You must be their voice in an organized way. So we ought to cover everybody with private insurance, and we ought to have insurance reforms that deal with preexisting conditions and do not discriminate against people based on age. I know that. But I believe if we went back to health insurance the way it originally was when Blue Cross first started writing it, where everybody was put in a large group, risk was broadly spread, and people paid a fee against the day when they would be sick, it would be fairer for all Americans. And our economy would work better, our society would have a stronger sense of community, our families would function better. People would be free of a lot of the anxiety that comes to them. Hillary and I have received about a million letters. And whenever I go somewhere now, they arrange for some of the letter writers to come see me. And it is just gripping to see people just over and over and over and stunning to see how they really do come from all walks of life and how they have been broken by the things which have happened. The third thing I think we should do is to preserve the Medicare program. It is interesting, the people who criticize our program say this is Government-run health care which, of course, it is not . And if you tried to take away Medicare, which is a Government-funded health care, well, they would be up in a tree somewhere screaming about it. But we do not want to do anything to the Medicare program, except to make it better. I do believe we should add a prescription drug benefit and phase in long-term care that is community-based or home-based for two simple reasons. One is, there are an awful lot of elderly people who are not poor enough to be on Medicaid but are not well off, who have significant medical bills. We know the elderly use 4 times the prescription drugs that the nonelderly do. And we know from study after study after study that a proper medication regime can keep people out of the hospital and can save money and that we now have-any number of elderly people every month-I was in a grocery store in New York yesterday called Pathmark, which also operates, as many do now, a drugstore.


And it was gripping; the CEO was saying, My workers tell me that every day they watch older people come in this store and go from the drugstore, down the food aisle, and try to make up their mind what food they are going to give up to get their medicine, or whether they are going to give up their medicine to buy their food -gripping. So I do believe we should do that. It has low administrative overhead. The fourth thing we want to do is to bring greater choice to our people. I guess the thing that has made me the maddest in the relentless campaign against this plan are all those bogus ads where they say, You are going to have to call some Government office to figure out where you go to the doctor. There are two realities of modern life that you have to drive home to every Member of Congress, without regard to party or philosophy. Number one, Americans are rapidly losing their choices today. Already, of people who are insured at work, fewer than half have more than one choice of a health plan. And they are rapidly losing their choices. Number two, medical professionals are increasingly losing their right to decide unilaterally, may have to have somebody get on the phone to an insurance company executive a long way away to ask for permission to do what anybody knows ought to be done under the circumstances. Now, most Americans, believe it or not, do not know either one of those things, even though they may be caught up in it, and I think it is very important. Our plan is designed, number one, to increase the choices that consumers have. We are moving to more managed care. There can be a lot of good things in it, but under our plan, every year, every person would have a choice between at least three plans, or among at least three plans but in all probability many more. And number two, under our plan, medical professionals would also be given more choices and would have to do less checking in with the insurance company in advance. Now, being treated by doctors and nurses, you know, is an American tradition. Every time I do one of these town meetings, like I did in Rhode Island last night, I talk to somebody that is just been forced to give up their doctor and just move away from the choices they made. We believe when all Americans can choose among several health plans, many Americans, many more Americans, will choose to stay with their own providers.

