. It will feature up-front investments that will both help generate hundreds of thousands of jobs now and lay a foundation for future economic growth that will benefit all Americans. It will also include transformational investments such as an infrastructure bank that will revolutionize infrastructure finance, leveraging government resources through attracting private capital to build projects of national and regional significance. The President is committed to making sure that this infrastructure program is fully paid for, and free of earmarks.
· Increasing access to high-speed rail: The President is proposing a significant down payment on a national rail network so that, within 25 years, 80 percent of Americans have convenient access to the high-speed rail system, cutting travel time in half relative to driving a car. This new system of high-speed and intercity passenger rail will connect communities, reduce travel times and congestion, create skilled manufacturing jobs that can't be outsourced, and spur new innovations by the next generation of American entrepreneurs.
· Launching a National Wireless Initiative to provide 98 percent of Americans access to high-speed Internet: To move toward connecting every American to the digital age, including rural communities, the President announced that he will work to help business extend the next generation of wireless services to 98 percent of all Americans. This National Wireless Initiative will enable businesses to grow faster, students to learn more, and public safety officials to access state-of-the-art, secure, nationwide, and interoperable mobile communications. For public safety officials, this can mean the difference between success and failure, or even life and death; as such technologies can allow emergency workers to access building designs at the scene of an accident and police officers to send pictures to one another in real-time. Finally, the initiative will foster the conditions for the next generations of wireless technology, nearly doubling the amount of wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband (through incentive auctions and other mechanisms to ensure spectrum is used more efficiently) and providing critical support for R&D in wireless innovation.
REFORM
The President is committed to reforms that make government leaner, smarter, more open and ready for the 21st century. These reforms will enable America to win the future by removing barriers and creating incentives for growth, while protecting the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.
· Reforming the corporate tax code: The President is proposing a bipartisan effort to reform the corporate tax code to support economic growth, competitiveness and investment in the United States. Over decades, the corporate tax code has been filled by deductions and loopholes that benefit narrow interests and erode our tax base and requires us to have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. This system is working against our economy’s competitiveness and growth potential. That is why the President is calling for a fundamental reform of the corporate tax system to close loopholes and use the savings to pass the first reduction in the corporate tax rate in 25 years, without adding a dime to the deficit.
· Passing trade agreements that help reach our goal of doubling exports by 2014: As part of his commitment to doubling exports by 2014, the President is calling for trade agreements that keep faith with American workers and create American jobs. In keeping with that framework, he is also calling on Congress to pass the recently completed U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. In addition, he is calling to extend this successful model of trade talks to new potential trade deals – from South America to Asia Pacific, and to our global trade talks. He will also push for additional export agreements like the recently signed agreements with India and China that will support more than 250,000 jobs in the U.S.
· Building on deficit reduction in the Affordable Care Act with additional measures to reduce health care costs – including medical malpractice reform: Building on the deficit reduction already passed through the Affordable Care Act, the President said his Budget will include further efforts to reduce the cost of health care. As part of these efforts, the President pledged to work with Republicans to support state reforms of medical malpractice systems to bring down costs and improve care – building on Administration efforts already underway to assess what works in medical malpractice reform.
· Reviewing and eliminating burdensome regulation: President Obama has ordered a review of regulations to ensure that the government is achieving the right balance between safeguarding the public through common sense standards, without needlessly burdening business.
· Reorganizing the Federal Government: The President announced that, in the coming months, he will ask for the authority to merge, consolidate, and reorganize the Federal Government in a way that makes America more competitive – the first such reorganization in half a century.
· Restoring faith in government: The President stated his commitment to new measures to restore faith in government – including providing taxpayers with a website that shows them how their tax dollars are being spent, renewing his call to veto special interest “earmarks” in all legislation, and asking Congress to publish all visitor records so Americans can know when lobbyists are meeting with elected officials and to pass the DISCLOSE act so that Americans can know when special interests are funding political campaign activity.
RESPONSIBILITY
The President made clear that now is the time to make the hard choices to reduce our deficits without sacrificing the investments we need to win the future – and that doing so will require bringing together members of both parties and both houses of Congress. As part of a down-payment on these efforts he is proposing in his Budget, the President is:
· Proposing a five-year freeze on discretionary spending: As a down payment toward reducing the deficit, the President is calling for a five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending. The freeze will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over 10 years, and bring non-security discretionary spending to the lowest share of the economy since President Eisenhower was in office. This freeze will require substantial cuts, including to programs the President supports. In areas outside the freeze, we also will be looking for cuts and efficiencies. For instance, the President is putting forward a five-year plan proposed by Secretary Gates to achieve an additional $78 billion in defense savings.
