And in that chorus of voices, across languages and continents, we hear a common cry. As leaders, it is our duty to answer that call, not to silence it. The United States has committed to using our resources and our international platform to support these voices, listen to them, partner with them, to find ways to respond that advance human dignity around the world. With infrastructure that is low quality or that feeds corruption or exacerbates environmental degradation, may only end up contributing to greater challenges for countries over time. Done the right way, however, with transparent, sustainable investment in projects that respond to the country's needs and engage their local workers to maintain high labor and environmental standards, infrastructure can be a strong foundation that allows societies in low and middle income countries to grow and to prosper. That is the idea behind the Build Back Better world. And together with the private sector and our G7 partners, we aim to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. We will also continue to be the world's largest contributor to humanitarian assistance, bringing food, water, shelter, emergency healthcare, and other vital life-saving aid to millions of people in need. When the earthquake strikes, the typhoon rages or disaster anywhere in the world, the United States shows up, we will be ready to help. And at a time when nearly one in three people globally do not have access to adequate food, adequate food just last year, the United States is committing to rallying our partners to address immediate malnutrition and to ensure that we can sustainably feed the world for the decades to come. To that end, the United States is making a $10 billion commitment to end hunger and invest in food systems at home and abroad. Since 2000, the United States government has provided more than $140 billion to advance health and strengthen health systems. And we will continue our leadership to drive these vital investments to make people's lives better every single day, just give them a little breathing room. And as we strive to make lives better, we must work with renewed purpose to end the conflicts that are driving so much pain and hurt around the world. We must redouble our diplomacy and commit to political negotiations, not violence, as a tool of first resort, to manage tensions around the world. We must seek a future of greater peace and security for all people of the Middle East.


The commitment of the United States Digital Securities, without question, are our support for an independent Jewish state is unequivocal, but I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish democratic state, living in peace, alongside of viable sovereign and democratic Palestinian state. We are a long way from that goal at this moment, but we must never allow ourselves to give up on the possibility of progress. We cannot give up on solving raging civil conflicts, including in Ethiopia and Yemen, who are fighting between warring parties is driving famine, horrific violence, human rights violations against civilians, including an unconscionable use of rape, as a weapon of war. We will continue to work with the international community, to press for peace and bring an end to this suffering. As we pursue diplomacy across the board, the United States will champion the democratic values that go to the very heart of who we are as a nation and a people. It is stamped into our DNA as a nation and critically it is stamped into the DNA of this institution, the United States, we sometimes forget. All members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. The founding ethos of the United Nations places the rights of individuals at the center of our system, and that clarity and vision must not be ignored or misinterpreted. The United States will do our part, but we will be more successful and more impactful if all of our nations are working toward the full mission to which we are called. That is why more than 100 nations united around a shared statement, and the Security Council adopted a resolution outlining how we will support the people of Afghanistan moving forward, laying out the expectations to which we will hold the Taliban when it comes to respecting universal human rights. We all must advocate for the rights of women and girls to use their full talents, to contribute economically, politically, and socially, and pursue their dreams free of violence and intimidation, from Central America to the Middle East to Africa to Afghanistan, wherever it appears in the world. We all must call out and condemn the targeting and oppression of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, whether it occurs in Xinjiang or northern Ethiopia or anywhere in the world. We all must defend the rights of LGBTQI individuals so they can live and love openly without fear, whether it is Chechnya or Cameroon or anywhere.

Joe Biden UN General Assembly Speech Transcript: Climate Agenda, COVID-19 Vaccines


As we steer our nations toward this inflection point and work to meet today's fast-moving, cross-cutting challenges, let me be clear. I am not agnostic about the future we want for the world. The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it. The future will belong to those who unleash the potential of their people, not those who stifle it. The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand. The authoritarians of the world may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they are wrong. It lives in anti-corruption activists, human rights defenders, the journalists, the peace protesters, on the front lines of this struggle in Belarus, Burma, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and everywhere in between. It lives in the brave women of Sudan who withstood violence and oppression to push a genocidal dictator from power and who keep working every day to defend their democratic progress. It lives in the proud Moldovans who helped deliver a landslide victory for the forces of democracy with a mandate to fight graft to build a more inclusive economy. It lives in the young people of Zambia who harnessed the power of their vote for the first time, turning out in record numbers to denounce corruption and chart a new path for their country. And while no democracy is perfect, including the United States, we will continue to struggle to live up to the highest ideals to heal our divisions, and we face down violence and insurrection. Democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential. My fellow leaders, this is the moment where we must prove ourselves the equals of those who come before us, who with vision and values and determined faith in our collective future built our United Nations, broke the cycle of war and destruction, and laid the foundations for more than seven decades of relative peace and growing global prosperity. Now we must again come together to affirm the inherent humanity that unites us is much greater than any outward divisions or disagreements. We must choose to do more than we think we can do alone, so that we accomplish what we must together.


And someplace in here are two of your Congressmen, Kirk Weldon and Don Ritter, and your former State senator, who is a candidate for the Congress, Ed Howard. Now, in case you are wondering why I have dropped in I like great teams, and I have heard that for great teams you cannot do better than the Royals, the Friars, and, of course, the Pandas. Well, now, before I start, I have a request from my roommate. Please, for your family, for your friends, for your country but most of all for yourselves just say no to drugs and alcohol. By the way, if you do not know already, maybe I could tell you where that whole idea came from those three words. It was several years ago, and Nancy was in Oakland speaking to a school class about drugs. And a little girl asked, What do we do when someone offers us drugs? And since then, there are more than 12,000 Just Say No clubs that have sprung up around the country. that you have one here one of those 12,000 Just Say No clubs? Now, you may not know it, but I have heard a lot about your schools, and I like what I have heard. I have heard, for example, about your code of values, as well as that you care about the community. I have heard many of you volunteer in the Delaware County Hospital next door and do other community work. I cannot help thinking that when a certain friend of mine talks about a Thousand Points of Light in America's sky, when he speaks of the thousands of American communities where neighbors reach out to help neighbors in need, well, one of the brightest of these points of light is a place called Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. I have also heard that you young people here in Upper Darby care about the future-about your future, about America's future and that you are preparing for it. I have heard that you have set high standards for yourselves in both your college preparatory and vocational programs and that when it comes to looking to the future you cannot beat the students at Upper Darby High, or Monsignor Bonner High, or Archbishop Prendergast High. Well, I am here today because I believe you are right to care about the future.

Remarks to Area High School Students and Faculty in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania


I believe that if we have faith in Him who created us and if we are true to the values of family, work, and community that He has taught us and that have always been America's guiding stars on the seas of history, then America's future and your future hold promises bigger than the sky and more vast than the galaxies. Now, I know that many of you are not yet old enough to vote. And yet you have a stake in this year's election, and you can have a role in it, too. As you know, 8 years ago I visited this school and stood in this place as a candidate for the high office that I now hold. The students in this school then now have jobs. They are starting families, and they are establishing themselves in community and career. All we have accomplished in the last 8 years is making their lives easier, better, and more hopeful. In i year or 2 years or 8 years, you, too, will have a job and a family and big plans for the future. By making sure that your parents and friends who can vote cast their ballots, you can help make sure that America remains a land fertile with opportunity for all your dreams to blossom. That is what America is like today, and for good reason. In the last 8 years, we have set our sights once again on the enduring values of family, faith, neighborhood, opportunity, and freedom. The results have been 18 million new jobs since our expansion began, more new jobs than Europe and Japan combined have created in this same period; an unemployment rate the lowest it is been in 14 years; the greatest flowering of new businesses and new technologies in the history of the world; the longest peacetime economic expansion ever recorded; and more people at work today than ever before in the history of the United States of America. Think of what 255,000 new jobs in America last month alone means to you. When you leave school there will be work, paychecks, and a chance to make your hopes come true. America has created, on average, a quarter of a million jobs a month in the 71 months since our expansion began. And today not only are more Americans at work but a higher proportion of our labor force is employed than ever before in the history of the country. And job for job, the jobs we have created in our expansion pay better than the jobs that existed before our expansion began. Today the United States of America is the envy of the world.