Remarks to the American Nurses Association


And many more of these plans will be organized in such a way that all providers can participate if they will do it for the agreed-upon fee. And if we do not do this, if we do not have some legal action to reorganize this, you are going to have less choice by consumers, less choice by providers. Time and again, we have also seen that the quality of care is directly related to the quality and the quantity of the nursing staff. One of the things that amazes me is how many nurses have been laid off in recent months and been told, well, this is because health care reform is coming. I will tell you what, one of Clinton's unbending laws of politics is, whenever somebody who is got a tough decision to make can shift the heat from themselves to you, they will do it every time. They will do it every time. What is really going on is, a lot of these health care providers are under the gun. all this stuff is going to happen if we do not do anything. All of us could go on vacation for a year, and this same thing would go on. You know that. And do not let your Members fall for it. What is going to happen is we will continue to see these trends occur unless we find a way to give health care providers reimbursement for all the people for whom they care, at an appropriate level in an appropriate way. More than a decade of research now shows that more and better trained nurses result in shorter hospital stays, better survival rates, fewer complications, whether you are dealing with low birthweight babies or older people. You do not have to work for the Congressional Budget Office to understand that healthier patients and shorter stays means lower health care costs. Sometimes I think if you do work for the Congressional Budget Office you will never get that, but--we are working together pretty well on the whole. This choice issue and maintaining an array of qualified people doing the things for which they are best qualified is terribly important. Finally, let me say-and this, I guess, is, except for this whole issue of whether this is a Government program, which it is not , is the most controversial part of it-our reform is based on providing guaranteed benefits at work. Now the reason for that is simple, for the people in this country that have health insurance, 9 out of 10 of them have it at work where there is some shared responsibility between the employer and the employee.


For the people who do not have insurance, 8 out of 10 of them have someone in their family who is working. It seems to me that the fairest and simplest, and if you will, the most conservative way to achieve universal coverage, to have health care security for everybody, is to ask employers and employees who are not doing anything or barely doing anything to do more so that they can fulfill their own responsibilities and then use tax funds to cover the unemployed, uninsured people for whom you could say, well, there is a general responsibility, just like Medicare and Medicaid, and then organize the market so that smaller businesses and self-employed people get discounts if they need it and are able to buy good insurance on the same terms that those of us who are insured by Government or larger businesses can. Now it seems to me that is a fair and simple and obvious way to do this. I think that any other way will sooner or later involve either a radical change, that is, getting rid of the whole health insurance market and substituting taxes for it, or involve people who are already paying too much for their own health care, having to pay something for people who will not do anything for themselves because they say they should be exempt. You know, again, we lose sight of the fact that most small businesses are making an effort to cover their employees. We have brought hundreds and hundreds of small businesses to Washington to talk to the Congress, but they are not organized. small businesses who cover their employees and are mad their competitors do not and mad they cannot get better insurance rates- -and wish somebody would help them. So an association that may have a lot of folks in the insurance industry, along with other small businesses, says, Do not do this; the whole small business economy will break, says this, and there is no association on the other side . Had a car dealer from a town of 7,000 people in Arkansas up staying with me the other night, he and his wife, long-time friends of mine. He said to me the other night-it was funny-he said, You know, for 20 years I have been feeling sorry for myself because I have provided a good health plan for my employees, and none of my competitors did. So he said, I was so happy when you proposed this just because I thought I was going to get even.


And then he said, But you know, then I remembered that in the last 20 years I put three of my competitors out of business. And I am making more money than I ever have. And the reason is I still got the same folks working for me I had 20 years ago because I gave them health benefits. And yesterday I went to New York and I visited this Pathmark store. They have 175 stores, 28,000 employees, the 10th biggest supermarket chain in the country. We are all told, Oh, if you do this, the retailing business will go to pieces. These people have put new stores in inner-city areas that other chains would not touch, fine new stores. They are making money, and they have always provided comprehensive health benefits to their employees. And they are now sacking their groceries in a bag that says they favor health care benefits to all Americans, guaranteed through the workplace. I say this to you because, as you know, there are a lot of nurses that do not have any health care coverage and a lot of nurses who are single parents who do not have health care coverage. Everybody now in Washington is for welfare reform, and I guess it means different things to different people. One was embodied in last year's economic plan, lower income taxes for working people who are hovering just above the poverty line with children. This year one in six American working families will be eligible for lower income taxes so they can succeed at work and can succeed as parents. And if they do not , require them to take it. And if they cannot , provide some public subsidy in the private sector or some publicly funded job so that work is preferable to welfare. Strategy number three has got to be cover the people with health insurance. All these people on welfare in this country who are dying to get off-and by the way, that is most of them-who are dying to get off, most of them have limited education. Suppose they go through a little training program and they get a job that pays a modest wage but is still more than the welfare benefits. But they go to work for an employer who does not provide for health care. You are a mother with two children. You give up being on welfare to take a job that pays more than the welfare check, but you lose health care coverage for your kids. What are you going to do if your kid has to go to the dentist? What are you going to do if your child is desperately ill?