· Strengthening Social Security for future generations: The President pledged to work with both parties to safeguard Social Security for future generations. He called for a bipartisan solution, working with both houses, that will strengthen Social Security and its protections for the most vulnerable – without putting at risk current retirees or people with disabilities, slashing benefits for future generations, or subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.
· Ending the extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent: The President reiterated his strong opposition to permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent. The President believes that given the hard choices we need to invest in the future and reduce our deficits, we need to allow the upper-income tax cuts to expire and return the estate tax to its 2009 levels.
###
In his State of the Union, President Obama spoke of the need to maintain America’s leadership in a rapidly changing world so that our economy is competitive – growing and working for all Americans. To do so, he is putting forward a plan to help the United States win the future by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building our global competition. At the same time, the President understands the need to reform the way our government does business and take responsibility for our deficit – by investing in what makes America stronger and cutting what doesn’t.
· Innovate: The President is calling for new investments in American innovation. The President’s Budget will help increase the nation’s R&D investments, as a share of GDP, to its highest levels since President Kennedy. He is issuing a challenge to America’s scientists and engineers to invent new clean energy technologies that will lead the world. To incentivize these innovations, the President is calling for 80 percent of America’s electricity to come from clean sources by 2035, including wind, solar, nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. He is also putting forward measures to ensure that the U.S. is the first country to put 1 million advanced technology vehicles on its roads.
· Educate: The President understands that to win the future, we have to win the race to educate our children. Building on the success of Race to the Top, he is calling on Congress to re-define and right-size the federal role in education, by replacing No Child Left Behind with a new law that raises expectations, challenges failure, rewards success, and provides greater flexibility for schools to innovate and improve results for their students. The President is also pledging to prepare an additional 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math teachers by the end of the decade. To help restore America’s global leadership in higher education, the President will continue efforts to strengthen the Pell Grant program and is calling on Congress to make permanent his American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth $10,000 for four years of college.
· Build: The President is calling for a new effort to ensure that the U.S. has the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods, and information – from roads and airports to high-speed rail and high-speed Internet. He is proposing efforts to repair and rebuild America’s infrastructure and put forward a National Wireless Initiative to help business extend the next generation of wireless coverage to 98 percent of the population.
· Reform: The President is working to reform government so that it is leaner and smarter for the 21st century, removing barriers and creating new incentives for growth. The President has ordered a review of regulations to remove needless burdens, while ensuring common sense standards to protect the American people. He also asked for efforts to merge, consolidate and reorganize federal agencies to make America more competitive. The President is urging reforms to further reduce the rate of health care cost growth, including medical malpractice liability. And to ensure that the U.S. remains the best place for businesses to invest, President Obama is calling to reform our corporate tax system, eliminating loopholes and lowering the corporate rate without adding to the deficit.
· Responsibility: The President recognizes that both parties and both houses of Congress must come together to reduce our deficits. As a step toward achieving that goal, he is calling for a five-year freeze on all spending outside of security, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This freeze will require substantial cuts, including to programs the President supports, to allow for the investments in education and research that our economy needs. He called for a bipartisan effort to strengthen Social Security to safeguard it for future generations, and wants both parties and both houses of Congress to work together to cut spending wherever it may be appropriate, including health spending, defense spending and spending in the tax code.
INNOVATE
From the Internet to GPS, inventions by talented scientists and engineers supported by government investments have created good middle class American jobs and transformed the world. That is why the President’s Budget will help America win the future, increasing the nation’s research and development investment as a share of GDP to its highest level since President Kennedy launched the space race. President Obama’s innovation agenda includes:
· A new commitment to supporting clean energy technology, paid for by ending taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels: The President’s Budget will propose increasing clean energy technology funding by a third compared to 2010, including an expansion of the successful ARPA-E research program and a doubling of the number of Energy Innovation Hubs operating around the country. These Hubs will allow America’s scientists and engineers to gather the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy. The President’s Budget will also focus on high-value research on clean energy deployment, including more than doubling investments in energy efficiency and a more than 85 percent increase in renewable energy investment. These investments will support the “$1 a Watt” initiative to make solar energy cost competitive; increased funding for 24-hour geothermal renewable energy; and industrial efficiency to keep U.S. manufacturing competitive. To ensure that we make these investments without adding to the deficit, the President called for ending the approximately $4 billion per year in tax subsidies to oil, gas and other fossil fuel producers.
· Putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015: In 2008, the President set an ambitious goal of putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 – which would put us on a path to reducing oil consumption by 785 million barrels by 2030. While the President’s efforts to date have positioned the U.S. to meet that goal, more is needed to ensure that the U.S. is the first country to put 1 million advanced vehicles on its roads. To reach that goal, President Obama will propose in his Budget a new effort to support electric vehicle manufacturing and adoption in the U.S. through improved consumer rebates, investments in R&D, and competitive programs to encourage communities that invest in electric vehicle infrastructure. This builds on our ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil through aggressive steps including strong fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and significant investments in biofuels.
· Doubling the share of electricity generated from clean energy sources by 2035: By proposing to make sure that 80 percent of electricity comes from clean energy sources, the President is proposing new standards that will help create a market to unleash innovation across a range of energy sources, from renewable sources to nuclear power, clean coal, and natural gas. This standard would be coupled with new efforts to promote energy efficiency that save money for American families and businesses – including a new initiative to catalyze private sector investment and upgrade commercial buildings such as offices, stores, schools and other municipal buildings, universities, and hospitals. It will also build on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s efforts to site more renewable energy projects on public lands than at any point in history.
EDUCATE
To guarantee America’s continued success, no race is more important to win than the one to educate our children. That is why President Obama remains committed to the goal of preparing every student to graduate from high school ready for college and a career. The President is focused on ensuring that America reclaims its leadership in the world with the highest proportion of college graduates by the end of the decade. To transform our education system, the President called for:
· Raising expectations to reform America’s schools: Building on the success and reforms of Race to the Top, the President is pledging to work with Congress to apply a bipartisan approach to replacing No Child Left Behind. The Administration’s Blueprint for Reform calls for a re-defined federal role in education that will raise expectations for schools and students, and make room for states and school leaders to lead the way in improving results. The President’s Budget will call for bold restructuring of federal funding to focus on a new goal of college and career readiness for all students.
· Preparing 100,000 new STEM teachers: President Obama has proposed efforts to prepare 100,000 new teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math – key skills for the best jobs in America. The President’s plan will expand promising and effective teacher preparation models and prepare more of the nation’s top STEM graduates for a teaching career.
· Promoting college access and completion: The President will continue efforts to strengthen the Pell Grant, promote more affordable student loans, and revitalize and expand access to America’s community colleges. In addition, the President called on Congress to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit that’s worth up to $10,000 for four years of college and has helped millions of middle class families reinvest real dollars in their children’s higher education.
· Reforming immigration laws to stop expelling talent: The President asked Congress to work with him to reform our immigration system in a comprehensive manner so that we stop expelling talented and responsible young people, whether they were brought here by their parents as children, or come from other countries to pursue college and advanced degrees. As we work to rebuild the economy, our ability to thrive depends, in part, on restoring responsibility and accountability to our immigration system.
BUILD
President Obama called on the nation to repair our existing infrastructure and build new ways to move people, goods and information; from high-speed trains to high-speed Internet – creating middle-class jobs and strengthening our ability to win the future by competing in a global economy. The President’s plan to redouble our efforts on infrastructure includes:
· Repairing roads, bridges and transit: The President’s Budget will outline a comprehensive, six-year plan to leverage our resources to repair crumbling roads, bridges, and transit. It will feature up-front investments that will both help generate hundreds of thousands of jobs now and lay a foundation for future economic growth that will benefit all Americans. It will also include transformational investments such as an infrastructure bank that will revolutionize infrastructure finance, leveraging government resources through attracting private capital to build projects of national and regional significance. The President is committed to making sure that this infrastructure program is fully paid for, and free of earmarks.
· Increasing access to high-speed rail: The President is proposing a significant down payment on a national rail network so that, within 25 years, 80 percent of Americans have convenient access to the high-speed rail system, cutting travel time in half relative to driving a car. This new system of high-speed and intercity passenger rail will connect communities, reduce travel times and congestion, create skilled manufacturing jobs that can't be outsourced, and spur new innovations by the next generation of American entrepreneurs.