I believe prosperity and economic growth are the products of strong values. In the last 8 years, we have worked to return America's values to all areas of American Government. We have said it is time to return to basics in education, and one of those basics is that you should be permitted to open your schoolday with a simple, silent, voluntary prayer. If Congress can open each day with a prayer, why cannot you? And you know, Congress probably needs it more than you do. We have said it is time to return to basics in reading the Constitution and to acknowledge that the Constitution does not prevent parents from receiving a tuition tax credit when they send their children to parochial schools. And in no way is it meant to deny the right to life. We have said it is time to return to basics in protecting America's neighborhoods. And that means among other things appointing judges who do not only respect the rights of criminals but also those of the victims of crime. And we have said it is time to return to the basics in protecting America itself. We have returned to the fundamental wisdom that the way to peace is not through American weakness but through American strength. Yes, we have had 8 great years. Have we done as much as we can do? You might as well ask Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham if after his spectacular game Monday night ask him if he is gone as far as he can go. Yes, I believe that the growth that our expansion has brought America can be just the beginning. America is entering a new age that will open opportunities for you and all young Americans, opportunities that we in the older generation could not even have dreamed of when we were your age. Let me tell you about something I heard the other day. It has to do with the technological revolution that is going on all around us and that many say has already surpassed the Industrial Revolution in changing the way humanity lives in the years ahead. The heart of this revolution is a tiny silicon chip that you can hold on the tip of your finger and still see most of the finger. Today that silicon chip has the incredible computing power of a million transistors; that is, of the biggest computers of the 1960's. Yet according to one of our nation's most prominent research directors, in less than 15 years, he says the power of a billion transistors will be packed on a chip. That is the power of 20 of today's most advanced computers all in a laptop computer.


Think of what that can mean in the ability of your generation to cure disease, to make the world more productive and opportunity for all peoples more plentiful, to build a strategic defense against ballistic missiles to end forever mankind's nightmare of nuclear terror, and to pursue your dreams wherever they will take you. That is the future that awaits you. The only limits will be those of your imagination and your courage. Well, we ain't seen nothing yet. I hope as you study and work to build America's future and your own, you never forget that prosperity has a purpose a purpose that is part of His larger plan. It gives each of us the opportunity to raise a healthy family in the right way, to reach out to those who need help in our community, to dream great dreams, and to make our dreams come true. Among life's deepest truths is that all that is done for you is but an opportunity and invitation to do something for others. Bill Bennett, who recently retired as our Secretary of Education, tells of traveling around the country, visiting the 30 schools that he'd identified as exceptional models. He says he was stunned to realize that each school began each day with the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner. The valuable lesson is that there is something greater than yourself that you owe allegiance to, but that is also part of you. I wish a prayer could have gone with those pledges. Love God, love family, love country, and love thy neighbor as thyself. Yes, America's prosperity is both an opportunity and a challenge, and I know that you are up to it. As part of my job, I have visited schools all over the country, and wherever I go, I find myself remembering the words of General George C. Marshall when asked why he was so confident that we would win the Second World War. We have a secret weapon, he said. And when asked about that, he said, It is just the best blankety-blank kids in the whole world. Well, as I look at you and meet young people like you all over the country, I know we still have a secret weapon, and it is the best blankety-blank kids in the world. I am dedicating myself this year to making sure that this future of hope built on opportunity and traditional values remains open to each one of you. I believe that the decisions we Americans make at the polls this year will determine whether or not that future will be bright.


And as I said before, even if you cannot vote you still have a stake, and you can have a role by getting family and friends who can vote, to vote. An awful lot of our people who are registered, citizens and so forth, do not bother to vote. I do have a favorite. When you have to change horses in midstream, does not it make sense to switch to one who is going the same way you are? It is not a matter of personality, but of philosophy. For example, it just seems to me that for those who espouse a permissive, liberal judicial philosophy, to turn around and pose as tough on crime is the greatest disguise since monsters inhabited human bodies in the movie Aliens. Now, if you are talking to friends about getting out and voting and they are not sure they want to go to the trouble, would you ask them for me to think of what it means to be able to vote? You hold history in your hands. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of doing something I never thought an American President would be able to do. I spoke to students in Moscow, at the state university of Moscow, about the glories of freedom. Only if they are very lucky and rise high in the Communist Party will any one of them ever have the influence on the course of this country's history and world history that each American has just by walking into the voting booth. Ours is a system of three equal branches of government. Two branches, Congress and the President, are chosen by election, and the third branch, the courts, is chosen by the other two branches. When you vote for a candidate for the Senate or the House, you are voting for the direction of the country and the world as much as when you vote for President. We hear a lot about the budget deficit these days. But in fact, I have heard my name linked to it. Well, under the Constitution only the Congress can spend money. Yes, the Congress is the only one in government that can spend a dime; the President cannot spend a thing. Congress makes the budget. And if you want to see the Federal deficit fall, remember, a vote cast for a Senator or Representative is at least as important as a vote for President.


It is very disturbing to me that America's young people, who with so many years ahead of them have a bigger stake in the future than anyone else and yet our young people of voting age so far vote in lower numbers than all the other age groups. Perhaps you have heard of Will Rogers, the great American humorist of the 1920's and '30's. Will Rogers once said that the people who are elected are no better and no worse than the people who elected them. But they are all better than people who do not vote at all. Well, I know you and your friends are better than that. So, before I go, let me ask you something. I am going to ask for a commitment now, and if you shout yes, I will take it as a promise. Remember, you can talk to family and friends you know and make sure they cast their ballots. Now, if you are not old enough to vote, that can be your way of voting by getting someone to vote who was not sure that he or she would. Go to the polls yourself and make sure those close to you vote, too. On November 8th, would you get your family and friends to go to the polls and vote? You just made my day. In the years ahead, whenever election day rolls around, I hope you will not forget the privilege and honor of being an American and the privilege you have of helping to govern this great nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Yes, America is truly the last, best hope of humanity, a city on a hill, a light unto the nations. I know that you know this. I know that some of you or your friends know firsthand what life without our liberties and our democracy is like and what it means to sacrifice everything to journey against all odds halfway around the world to come to America. I said at the start I have seen much to like about your schools. I have also seen what some of you who have met oppression face-to-face have written about freedom. And I like that, too. Freedom reminds me when people left their country they almost died because they wanted a better life. American freedom means to me that every country's people are living together like a family for a new life. Freedom is the right to be myself, to reach my goals. Freedom means I have the power to speak with President Reagan in the White House. Well, now, let me explain that a little bit.


I have a new hobby, and that hobby is collecting jokes that I can absolutely prove are created by the people in the Soviet Union and told among themselves. And I have collected quite a number of them. I told a couple of them to General Secretary Gorbachev, and he laughed. Well, the one I told him about has a little bit to do with what I had just said back there. One of their stories is that an American and a Russian are arguing about their two governments. And the American said, Look, in my country I can walk into the Oval Office. I can pound the President's desk and say, 'ENTITY, I do not like the way you are running our country.' And the Russian said, I can do that. And he said, Yes, I can go into the Kremlin, into the General Secretary's office, pound his desk, and say, 'Mr. General Secretary, I do not like the way President Reagan's running his country.' But now I will just mention a letter that I received, a letter from a gentleman who said something I'd never thought of before. He said, You can move to France to live, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can move to Japan to live; you cannot become Japanese. And he went on naming several countries. But he said, Anyone from any corner of the world can come to America and become an American. I mentioned earlier in my remarks the Constitution. Every country, I think, has a constitution oh, about most of them that I know of do, including the Soviet Union. Then what is the great difference between theirs and ours? Many of them have some of the same lines in them. We, the people. Those other constitutions are documents in which the Government tells the people what their privileges are and what they can do. Our Constitution is a document in which we, the people, tell the Government what it can do. And it cannot do anything other than what is prescribed for it in that Constitution. And so, today I would just remind you, in closing, you not only have the power to speak to the President but to pick the President and the Congress and the State legislature-to determine the course of our history and to protect those liberties that have made this good and gentle land, yes, the envy of the world. And now, thank you, and God bless you all.


Good job you did Cody. Let us have some fun. I really am thrilled to be here in Midland, Texas with the extraordinary men and women of Double Eagle Energy, and what a nice welcome. Thanks to the hard working citizens like you in United States Of America this is now the number one energy superpower anywhere in the world, so congratulations. We are here today to celebrate your incredible achievements, we are also here to send a clear message to the Zealots radicals and extremists trying to shut down your and to make America subservient to foreign producers. That will not happen to this nation again. A long time to be independent, and as long as I am your president, we will never let anyone put American energy out of business, which is what they'd like to do. We will never again be relying on hostile foreign suppliers. We will defend your jobs and we will defend the Lone Star State, I love this state. We will defend Americans who found energy independence. Before going any further I want to provide you with a brief update on our battle against the China virus. Our hears are with the people of Texas. We love our people. We love our country. Statewide presentive patients testing positive has stabilized, and the number of new cases has begun to substantially decline. To protect our seniors my administration has deployed personal protective equipment and rapid point of care testing systems to every Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing home in your state. No matter where you go they have it. This week, access hospitals are receiving 500 cases of antiviral treatment remdesivir. Under my administration's Operation Warp Speed, we are developing vaccines in record time. Earlier this week, a promising vaccine entered the final stage of clinical trials long ahead of schedule, with more following very quickly behind. We have some of the greatest companies, labs in the world doing this. Together we will end the plague from China. We will defeat the virus. I want to thank everyone at Double Eagle Energy for hosting us today, including co-founders, two great, young, smart people, Cody Campbell and John Sellers. Energy secretary Dan Brouillette, Texas says keep him, we really kept him very busy. He is out there fighting for you. I want to tell you. Representatives, and these are friends of mine and they are warriors, Jodey Arrington and Mike Conaway, thank you fellas. He is working hard and you are doing a fantastic job.