How are you going to feel every week, every 2 weeks or every month when you get your paycheck and you see what is taken out of it in taxes and you realize those taxes are going to pay for the health care benefits of people who decided to stay on welfare instead of going to work? You do not have to be as bright as a tree full of owls to figure out that this does not make a lot of sense. Now a lot of American nurses are in this situation today, getting up every day, slaving away, trying to take care of people who have children without insurance, caring for people who come into their office who are on public assistance who have children with insurance because of the Medicaid program. And you could say, well, all this inability to cover everybody, if this were fueling some enormous American economic expansion because we were saving so much money on health care, maybe you could deal with that. But the truth is we are spending over 40 percent more of our income on health care than any other country in the world. Oh yes, some of it because we are more violent, and that is something we pay for. Some of it because we have better medical research and technology, and that is worth paying for. But a whole lot of it, as you well know, is because of the way we have financed health care, which has employed hundreds of thousands of people in doctors' offices, in clinics, in hospitals, and in insurance companies to read the fine print on thousands and thousands of policies to see who and what is not covered. And it has rifled inefficiencies through this system that we are all paying for. We can fix this. We can fix it by having a law which fixes what is wrong, keeps what is right, provides health care security to everybody through a private system, increases the choices consumers have, and increases the decisions that doctors and nurses and other qualified providers make without oversight by others. We can do it.


Much has been said by former speakers of the honor I have done this State by coming here. no greater honor can come to any individual and citizen of this country than to be received in friendly fashion by a cross-section of his fellow citizens. You have honored me. I think, first, I should like to remember my manners and thank you--each of you--as representatives of my host State for the warm reception I have had, for the beautiful presents given me. As a matter of fact, for the prestige I shall have in Pennsylvania when I can show a cow that has no other like it around there. They will come to see that farm if for no other reason than that cow. Now I had a number of reasons for coming here. self-education. I do not think I know enough--ever--about the people of the United States, with whom I am privileged to meet and mingle when I go on a trip like this. Particularly, I have been denied too many opportunities to go to the northern three States of the New England group. I have long wanted to come here, and for two years I have carried it as a determination. And finally, I got the permission of Governor Adams to come--and here I am! Now one of the first things I want to learn is where Calvin Coolidge got a certain skill that I have not acquired. He held the same position I now hold. He had a distinguished record, and held it for a long time, and he spoke so rarely that he got the nickname Silent Cal. My own experience in this regard is exemplified by the fact that the day before yesterday I spoke in San Francisco, and here again I am today, still talking. I find that my tongue is clattering in my ears a great deal, and I would like to know what Vermont secret he had that allowed him to avoid this particular responsibility. There is another thing I want to learn; old as I am, there is a lesson in romance I have heard attached to Vermont--told me by that now distinguished citizen, Sherman Adams of New Hampshire. He said there was a Vermont couple that were going to get married, but Mary thought that John ought to save a thousand dollars before they really were married. And he worked all winter long, and when June again approached, Mary thought it was a nice time to think of marriage, and she said, How much have you saved?

Remarks at the Vermont State Dairy Festival, Rutland, Vermont.