· Launching a National Wireless Initiative to provide 98 percent of Americans access to high-speed Internet: To move toward connecting every American to the digital age, including rural communities, the President announced that he will work to help business extend the next generation of wireless services to 98 percent of all Americans. This National Wireless Initiative will enable businesses to grow faster, students to learn more, and public safety officials to access state-of-the-art, secure, nationwide, and interoperable mobile communications. For public safety officials, this can mean the difference between success and failure, or even life and death; as such technologies can allow emergency workers to access building designs at the scene of an accident and police officers to send pictures to one another in real-time. Finally, the initiative will foster the conditions for the next generations of wireless technology, nearly doubling the amount of wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband (through incentive auctions and other mechanisms to ensure spectrum is used more efficiently) and providing critical support for R&D in wireless innovation.
REFORM
The President is committed to reforms that make government leaner, smarter, more open and ready for the 21st century. These reforms will enable America to win the future by removing barriers and creating incentives for growth, while protecting the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.
· Reforming the corporate tax code: The President is proposing a bipartisan effort to reform the corporate tax code to support economic growth, competitiveness and investment in the United States. Over decades, the corporate tax code has been filled by deductions and loopholes that benefit narrow interests and erode our tax base and requires us to have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. This system is working against our economy’s competitiveness and growth potential. That is why the President is calling for a fundamental reform of the corporate tax system to close loopholes and use the savings to pass the first reduction in the corporate tax rate in 25 years, without adding a dime to the deficit.
· Passing trade agreements that help reach our goal of doubling exports by 2014: As part of his commitment to doubling exports by 2014, the President is calling for trade agreements that keep faith with American workers and create American jobs. In keeping with that framework, he is also calling on Congress to pass the recently completed U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. In addition, he is calling to extend this successful model of trade talks to new potential trade deals – from South America to Asia Pacific, and to our global trade talks. He will also push for additional export agreements like the recently signed agreements with India and China that will support more than 250,000 jobs in the U.S.
· Building on deficit reduction in the Affordable Care Act with additional measures to reduce health care costs – including medical malpractice reform: Building on the deficit reduction already passed through the Affordable Care Act, the President said his Budget will include further efforts to reduce the cost of health care. As part of these efforts, the President pledged to work with Republicans to support state reforms of medical malpractice systems to bring down costs and improve care – building on Administration efforts already underway to assess what works in medical malpractice reform.
· Reviewing and eliminating burdensome regulation: President Obama has ordered a review of regulations to ensure that the government is achieving the right balance between safeguarding the public through common sense standards, without needlessly burdening business.
· Reorganizing the Federal Government: The President announced that, in the coming months, he will ask for the authority to merge, consolidate, and reorganize the Federal Government in a way that makes America more competitive – the first such reorganization in half a century.
· Restoring faith in government: The President stated his commitment to new measures to restore faith in government – including providing taxpayers with a website that shows them how their tax dollars are being spent, renewing his call to veto special interest “earmarks” in all legislation, and asking Congress to publish all visitor records so Americans can know when lobbyists are meeting with elected officials and to pass the DISCLOSE act so that Americans can know when special interests are funding political campaign activity.
RESPONSIBILITY
The President made clear that now is the time to make the hard choices to reduce our deficits without sacrificing the investments we need to win the future – and that doing so will require bringing together members of both parties and both houses of Congress. As part of a down-payment on these efforts he is proposing in his Budget, the President is:
· Proposing a five-year freeze on discretionary spending: As a down payment toward reducing the deficit, the President is calling for a five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending. The freeze will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over 10 years, and bring non-security discretionary spending to the lowest share of the economy since President Eisenhower was in office. This freeze will require substantial cuts, including to programs the President supports. In areas outside the freeze, we also will be looking for cuts and efficiencies. For instance, the President is putting forward a five-year plan proposed by Secretary Gates to achieve an additional $78 billion in defense savings.
· Strengthening Social Security for future generations: The President pledged to work with both parties to safeguard Social Security for future generations. He called for a bipartisan solution, working with both houses, that will strengthen Social Security and its protections for the most vulnerable – without putting at risk current retirees or people with disabilities, slashing benefits for future generations, or subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.
· Ending the extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent: The President reiterated his strong opposition to permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent. The President believes that given the hard choices we need to invest in the future and reduce our deficits, we need to allow the upper-income tax cuts to expire and return the estate tax to its 2009 levels.
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