Donald Trump Speech Transcript at Midland Oil Rig July 29: Signs Pipeline Permits


Our people are working together and you are getting everything you need. Nobody did a better job than my Rick. We have so many other distinguished guests and local leaders and we just want to thank you all for being here. Under the last administration, America's energy industry was under relentless and unceasing attack, you know that. But the day I took the oath of office, we ended the war on American energy and we stopped the far left assault on American energy workers. But I have a very strong feeling you are not going to have to worry about it. If you do you are in big, big trouble. I withdrew from the one-sided, energy destroying Paris Climate Accord. It cost us billions of dollars and it would have made us a noncompetitive nation. We canceled the Obama administration's job crushing clean power plan. You know all about that. I improved the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline immediately upon assuming office. We opened up ANWR in Alaska to energy exploration, ended the moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands and reopened public lands and offshore areas to oil and gas exploration. That is where David Bernhardt's done such a great job. We unlocked the full energy potential of Texas and New Mexico, and New Mexico, we are proud that we have been here. Since my election oil and gas production in the Permian Basin has more than doubled. Under the Trump Administration the United States has increased oil production by 3.1 million barrels per day. That is some number, never been anything like that number. For the first time in nearly 70 years, we have become a net energy exporter, and the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas on the face of the earth. To ensure we maintain this dominant position long into the future, we will never lose this position, my administration is announcing today that export authorizations for American liquified natural gas can now be extended through the year 2050. Okay, 2050, that seems like a long time. At the same time, we are strongly protecting our environment. Air pollution is down significantly since I took office. While other countries are polluting the world's air and oceans, we will never cease to be a leader in protecting our natural environment and that is what is happening. People do not know that about us. We love our environment. Under my administration the United States will continue to have among the cleanest air and cleanest water anywhere on earth and that is what we have.


Thanks to our pro- American energy policies, we are also taking jobs in factories away from countries with poor environmental standards, such as China, and bringing jobs back to America, where they belong. Before the invisible enemy struck our shores, we created 800,000 new energy jobs, a third of them in Texas. After the China virus struck we implemented historic economic relief. When oil crashed, I got Saudi Arabia, Russia and others to cut nearly ten million barrels a day and got OPEC plus and Mexico to agree to the deal and hence we are okay. I will tell you, and I can tell you that I spoke with Dan and Greg and I spoke with Senator Ted Cruz, I spoke with a lot of people and we were very close to losing a very powerful, great industry, and we did a job. We did a great job all together, working together, a job like I think nobody could have done, and now we are back and now we are just going to keep expanding. We did a great job and I want to thank, frankly, Saudi Arabia. I want to thank Russia. I want to thank Mexico, and I want to thank OPEC as they call it, Plus. That is OPEC, Plus a lot of other countries. But they all came to together and they did a job for the industry and we appreciate everybody's help. This action stabilized world oil prices that had been in a free fall and saved millions of energy jobs, and frankly it saved your industry. Four months ago people were very, very concerned about that industry, and now it is just going to be a question of how fast will you put people on. Through the Paycheck Protection Program we provided over one billion dollars in emergency aid to keep Texas energy workers on the payroll. We kept them all in the payroll. We opened up 30 million barrels of space in Strategic Petroleum Reserve, allowing American companies to store surplus oil to be sold at a later time, and we filled up our 75 million barrels in the Strategic Reserve. And Dan, you have done a fantastic- In the strategic reserve and Dan you have done a fantastic job on that. I only wish he bought it when the oil was selling for zero and they paid you $37.00 in addition. You get a barrel plus $37.00, I said, Dan, why did not you make that deal? I would have loved that, but you did well. Today I am taking another bold action to support energy jobs in Texas.


In a few moments, I will sign four critical permits granting approval to vital pipeline and railway infrastructure on our nation's border. That is a big deal, this will include two permits allowing the export of Texas crude to Mexico, a giant victory for the workers of this state that you have been after for many years, right? You have been after that one for many years. I said, What do I know about it? If you want to do it, it is okay with me, and we are doing it, so that is been a long time in the making. We are joined today by some of the incredible patriots of the Texas oil and gas industry who are benefiting from America's energy boom. Josh was born and raised right here in Odessa and Midland, where is Josh? After spending a few years away at school, Josh came back home to West Texas. Josh's dad worked on the oil rigs. Josh worked on the oil rigs and he hopes his three children will work one day doing the same kind of incredible work and looking for the wonderful opportunities in American energy. You are going to have a great future. Brian Welch spent five years in the army, supporting our victory in the Gulf War. Did you make the right move, Brian? With over 25 years of experience, Brian, a senior pumper with Double Eagle Energy, do they treat you well? They better, they better, I am going to come back and see those two guys. Just like thousands of other veterans who work in this industry, Brian has made America safer with his service and now he is helping keep us secure by maintaining American energy independence which we have. To Brian and every veteran who works in the American energy sector, we salute your noble service and we thank you very much, we thank you very much, everybody, thank you. While my administration is fighting for workers like you, the radical left, have you ever heard of the radical left, Brian? You do not want to hear about them. You do not want to know about them, is fighting to abolish American energy, destroy the oil and gas industries and wipe out your jobs. Washington Democrats have embraced Representative Ocasio-Cortez's nearly $100 trillion Green New Deal disaster.


I have added the fourth word, it is a disaster, which would ban oil and gas leasing on all federal lands and by the way there would be no fracking, so let me ask you Mr. Governor, how do you think that works in Texas? No fracking, no drilling, no oil, is that okay? I do not think Biden's going to do too well in Texas. He is already written it off, it is gone. No fracking, that is part of his platform. If these far left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry but the entire U.S. economy. Their stated agenda includes rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, spending billions and billions of dollars in order to make us non-competitive, and seeking an even higher level of restrictions mandating net zero carbon emissions which frankly is impossible, for all new homes, offices and buildings by 2030, not possible to do, and if you ever did it, it would cost so much that your home would be valueless. This would cause the cost of construction to skyrocket and effectively end the use of natural gas in homes because it would be an impossible situation. They are asking for things, just so you understand, that are impossible. I do not know, I have not checked recently, what have they done with cows? I think they might have left that one off the manifesto but it will be back. Their platform calls for mandating zero carbon emissions from power plants by 2035. Otherwise they have been very good to the industry I think. People do not take it seriously. If they got in, you will have no more energy coming out of the great state of Texas, out of New Mexico, out of anywhere. Oklahoma, North Dakota, name them. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania does a lot. People do not realize that, a lot. It would throw Pennsylvania, Ohio, so many other places, you do not realize how big it is, they want to have no fracking, no nothing. The policies required to implement this extreme agenda would mean the death of American prosperity and the end of the American middle class. It would mean I think even worse than that. It would destroy our country. Venezuela used to be one of the richest in the world per capita and period one of the richest in the world, among the largest oil reserves.


Now they do not have water, they do not have medicine, they do not have food, you got a lot of oil, it does not matter. They do not have anything, and that can happen to us. All you have to do is look at Portland, look at the agitators, look at the anarchists in Portland and our people have done a great job in protecting our courthouse and I told my people a little while ago, if they do not solve that problem locally very soon, we are going to send in the National Guard and get it solved very quickly just like we did in Minneapolis and just like we will do in other places. They want to solve their problem, they have got a very short time to do it, but they will either solve their problem or we send in the National Guard. The U.S. energy industry would grind to a halt and every single energy producing state would be plunged into a depression. Two million jobs would vanish overnight in just the state of Texas alone, and I think the number's probably Greg a lot higher than two million. Millions more would disappear in New Mexico and Ohio and Colorado and Pennsylvania. By imposing these punishing restrictions and beyond restrictions, the Washington radical left crazy Democrats would also send countless American jobs, factories, industries to China and to other foreign polluting states. They want us to take care of our air but China does not take care of its air. In all fairness, India does not take care of its air. Russia does not take care of its air, but we do. Not on my watch it is not going to happen I can tell you that. Because as long as I am president, we will always put America first. For years and years we put other countries first. We now put America first. As we have seen in cities and towns across our nation, it is not just Texas oil that the radical Democrats want to destroy, they want to destroy our country. They are sick and you better get used to hearing it because they have some real problems. They do not love our country. In any way, shape or form, they do not love our country. There is no way of life ever in history that is been like the great American way of life. Our people love our country and our people love our anthem and they love our flag. The radical left wants to tear down everything in its way and in its place they want power for themselves, they want power. They want to uproot and demolish every American value.