Well, John looked a little bit sheepish and did not want to confess, but after a while he said, Thirty-five dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a confidence--the emotion--the idealism--that we normally associate with Vermont when we say the word Ethan Allen. By the way, I hear my cow came from Ethan Allen's farm. And am I glad --I think I shall call her Mrs. Ethan Allen. Actually, I came here just to see you--to see people. I want to know you better. There are certain things I do know about you. I know that Americans everywhere are the same, in their longing for peace, a peace that is characterized by justice, by consideration for others, by decency above all, by its insistence on respect for the individual human being as a child of his God. All of us want that. All of us want the institutions of America preserved. It makes no difference what party label you attach to an American, we have equal veneration for our Constitution, for the basic principles that have been so beautifully upheld in this State, so well described in that tribute to the people of this State by Calvin Coolidge, just read to you a little while ago. what are the methods by which we approach all of these things? We know we must not sacrifice principle for mere expediency. But do we know also that the responsibility is on us to attempt to understand others as we think they should understand us? Do we even make the mistake of assuming that the rest of the world knows us, knows our peaceful intentions, knows that we want nobody else's land, nobody else's rights, that we covet nothing? We merely want to live in peace with all the world, to trade with them, to commune with them, to learn from their cultures, as they may learn from ours. I assure you, my friends, they do not know it. Even nations we know enlightened still have much to learn about America. Indeed, every single citizen of every other State has something to learn about you. It is probably a pity that every citizen of each State cannot visit all the others, to see the differences, to learn what we have in common, and to come back with a richer, fuller understanding of America in all its beauty, in all its dignity, in all its strength, in support of moral principle.


Let me just say I really am pleased and privileged to be with this group of people that do so much. You know, I really feel comfortable talking to this group because most people think I have been free associating for years. I heard that last year I accidentally caused panic among your executive directors. They thought I pledged no new faxes. Believe it or not, there are still some Americans who do not know what the association for associations is. That is why next week they are doing a bit on you for TV's Unsolved Mysteries. Because really, only your organization is big enough and broad enough to include the Leafy Greens Council and the Association of Tongue Depressors. But I guess it is only natural for the heads of organizations like yours to get together themselves. Some people think of our great country as a nation of rugged individualists alone against the odds. And that is part of the American tradition, but only a part. There is another tradition, a tradition as old as America itself, as old as Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact, as old as the pioneers who settled the West. It is the tradition that Tocqueville described more than 150 years ago when he came to America, observed the scenes, and wrote that Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. individuals translating common interests into a common cause. And you know, today we see the power of democracy, and is not it an exciting time to be alive, seeing this change in Eastern Europe and in Managua, Nicaragua? in the Revolution of 1989 that brought down the Berlin Wall and brought freedom to Eastern Europe; here in our own hemisphere, in the great victories for democracy in Panama and then again in Nicaragua -- and millions of people now enjoying the freedoms that America has known for two centuries. Here at home, we have got to see what these transforming changes in the world mean for us. And those changes carry a challenge, a challenge to us to find in our freedoms new ways to solve the problems that threaten our society and our continued leadership in the whole world community. drug abuse, hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, despair in our inner cities, the breakdown of the family. There is a role, a critical role for government in finding solutions, but we know government does not always have the answers. If we could eliminate these problems, solve them once and for all with more programs, more bureaucracy, these problems would have disappeared a long time ago.

Remarks to the American Society of Association Executives


The fact is, government is not the only organized entity out there with the powers to change things, the power to make a difference. Everyone in this room is well aware of the advantages of association. But I do not know whether you are really aware of the full extent of your own power, of the resources, the expertise, the potential energy your organizations can bring to bear on these problems -- your ability to help solve community problems. the Medical Association of Atlanta, working after hours to provide free medical care to the homeless; by the Oregon Remodelers Association out there in Portland, Oregon, in Project Pride, a program to do home repairs for the low-income elderly; by the Hotel Association of New York, with its ongoing commitment to donate surplus food to feed the hungry . These are just three, just three of countless community service projects that your associations are engaged in, a commitment of time and talent mirrored in similar community efforts by millions of Americans across the country. In fact, one study in 1988 found that Americans who volunteered in formal organizations gave almost 15 billion hours valued at an estimated $150 billion. Now that is tremendous, but it is just the tip of the iceberg, just a fraction of all the good works we are capable of. Because the fact is, coping with the problems we face is within our power. There is no problem in America that is not being solved somewhere. the programs I have just mentioned -- New York, Atlanta, Portland -- thousands more. Think about ways that your organization, every one of your members, can make this mission of serving others your very own. The story I want to tell you today -- a story that Martin Luther King, Jr., told in his speech he made the night before that terrible day in Memphis, 22 years ago -- it is a story about serving others and the courage that takes. It is a familiar story about the Good Samaritan and the stranger he helped. But there is another part of the story we do not always remember. Before the Good Samaritan stopped that day, two other men saw the injured stranger and passed him by. Why did not the others stop to help? They did not stop because they were too busy, had more important work waiting in Jerusalem of far more consequence than helping one unfortunate man; and so, on they went. And then one day, Martin Luther King put himself in their shoes.