They want to wipe away every trace of religion from national life. They want to indoctrinate our children, defund our police, abolish the suburbs, incite riots, and leave every city at the mercy of the radical left. By the way, I just ended the rule on suburbs. You know the suburbs, people fight all of their lives to get into the suburbs and have a beautiful home. I abandoned and took away and just rescinded the rule. It is been going on for years, I have seen conflict for years. It is been hell for suburbia. It is been hell for suburbia. We rescinded the rule three days ago, so enjoy your life, ladies and gentlemen. The proud people of Texas will never bow, kneel or surrender to the left-wing mob. You will always stand tall and strong for America. Everyone here today carries the legacy of some of the toughest, fiercest, and most determined people ever to walk the face of the earth, your ancestors. You know that. You know that generations of Texas oil workers before you gave every last bit of sweat and heart and grit that they had to build up this country. They loved our country. They loved our country so much they could not breathe. Their pride and devotion help raise up America cities, power our factories, propel our industries, sustain our families, supply our military and fuel America's rise into the strongest, wealthiest and greatest nation the world has ever known. We are now at the strongest point militarily, we have ever been due to I will tell you, Ted? He was a big leader in this. Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, and our Senate and our House approved $2.5 trillion to rebuild entirely the United States military. It is now at a point that it is the strongest it is ever been. A lot of the equipment is still coming in, brand new planes and missiles and everything you can think of. And I want to thank you, Ted. You were one of the real leaders, and John too. The two of you, I appreciate it very much. We have the greatest equipment on earth. We have equipment that I cannot even tell you about. You do not want to know about it, frankly, and hopefully we'd never have to use it. Now it is your turn to help lead our nation to even greater heights. Today we give thanks for each and every one of you.


Fifteen years ago, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of addressing the American Public Health Association. You were gathered here then as you are now, to exchange ideas and information in your professional work as official guardians of the public health. At that time, 15 years ago, I had just come from observing at first hand in Belgium and other war areas the acute problems of public health produced by violent dislocations in the normal economic processes of the life of nations. In my remarks upon that occasion I discussed some of these problems as I had observed them during that experience. Difficult as conditions were for the civil populations of all the nations in the war area, they would have been infinitely more difficult had it not been for the modern organization of protective health services and the scientific understanding of sanitary measures necessary to prevent and check such epidemics of communicable disease as had always, in earlier wars, swept over the nations. My next major contact with your body was during the Mississippi River flood in 1927. In traveling over the region affected by those floods, from the lower Ohio River Valley to the mouth of the Mississippi, and organizing the measures of the Federal Government to overcome that calamity by rescue from flood and reestablishment of a million of our people in their homes, it was obvious that sanitation and health control were imperative to prevent the outbreak of devastating epidemics. In this emergency the public health agencies and the allied groups were indispensable, and I took the liberty of mobilizing the energies of your members. They rose to the situation and by their skill and promptness Prevented a very serious loss of life. As a result of this experience in the flood area, I later called a meeting of public health officials and suggested the development of a stronger health service. Out of the conferences which were called as an outgrowth of this meeting, there evolved the idea of the most effective means of strengthening the public health service in harmony with the spirit of our American institutions. By this I mean the idea of the county health unit. That is, that every county in the United States should set up for itself, as its minimum health organization, a unit consisting of a doctor, a sanitary engineer, and a trained nurse. These units were established in 100 counties in the flood area, and the extraordinarily successful results of their work confirmed the wisdom of the plan.

Address to the American Public Health Association


The public health in these counties for 18 months after the flood was so much better than it had been in the 18 months before the disaster as to prove an object lesson in what could be done by organized public health work. By every means within my reach I have ever since promoted the idea of establishing these units in every one of our 5,000 counties in the United States. I have frequently helped the voluntary cooperating groups to raise the funds for such units by public subscription, and many times, through conferences and in other ways, have assisted in promoting legislation in the States by which State governments have supplemented these funds on the familiar basis of duplicating from the State treasury the sums raised locally by the county or municipal governments. I have gone farther than that. Although I am generally opposed to Federal subsidies to the States, yet I have regarded contagion as one interstate question and have recommended Federal contributions to such a universal service. I am in favor, as a constructive measure of public economy, of a program to be carried out on such wise lines, to reduce contagious disease with Government encouragement. If communicable diseases could be reduced by even one-third, such a reduction would repay the country more than a thousandfold its cost, by its saving of the present losses in productive time of workers and its saving of the present losses to school funds by absences from classes. That is the sheer economics of it. And even beyond that in importance, there is the well-being of the future generations of our children, the building up of safeguards around the home, and the health of the parents and of the growing family, which will contribute to the production of a healthier and more virile race and to the preservation not only of the treasures of childhood as a whole, but also to the preservation of those precious exceptional children, whose birth cannot be predicted of any class or moment and from whom comes the leadership of our democracy, to which they rise through the free channels of opportunity in our country.


I am speaking to you this morning from the Gibbs Magnet School for International Studies in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am happy to be joined by the principal, Dr. Marjorie Bassa, members of her staff, and 30 wonderful elementary students, their parents, and other interested citizens here. This school and these people are living proof that the education reforms that were started when I was Governor of Arkansas and that are continuing now under the leadership of Governor Tucker are paying off. The young people who attend this public school are getting a head start on the 21st century. Beginning in kindergarten, they learn about other cultures. They receive foreign language training. They are already acquiring the skills that will allow them one day to compete and win in the new global economy. They come from many different racial and cultural backgrounds, but they all have a shot at the American dream. I want to spend a few moments telling you why I think education and training for all of our people is the most important thing we can do to keep the American dream alive in the 21st century. You know Washington's in the midst of a great debate today about the proper role of our National Government. On one side is the old view that big, one-size-fits-all Government can provide the answers to all of our big problems. On the other side is the view that Government is the source of all of our problems. In the real world, that is a false choice. Let us look at what started this debate. As we move toward the 21st century and the information age, jobs and incomes will depend more and more on what we know and what we can learn. That means that today, at the end of the cold war, we are able to create jobs, new businesses, new millionaires at a rapid rate, more than ever before. But at the same time, about two-thirds of our people are working hard for the same or lower wages and are quite insecure about their future. And we know we still have too many social problems we are not making enough headway on, crime and drugs, violence and family breakdown. In the real world, we have to face the fact that we have to create opportunity but deal with these problems of economic stagnation and social disintegration. And we are stuck with a Government that is too organized to meet the problems of yesterday and not enough able to meet the problems of today and tomorrow.

The President's Radio Address


first, that creates economic opportunity-grow the middle class and shrink the under class; second, that enhances the security of the American people here at home, on our streets, in our schools, and abroad; and third, that reforms the National Government to make it smaller, less bureaucratic, to serve the interests of ordinary Americans, not special interests, to serve the future, not the past, and to demand more personal responsibility of our citizens. Fourth, and most important, we need a Government that helps our people raise their education and skill levels so they can make the most of their own lives. That is what I call the New Covenant, a partnership between Americans and their Government that offers more opportunity in return for more responsibility. Earlier this week, I convened a regional economic conference at Emory University in Atlanta with a group of economists, business and Government leaders. And working Americans discussed ways to strengthen our economy and to ensure a better future for our children. But the one thing we all agreed on was that the countries that will do the best job of developing the full capacities of all of their children and all of their adults will be the most successful in the 21st century. We all agree that higher education levels are essential if we are going to raise the incomes of working Americans, if we are going to grow the middle class and shrink the under class. That is why I and my administration have worked so hard to expand Head Start, to set world-class standards for our schools, to give parents and teachers more resources to meet those standards but also to give them more authority at the school level to decide how best to achieve excellence. We have worked to establish apprenticeship programs to prepare young people who do not go on to college to get higher paying jobs. And we have worked hard to make college loans more affordable for more students, millions of them throughout the country. By eliminating the middlemen in the college loan system, lowering the cost, and offering better repayment terms, our direct student loan program is giving more young people a chance to go to college while saving tax dollars at the same time. And we are demanding more responsibility in return. More students get loans at lower cost, but now they have to pay them back. Stricter enforcement of the student loan program has cut the cost of delinquent loans to taxpayers from $2.8 billion in 1991 to a billion dollars today.

The President's Radio Address


Because we have focused on education, for the last 2 years we have been able to cut Government spending, cut the deficit, cut hundreds of programs and over 100,000 bureaucrats from the Federal budget, and still increase our investment in education. Now, many in Congress think there is no difference in education and other spending. For example, there are proposals to reduce funding for Head Start; for public school efforts to meet the national education goals; for our national service program, Ameri- Corps, which provides scholarship money for young people who will work at minimum wage jobs in local community service projects; even proposals to reduce school lunch funding. Here at Gibbs, where students are preparing for the 21st century, close to 50 percent of the students depend upon the School Lunch Program for a nutritious meal. And all these young people, not just those who have the money to afford it, should be able to go as far as their talents will carry them. And if that means they need scholarships, student loans, and the opportunity to do community service, we ought to give it to them. Some in Congress want to cut education to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. I want instead a middle class tax cut that helps families pay for education and training, a tax deduction for education costs after high school. Now in the past, education and training have enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. Last year, with strong support from Republicans and Democrats, Congress enacted my proposals to help students and schools meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Educational experts said we did more for education by expanding Head Start, expanding apprenticeships, expanding college loans than any session of Congress in 30 years. Now in this new Congress, some want to cut education, and that is wrong. Gibbs Magnet School is a reflection of what we ought to be doing more of in America. I do not know what political party these children belong to, but I do know we need them all and they deserve our best efforts to give them a shot at the American dream. We must begin when they are young, training our people to succeed, preparing them for a lifetime of learning. The fight for education is the fight for the American dream. Thanks again to all those people who are here with me today, especially our children.

The President's Radio Address


Back when I was a young mom in the 1970s, I liked to make toast for breakfast. One morning I popped a few pieces of bread in our toaster oven, got busy doing six other things, and quickly forgot about the toast. When I saw smoke pouring out of the toaster oven, I grabbed the handle and pulled out the tray -four slices of bread were on fire. Always a quick thinker, I screamed and threw the tray at the kitchen sink. Three pieces of toast hit the target, but the fourth went high- setting the little yellow curtains on fire. I screamed again, then grabbed a cereal bowl and threw it at the burning curtains. The milk doused most of the fire, and I calmed down enough to realize that throwing things was probably not my best strategy. I grabbed a towel and beat on the toaster until everything seemed quiet and I could unplug it. That may have been the year I started so many kitchen fires that Daddy gave me a fire extinguisher for Christmas. Back then, our toaster oven had an on-off switch and that was it. On was On, which meant that it was possible to leave toast under the little broiler all day and all night, until the food burned, the wiring melted, and the whole thing burst into flames. At some point, someone had the bright idea of adding a timer and automatic shutoff. This simple change made it a whole lot harder for distracted mothers, or anyone else, to leave the toaster running until it set the kitchen on fire. Thirty years later, while working on an article about how the government could protect consumers from predatory financial companies, I thought about those old toaster ovens. By then, it was all but impossible to buy a toaster that had a 1-in-5 chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But by the 2000s, it was possible to refinance a home with a mortgage that had a 1-in-5 chance of costing a family their home and putting them out on the street. In fact, it was not just possible; those mortgages were being sold, then bursting into flames all over the country. By 2007, the year I was writing my article, a government agency actually monitored toasters for basic safety, and if anyone tried to sell a toaster that had a tendency to burst into flames, the agency would put a stop to it.

Senator Warren Delivers Speech on Dangers of Deregulation


In fact, government regulations ensured the basic safety of pretty much every product offered for sale. But in 2007 there was no government agency that would stop the sale of exploding mortgages. After the financial crisis we fought for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would be a strong cop on the beat making financial products safer-we fought, and we won! That little agency has already put strong regulations in place on mortgages, student loans, and credit cards, and it has forced the big financial institutions to return $12 billion directly to people who were cheated. Today the consumer agency is under attack. The Trump Administration and an army of lobbyists are determined to rig the game in their favor, to boost their own profits - the cost to consumers be damned. But it is not just the CFPB that under attack. In agency after agency, across the federal government, powerful corporations and their Republican allies are working overtime to roll back basic rules that protect the rest of us. Giant corporations and wealthy individuals are working in the shadows to make sure that government works for them, not for the people. To hide what they are doing, big corporations and Republicans here in Washington often claim that government regulations are bad for our economy. They go on and on about how big government restricts freedom and makes it harder for businesses to succeed. That is a big, greasy baloney sandwich-a greasy baloney sandwich that has been left out in the sun too long and has started to stink. Let us talk about real freedom - freedom from being cheated by those who care about pumping up their own profits and do not care about you. Regulations are about setting rules of the road-plain and simple. Done right, strong, clear regulations protect the freedom of every American. Do not tell me that all rules do is restrict freedom. Good rules empower people to live, work, and do business freely and safely. Regulations serve three main functions. First, they provide the basic framework that permits commerce to flourish-to ensure that what we are promised is what we get. That a gallon of gas is really a gallon-and not almost a gallon. That the pills labeled as antibiotics really are antibiotics -- and they are not contaminated with mold. We get what we are promised. Second, regulations keep thieves out of our pockets. Rules are how we make it illegal to steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street. Third, regulations level the playing field for everyone competing for our business.


Because of regulations, good companies that do right by their customers do not have to compete against cheaters. Competition should not be about who can hide the nastiest trick somewhere in the fine print; it should be about who offers the choices that customers like best. That is good for customers and good for upstart competitors who think they have a better product to offer. well-designed regulations allow for more freedom and more safety for each of us personally, more freedom and more opportunity for small businesses and startups, and more freedom and more security for workers who are building a future for their families, and more freedom for every business that is willing to compete straight up on the quality of its goods and services. The so-called war on regulations is not about freedom. The war on regulations is waged on behalf of giant companies that do not want to follow any rules. So let us call it what it really is - a war on public health, a war on public safety, a war on truly free and competitive markets, a war on American workers, a war on American consumers. Republicans in Washington talk about regulation like it is some kind of uncontrollable Frankenstein's monster with an independent will of its own, a beast that will chew our bones. They use the word regulation like a magic incantation, a fearsome word that can be repeated three times to ward off the evils of so-called big government. But America's history tells a very different story about regulation. More than a century ago, the Industrial Revolution began to stir, and factories sprouted up all over. Industrialization radically altered the American economy, and it generated enormous wealth. But it also wreaked havoc on workers and their families. As industrialization spread across the country, families poured in from farms to cities, only to land in workplaces that were monstrously unsafe. America's response was not to abandon the technological innovations and improvements of the industrial revolution. We did not send everyone back to the farms. Instead, we came together as a country, and, through our government, we changed public policies to adapt to a changing economy. In other words, we adjusted the laws - the regulations - to keep much of the good and get rid of much of the bad. A minimum wage. These protections set up guardrails so giant corporations could no longer exploit workers just to boost their own profits. In addition to protecting workers, America also took steps to protect our financial system.


From colonial times until the early 1930s, America pretty much took the economic world the way it was. Booms and busts were just the way things worked and there was not much we could do about it-sort of like the natural cycles of the moon. Sure, they took down speculators, but they also took out farmers, small business owners, employees and millions of people who got swept away by massive economic forces that they could not control. Unemployment skyrocketed, peaking at more than 20 percent. Across the country, frightening rumors caused Americans to rush to empty their bank accounts, triggering more crises. We can do better. We can use regulation to end the boom-and-bust cycles. And that is exactly what he did. For more than 50 years, those rules stayed in place-and they worked. Regulations bought us economic stability. And the financial services industry served the American people, rather than the other way around. GDP was climbing and America's middle class was getting a huge share of all that growth. We were on a roll. In the 1970s, environmental issues moved front and center, along with the safety of America's families. It may be hard to believe, but back in the '50s and '60s, big American cities were smothered with thick layers of nasty, dirty smog. People sucked down toxic chemicals on the way to work; little kids breathed in dangerous substances on school playgrounds. The factory owners that spewed their filth in the air did not care -- they did not pay the cost of their pollution. The auto manufacturers were not held responsible for the tailpipe emissions from the cars they built. But the millions who suffered asthma attacks, developed lung cancer, and died from heart disease because of dirty air paid a terrible price. During one Thanksgiving week in 1966, a severe smog crisis choked New York City, killing hundreds of people. People demanded action, but giant corporations pushed back hard. Big carmakers said that they would never be able to meet the deadlines to reduce emissions, that it would cost too much to adapt their vehicles, that they would go bankrupt. Congress passed the Clean Air Act, giving the EPA the authority to put in place strong new rules and clear deadlines to protect us. From 1970 to 2016, common air pollutants fell 73 percent. Today, the Clean Air Act saves more than 160,000 lives a year. What America has accomplished through strong, public-centered rules is an amazing story.


Where are the defenders of the regulators who make sure most of us do not work in factories where equipment could kill us or drive cars with defective brakes? Where are the parades and special citations for the federal employees who make sure that cancer treatments really are cancer treatments and that the air is clean enough for our babies to breathe and grow and flourish? Where are the thank-you op-eds and national holidays to celebrate that infants are no longer strangled in poorly designed baby cribs and that airplanes rarely crash? How did those regulators-and the regulations designed to help the American people-become the enemy? By the 1980s, corporate giants who did not want to follow the rules had a plan to fight back. They figured they could improve their profit margins by rolling back those rules, and the best way to do that was to control the rulemakers. So they made political contributions, then lobbied those same elected officials to leash up the regulators. It was called deregulation -but that was just a code word for let the rich guys do whatever they want. Consider what happened in the financial industry. Remember all those tough rules FDR put in place after the Great Depression, the ones that worked to make our economy safer? When Reagan began his systematic campaign of deregulation, those rules came under attack. And they stayed under attack, year after year, president after president-regardless of party. For decades, the Fed and other bank regulators looked the other way as big financial institutions found new ways to trick their customers. The result should have surprised exactly no one. After another boom, in 2008, our economy came crashing to the ground-dragging along tens of millions of Americans who lost their homes, their jobs, their savings, the very lives they had spent years to build. Thirty years of deregulation, a crash that nearly brought our economy to its knees, a recovery that has left most of America behind, and what is the Trump Administration's answer? Make this government work better and better for the richest and most powerful. Back in 2016, Candidate Trump made big promises, promises to drain the swamp, promises to fight for working people, promises to ignore lobbyists, promises to stand up to Wall Street.


It is clear now that those promises were just part of the scam-a scam that has paid off handsomely for Wall Street, paid off handsomely for every corporation that can hire an army of lobbyists or drop big money at a nearby Trump Hotel, paid off handsomely for every billionaire or corporate executive who has pocketed part of the $1.5 trillion dollar tax giveaway. But for American families, the big payoff still has not arrived. And there is more payoff for big corporations as the Trump Administration rolls back worker protections. And how about the important environmental protections that protect the health of our families - the ones we put in place to make sure we can drink the water and breathe the air? President Trump started by appointing Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. Corruption oozes out of his office, from wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, to cutting deals to make himself rich, to doing the bidding of the highest paid lobbyists. The Clean Water Rule is designed to protect drinking water, but industry opposes the rule because it means they cannot dump chemicals in rivers or spread toxic waste on the ground where it might run into drinking water. And since industry does not like the Clean Water Rule, Scott Pruitt has come up with a plan for ending it. Three years ago, the EPA decided to ban a dangerous pesticide that puts children at risk. But right after Scott Pruitt met with the CEO of Dow Chemical, the rule was gone. The Clean Power Plan is biggest step we have taken to fight against climate change. But once Scott Pruitt met with executives from Big Coal, the EPA announced plans to end the rule. In just over a year, the Administration has worked to roll back more than 60 environmental rules, from revoking car emissions standards to undercutting efforts to limit methane gas. In the name of deregulation, Pruitt has told corporations they can boost their profits by poisoning our water, fouling our air, contaminating our food and threatening the planet we call home. All told, the Center for American Progress estimates that Pruitt's rollbacks will cost the American people about $260 billion per year. And some of those costs will be measured in hospital admissions and funeral bills. The same attitude permeates the Trump Administration. President Trump has even worked to weaken the Consumer Product Safety Commission - the agency that makes sure toasters do not explode.


He is nominated a new chair who has opposed safety protections for table saws, and nominated a new commissioner who defended companies that knowingly sold all-terrain vehicles that tipped over and crushed children to death. President Trump and his team have embarked on an aggressive effort to kill the rules that protect the American people from corporate predators. No, I do not think every regulation is good. Sometimes old rules need updating. And the corruption of our rulemaking process runs so deep that sometimes rules get perverted into government-sponsored protections for giant corporations instead of protection for the public. You do not have to tell me. One of the most significant regulatory rollbacks enacted by the current Congress eliminates a thicket of anti-competitive restrictions that reduce access and drive up the cost of hearing aids for millions of Americans. I know that because I wrote the bill to roll back the regulations, I worked with conservatives to advance it, and I got it signed into law by President Donald Trump. But these kinds of regulatory changes-the pro-competition, pro-consumer changes-are not what the Republicans' agenda is about. No, the Republicans are working to insulate big corporations from competition and accountability. They are making government work better and better for fewer and fewer people. This is a critical moment for our country. The Republicans control both Congress and the White House, and they are using their control to fulfill a corporate de-regulatory agenda that promotes profits for executives and investors over the safety, security and opportunity of everyone else. We cannot win until we pry our government free from the grip of the rich and the powerful. That is why, in the coming weeks, I will introduce sweeping anti-corruption legislation to clean up corporate money sloshing around Washington and make it possible for our elected government to actually work for the American people again. Ending this war on public safety and competitive markets will also take standing up and making the case, loud and clear: strong government rules matter. We cannot - we must not - accept a government that works only for a privileged few. Government remains the best tool we have to create a level playing field so everyone-white, brown, black, young, old-everyone gets a turn. Government is the best tool we have to make sure everyone-male, female, rich, poor-everyone who pitches in gets a shot at success. When we send a message that corporate profits and powerful interests cannot overpower the health, safety, and economic well-being of hardworking families, we fire a warning shot.


This is a moment in which history and hope meet and move on from here as partners. Less than 1 year ago, on April 7, 1965, I asked for the creation of the Asian development plan to seek economic advance and social justice for all of Asia. I pledged the full support of the United States of America to that task. Today we have begun to redeem that pledge. The act I sign this morning authorizes the United States of America to ratify the charter of the Asian Development Bank. Seldom have nations joined together in a collective venture that is so endowed with promise. First, for the Asian leaders, who conceived and organized the bank and who are so ably represented here today by the Ambassadors from their countries. For the people of those non-Asian nations which have signed the charter, and whose Ambassadors have come this morning to bespeak again their vision and their generosity. For my great friend, a true American, Eugene Black, whose energy and tact have been as indispensable as his experience and wisdom. And to the Congress of the United States and the members of both parties who have acted to invest in this enterprise not only the resources but the faith of the 190 million people whom they represent. This act is an economic Magna Carta for the diverse lands of Asia. Its charter links 31 countries in a union against the involuntary economic servitude imposed on the people of Asia by time and circumstance and by neighbor and nature. This billion dollar bank is a symbol that the twain have met, not as Kipling predicted, at God's great Judgment Seat, but at the place of man's shared needs. It is no longer possible to be a mere observer at that place. It is not possibleand it is not rightto neglect a people's hopes because the ocean is 'vast, or their culture is alien, or their language may be strange, or their race different, or their skin another color. Asia just must no longer sit at the second table of the 20th century's concern. The economic network of this shrinking globe is too intertwined. The political order of continents is too involved with one another. The threat of common disaster is too real for all human beings to say of Asia, or any other continent, Yours . . . is another sphere. I believe that those who make that case are no less patriotic and no less sincere than those who believe that we cannot shorten the length of our reach into the world.

Remarks at the Signing of the Asian Development Bank Act


And while I expect they will continue to make their argument of isolationism versus globalismfor we all are determined to preserve their right to speak up in this landI hope they, too, expect me to try to keep on making my case for realism. It is simply that there is no rest from the trials of freedom, there is no recalling what the pace of change has done to the map of this big world, there is no reducing our responsibilities while the challenges of progress will not permit us to name the site for our duel or the weapons that we use. It is that we cannot turn from the place of shared needs and expect either peace or progress to follow us. So today we have come here to the historic East Room of the White House and gathered at this place to start a journey together. We are taking another today by announcing that we have pledged a half of the $24 million that is needed to construct the large Mekong River project, the Nam Ngum tributary project in Laos. Seven other countries, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, Thailand, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand, are joining us in that effort. For the United States it is our first major commitment under our promise to expand economic and social development in Southeast Asia. The Nam Ngum project is the Mekong Committee's highest priority undertaking and, like the Asian Development Bank, it represents a major accomplishment in joint cooperation in the world. The first phase of the project will include a dam and power station with an installed capacity up to 30,000 kilowatts. Additional generators up to 120,000 kilowatts can be installed as they are needed. An international transmission line, with a link across the Mekong River, will connect the power station with the capital of Laos and northeast Thailand. This is just one example of how the fruits of technologyand the ingenuity of cooperation-can bring new life to whole new regions of the world. More, yes, much more, awaits our response. New crops and new breeds of livestock can be developed. It has been said that no statue was ever erected to the memory of a man or woman who thought it was best to let well enough alone. So it is with the nations that we represent here today. We seek no statues to our memory. We seek only one real monument, a monument with peace and progress for its base and justice for its pinnacle. Togetheryour lands and minewe will build it.


In the first place, Mr. Mayor, let me in thanking all of you for your greeting, thank especially the Mayor, the official representative of the city, for the kindness with which he has spoken. Mayor, I can hardly imagine any man able to occupy the Presidency of this people and not feeling, with all his faults, that he was indeed the servant and the representative of the people, but if it were necessary to have such feeling words like yours would supply it. My fellow citizens, coming here this afternoon I saw along the streets and here and there I see in the audience before me men who wear the button that shows that in the times that tried men's souls they proved their truth by their endeavor; they rose level to the nation's need. It always seems to me when I see such men that the lesson they taught by what they did during the war, and by the way in which when once the war was over they turned to the works of peace, is a lesson peculiarly applicable to us under the strain of the enormous and complex development of our industrial civilization. Here in Maine you combine as in but few states both the old conditions and the new. In your country districts, on your beautiful farms, on the edges of the great northern forests, among your seafaring people on the coast, you have men leading substantially the lives, under substantially the conditions that obtained in the days of our forefathers who founded this Republic; and then, again, in industrial centers like this city of which, Mr. Mayor, you are the chief executive in these centers we perceive the full play of the great forces which have brought about that marvelous material progress of which we are so proud, but which at the same time have brought us face to face with problems of wholly different type from those that we confronted in the simpler life. I might put it more strongly than that. It is impossible to devise anyone perfect solution, and one complete solution, for all the problems of our latter-day industrial civilization. But there are certain elementary truths which we tend to forget, but which nevertheless, remain operative in the biggest city, in the most feverish industrial center, just as much as on any farm in the country side. Fundamentally, through the qualities by which the success of the individual is attained, must the success of the nation be wrought, and these are the same qualities the showing of which made the foundation of this nation possible.

Remarks in Lewiston, Maine


The man who fought in the Civil War, fought with different weapons from those carried by Washington's Continentals at Trenton and the Brandywine, through the dark days of Valley Forge, and at the ultimate triumph of Yorktown. And now, in the warfare of today the weapons have changed again, and the tactics have changed with them, but the man behind the gun has got to be of the same old stuff, or the best gun will not save him. No improvement in firearms, no perfection of equipment, no change in tactics will avail unless back of them all lies the spirit that sent you and your fellows from '61 to '65, again and again against the Confederate lines; that sent you after defeat back again just as if you had won, and after defeat again back again, until from defeat you had wrenched the victory. The great battleships of today would have seemed veritable nightmares to Howe and Perry in 1812 and '14, and as for the guns, why in those days, in 1812, the commander of a small vessel could walk up and down the quarter-deck with an entire broadside of cartridges in one coat-tail pocket! But we won so completely in '98 and with such little effort because we had men with the spirit of 1812, with the spirit of Farragut's fleet in the Civil War, back of the guns and the ships. It is the man behind the gun, the man in the engine room, the man in the conning-tower, these are they who fundamentally govern. Of course you have got to have the weapons, but you cannot win with bows and arrows. But it is no matter how good the weapons are which you have, you must have good men to use them. And more than that, it is not only courage that counts, it is thoroughness in training. That made a big difference between Bull Run and Gettysburg. Now in our Navy and our ENTITY if we ever have to face a foreign foe, we want to train in advance, so that Gettysburg may come without Bull Run, and there must be preparedness in advance. Anyone of you who sees a great modern warship must realize that no one can learn and be trained to handle that trade in a week, any more than the ordinary unskilled laborer could learn to become a skilled machinist or a watch manufacturer in the same length of time.

Remarks in Lewiston, Maine


Put men who mean well but who do not know, on a good ship and send them against a competent foe and you invite not merely disaster but a good deal worse disgrace. Have the men trained in advance months and years in advance. At Manila and at Santiago there were plenty of brave men amongst the Spaniards but they did not know how to shoot, and they did not know how to keep their machinery in gear, and our men did because they had taken the time in advance, because they did not expect off-hand, in one day, to solve the problem of carrying on the war. Month in and month out, year in and year out, the ship-wright, the officer, the enlisted man afloat and ashore, had done their several duties in making ready the great ships, in maneuvering with them at sea, in drilling the crews at target practice, until when the final day came we had men who could rise level to the demand upon them. Now, my fellow citizens, the same thing is substantially true in our civil life. Exactly as back of the gun stands the man behind the gun, and more important, so behind legislation, behind the best that can be done by constitutions and by laws, must stand a high average of decent citizenship, if we are to get good results in this Republic. We need good laws, good constitutions, and upright and honest administration of the laws. We need all these, just as in the navy we need good ships and guns, but they are not enough. You have to have men honestly bent on doing the best that is in them under those laws in order to get the best results. Is it a work of special genius? In the army you developed two or three or half a dozen great geniuses. You had a Grant, a Sherman, a Sheridan, with a Farragut on the sea; but the great thing is that you developed the average American citizen who had gone into the ranks and developed himself into a first-class fighting man, and he was so developed by those over him, not through genius, but by doing well all of the small things that were to be done. In any new regiment there is always a certain proportion of recruits who want to be heroes, but they do not want to go through the preliminaries they do not want to dig out kitchen sinks. Sentry duty does not appeal to them; keeping the camp police is rather repulsive. They want to win a great battle without preparing for it.

Remarks in Lewiston, Maine


That sort of man does not make a hero. He does not even make an ordinarily good soldier. Now, in our civic life, distrust the man who thinks that if some great emotional crisis came he would rise up and reform everything, but meanwhile does not want to do his ordinary common-place duty! This is a work-a-day world, and we can get along in it only if we show the work-a-day qualities. It is a very essential thing to be able to show the other qualities. It is necessary for the nation that you shall have men eager to volunteer when some man like Cushing starts out to do a deed of daring, where death stares every man in the face, but before the Cushings can get their chance, there has got to be any amount of wearisome blockading, of standing on and off before the ports, of training the men until they can follow the Cushings. And so in our civic life, we shall never have any healthy government in any community until the citizens of that community perform their own duties of citizenship, not spasmodically or hysterically, but day by day, regularly, as they come up. Now, of course, the first business of citizen ship is that the man shall care for those dependent upon him; that the man shall be a good bread-winner; deal well by his wife and children; that the woman should be able to take care of the house and the children. I am of an archaic temperament, and I wish you all large families, by the way. And in addition to being straight at home, each man has got to be straight with his neighbors, has got to be a decent man in his ordinary work, and if he is not decent at home, if he is not a faithful loyal man in whom you can trust in the ordinary business relations, in the factory, in the shop and on the farm; if he is not that, he is not going to be a good citizen. But besides all that he has got to show certain other qualities. He has got to remember that in addition to his duties to those nearest to him, under our republican system of government he is not to be excused if he fails to do his duty to himself and his neighbors and to that representative of himself and his neighbors, the State, the government. He does not need to have any unusual grace to make himself a good citizen in this way. He has got in the first place to be honest and decent.

Remarks in Lewiston, Maine


This is your day and you have earned every minute of it. And I am thrilled to be back at Liberty University, I have been here, this is now my third time, and we love setting records, right. We always set records. We have to set records, we have no choice. It is been a little over a year since I have spoken on your beautiful campus and so much has changed. Right here, the class of 2017 dressed in cap and gown, graduating to a totally brilliant future. And here I am standing before you as President of the United States, so I am guessing - there are some people here today who thought that either one of those things, either one, would really require major help from God. And we got it. But here we are celebrating together on this very joyous occasion, and there is no place in the world I'd rather be to give my first commencement address as President than here with my wonderful friends at Liberty University. And I accepted this invitation a long time ago. I said to Jerry that I'd be there, and when I say something I mean it. I want to thank President Jerry Falwell and his incredible wife, Becky, stand up, Becky, for their kind words, their steadfast support, and their really wonderful friendship. Let me also extend our appreciation to the entire Falwell family, Trey, Sarah, Wesley, Laura, and Caroline, thank you for everything you do to make this university so exceptional, one of the truly great, great schools. Each of you should take immense pride in what you have achieved. There is another group of amazing people we want to celebrate today and they are the ones who have made this journey possible for you, and you know who that is? You are going to go out, you are going to do whatever you are going to do, some are going to make a lot of money, some are going to be even happier doing other things - they are your parents and your grandparents, do not forget them. Never, ever forget them, they are great. And especially this weekend, let us make sure we give a really extra special thanks to the moms. Do not forget our moms, because graduates, today is your day. But in all of this excitement do not forget that tomorrow is Mother's Day, right? I had a great mother, she is looking down, now but I had a great mother. I always loved Mother's Day.

Donald J. Trump Commencement Address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia


We are also deeply honored to be joined by some of the nearly 6000 service members, military veterans and military spouses who are receiving their diplomas today. We are profoundly grateful to every single one of you who sacrificed to keep us safe and protect God's precious gift of freedom. It is truly a testament to this university and to the values that you embrace that your graduating class includes so many patriots who have served our country in uniform. Today you end one chapter but you are about to begin the greatest adventure of your life. Just think for a moment of how blessed you are to be here today at this great, great university, living in this amazing country, surrounded by people who you love and care about so much. Then ask yourself, with all of those blessings, and all of the blessings that you have been given, what will you give back to this country and, indeed, to the world? What imprint will you leave in the sands of history? What will future Americans say we did in our brief time right here on Earth? Did we take risks? Did we dare to defy expectations? Did we challenge accepted wisdom and take on established systems? I think I did, but we all did and we are all doing it. Or did we just go along with convention, swim downstream, so easily with the current and just give in because it was the easy way, it was the traditional way or it was the accepted way? Following your convictions means you must be willing to face criticism from those who lack the same courage to do what is right - and they know what is right, but they do not have the courage or the guts or the stamina to take it and to do it. I know that each of you will be a warrior for the truth, will be a warrior for our country, and for your family. I know that each of you will do what is right, not what is the easy way, and that you will be true to yourself, and your country, and your beliefs. In my short time in Washington I have seen firsthand how the system is broken. A small group of failed voices who think they know everything and understand everyone want to tell everybody else how to live and what to do and how to think. But you are not going to let other people tell you what you believe, especially when you know that you are right.


And those of you graduating here today, who have given half a million hours of charity last year alone, unbelievable amount of work and charity and few universities or colleges can claim anything even close, we do not need a lecture from Washington on how to lead our lives. I am standing here looking at the next generation of American leaders. Anybody think they are going to be president, raise your hand. In your hearts are inscribed the values of service, sacrifice and devotion. Now you must go forth into the world and turn your hopes and dreams into action. America has always been the land of dreams because America is a nation of true believers. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth they prayed. When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our creator four times, because in America we do not worship government we worship God. That is why our elected officials put their hands on the Bible and say, 'So help me God,' as they take the oath of office. It is why our currency proudly declares, 'In God we trust,' and it is why we proudly proclaim that we are one nation under God every time we say the pledge of allegiance. The story of America is the story of an adventure that began with deep faith, big dreams and humble beginnings. That is also the story of Liberty University. When I think about the visionary founder of this great institution, Reverend Jerry Falwell Sr., I can only imagine how excited he would be if he could see all of this and all of you today, and how proud he would be of his son and of his family. In just two days we will mark the 10th anniversary of Reverend Falwell's passing, and I used to love watching him on television, hearing him preach, he was a very special man. He would be so proud not just at what you have achieved but of the young men and women of character that you have all become. And Jerry, I know your dad is looking down on you right now and he is proud, he is very proud, so congratulations on a great job Jerry. Reverend Falwell's life is a testament to the power of faith to change the world. The inspiring legacy that we see all around us in this great stadium - this is a beautiful stadium and it is packed. I am so happy about that. I said, 'How are you going to fill up a place like that?' In this beautiful campus and in your smiling faces but it all began with a vision.


That vision was of a world class university for evangelical Christians. And I want to thank you, because boy did you come out and vote, those of you that are old enough, in other words your parents. No doubt many people told him his vision was impossible, and I am sure they continued to say that so long after he started, at the beginning with just 154 students, but the fact is no one has ever achieved anything significant without a chorus of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why it cannot be done. But the future belongs to the dreamers, not to the critics. the future belongs to the people who follow their heart no matter what the critics say because they truly believe in their vision. At Liberty your leaders knew from the very beginning that a strong athletic program would help this campus grow so that this school might transform more lives. That is why a crucial part of Reverend Falwell's vision for making Liberty a world-class institution was having a world-class football team much like the great teams of Notre Dame, great school, great place, in fact, Vice President Mike Pence is there today doing a fabulous job as he always does. A few years ago, the New York Times even wrote a story on the great ambitions of the Liberty Flames. That story prompted a longtime president of another school to write a letter to Jerry. It is a letter that Reverend Falwell would have been very, very pleased to read. Jerry tells me that letter now hangs in the wall in the boardroom of your great university. It came from the late Father Theodore Hesper, who was the beloved president of the university of Notre Dame 35 years ago. Like this school's founder, he was a truly kindhearted man of very, very deep faith. In the letter, Father Hesper recalled that Notre Dame's own meteoric rise from a small Midwestern school to a national football powerhouse. And then he wrote something so amazing and generous. He wrote, 'I think you are on that same trajectory now and I want to wish you all the best and encourage you from the starting and from being able to start very small and arriving in the big time.' Thanks to hard work, great faith, and incredible devotion those dreams have come true. As of February of this year, the Liberty Flames are playing in the FBS, the highest level of competition in NCAA football. I do not want to look at some of those scores here. Jerry, you sure you know what you are doing here?


Those other players are big and fast and strong but I have a feeling you are going to do very well, right? From the most humble roots you have become a powerhouse in both education and sports. And just wait until the world hears the football teams you will be playing on your schedule starting next season. President Falwell gave me a list of some of those schools, the ones you are going to be playing 2018. Would you like me to read the names? Just came out, would you like to hear them? UMass, Virginia, Auburn - Jerry, are you sure you know what you are doing? I do not know about that James. Rutgers, Old Dominion, Brigham Young, ENTITY - I might be at that game, who am I supposed to root for? I do not know, Jerry, I am going to have to think about that one, Jerry. maybe in four or five years I will come to a game, right, you will build it up. The success of your athletic program arriving on the big stage should be a reminder to every new graduate of just what you can achieve when you start small, pursue a big vision and never, ever quit. If I give you one message to hold in your hearts today, it is this. There will be times in your life you will want to quit, you will want to go home, you will want to go home perhaps to that wonderful mother that is sitting back there watching you and say, 'Mom, I cannot do it. I cannot do it.' Go back home and tell mom, dad, I can do it, I can do it. I will do it, you are going to be successful. I have seen so many brilliant people, they gave up in life, they were totally brilliant, they were top of their class, they were the best students, they were the best of everything, they gave up. I have seen others who really did not have that talent or that ability and they are among the most successful people today in the world because they never quit and they never gave up. Never stop fighting for what you believe in and for the people who care about you. Does that sound familiar by the way? The more people tell you it is not possible, that it cannot be done, the more you should be absolutely determined to prove them wrong. Embrace that label - being an outsider is fine, embrace the label - because it is the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference.


The more that a broken system tells you that you are wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead, you must keep pushing forward. Most importantly, you have to do what you love. You have to do what you love. I have seen so many people, they are forced through lost of reasons, sometimes including family, to go down a path that they do not want to go down, to go down a path that leads them to something that they do not love, that they do not enjoy. You have to do what you love, or you most likely will not be very successful at it. So do what you love. I want to recognize a friend who is here with us today, who can serve as an inspiration to us all. Someone who does not know the meaning of the word 'quit'. Both on the field, off the field, he is a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, really a good friend of mine, an amazing guy, Jim Kelly, where is Jim, he is here some place. Jim do you have any idea how much money you'd be making today? They'd hit Jim, it was like tackling a linebacker. They'd hit Jim, four guy, five guys that weighed 320, and he'd just keep going down the field. He was much more than a quarterback. He had tremendous heart and he knew how to win. Jim is tough, and his toughest fight of all was that he beat cancer not once but twice. And I saw him and his incredible wife as they were in a very low moment, Jill, very, very low moment, and it was amazing the way they fought. But I want to just say it is great to have you here today Jim and these people are big, big fans and if you can get a young version of Jim Kelly, you will be beating a lot of teams, Jerry. So, interestingly, though, I said 'I wonder what Jim's doing here,' his daughter Erin crosses the goal line to you and today with you so, Erin, stand up. To be, really, champions for Christ. Whether you are called to be a missionary overseas, to shepherd a church or to be a leader in your community, you are living witness of the gospel message of faith, hope and love. And I must tell you I am so proud as your president to have helped you along over the past short period of time.


I said I was going to do it, and Jerry, I did it. And a lot of people are very happy with what is taken place, especially last week, we did some very important signings, right James? America is better when people put their faith into action. As long as I am your president, no one is ever going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart. We will always stand up for the right of all Americans to pray to God and to follow his teachings. America is beginning a new chapter. Today each of you begins a new chapter as well. When your story goes from here, it will be defined by your vision, your perseverance and your grit. In this, I am reminded of another man you know very well and who has joined us here today. His name is George Rogers, Liberty University CFO and vice president for a quarter of a century. During World War II, George spent three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. He saw many of his fellow soldiers die during the Bataan death march. He was the victim of starvation and torture as a prisoner of war. When he was finally set free he weighed just 85 pounds and was told he would not live past the age of 40. If anyone ever had reason to quit, to give in to the bitterness and anger that we all face at some point, to lose hope in God's vision for his life, it was indeed George Rogers. But that is not what he did. He stood up for his country, he stood up for his community. He stood up for his family and he defended civilization against a tide of barbarity, the kind of barbarity we are seeing today and we have been witnessing over the last number of years and I just want to tell you as your president, we are doing very, very well in countering it, so you just hang in there. You will be hearing a lot about it next week from our generals Things are going along very, very well. Through it all, he kept his faith in God, even in the darkest depths of despair. Like so many others of his generation, George came home to a nation full of optimism and pride and began to live out the American dream. He started a family, he discovered God's plan for him and pursued that vision with all his might, pouring his passion into a tiny college in a place called Lynchburg, Virginia. Did you ever hear of that?