At the age of 30, on his very first trip to the Holy Land, he and his wife, Coretta, traveled that road from Jerusalem to Jericho. And Dr. King saw the story of the Good Samaritan in a new light. That road starts off more than 1,000 feet above the sea level and ends in Jericho 2,000 feet below sea level -- a twisting road, full of blind curves. He imagined the road 2,000 years ago, each curve a perfect ambush for robbers. And at the moment, Dr. King realized why the two men did not stop. It had nothing to do with the reasons he had imagined. If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? And he went on about his way. If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? And he asked himself that question, and he found the courage to stop, the courage to help, the courage to serve. So which question, then, do we ask ourselves about going down to the soup kitchen in that dangerous neighborhood; about stopping on a dark street to help a homeless man; about reaching out to those desperate kids out there, kids who have no home life, who are hooked on drugs, who live a nightmare we cannot begin to imagine? Every one takes an act of courage. But unlike the Good Samaritan, we do not have to act alone. how much we can get done when we work together, pool our resources, combine our talents. And do not think it will not take courage. It is going to take courage to go back to your member organizations, back to their CEO's and boards of directors, and suggest that they place community service at the center of their agenda. It is going to take courage to insist that community service has a place at the very heart of every organization. It will take courage to make each one believe that from now on in America, any definition of a successful life must include serving others. But that is just exactly what I am asking you to do. Today, I want to lay down some challenges, challenges to associations all over America to take up community service. Find out what is working in your industry, in your profession, in your community; let your members know which community service programs are most effective; and then, challenge them to make those programs the blueprint for their own efforts.


Everybody, please, everybody have a seat, have a seat. It is good to be back in North Carolina. Although, I have to say, I came down here for slightly warmer weather. What is snow doing on the ground in North Carolina? Anyway, it is a great honor to be with you here at Forsyth Technical Community College. There are a few people I want to acknowledge who are just doing outstanding work. First of all, your incredibly impressive college president, Gary Green, is here. Your wonderful Governor, Bev Perdue, is in the house; your Senators, Richard Burr and the better looking one, Kay Hagan; two hard-working Congressmen, Mel Watt and Brad Miller, are here. We have got Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in the house. Well, it is been about a month now since the midterm elections. what the results mean for Democrats, what they mean for Republicans. And already, we are hearing what this means for the next election. And I have to tell you, I came to Winston-Salem because I believe that right now there are bigger issues at stake for our country than politics. And these issues call on us to respond not as partisans, but as Americans. At this moment, we are still emerging from a once-in-a-lifetime recession that has taken a terrible toll on millions of families, many here in North Carolina who have lost their jobs or their businesses, and their sense of security. Now, fortunately, we have seen some encouraging signs that a recovery is beginning to take hold. An economy that had been shrinking for nearly a year is now growing. After nearly 2 years of job loss, our economy has added over 1 million private sector jobs in 2010. Now, I was just talking to Bev, and she was mentioning that here in North Carolina, we have seen 50,000 new jobs here in North Carolina. And after teetering on the brink of liquidation not 2 years ago, our auto industry is posting healthy gains. So we are seeing progress across the country. But as we also saw in November's jobs report, the recovery is simply not happening fast enough. Plenty of Americans are still without work. Plenty of Americans are still hurting. And our challenge now is to do whatever it takes to accelerate job creation and economic growth. Now, in the short term, that means preventing the middle class tax increase that is currently scheduled for January 1. Right now Democrats and Republicans in Congress are working through some differences to try to get this done.

Remarks at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina


And there are some serious debates that are still taking place. Republicans want to make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. I have argued that we cannot afford it right now. But what I have also said is we have got to find consensus here, because a middle class tax hike would be very tough not only on working families, it would also be a drag on our economy at this moment. So I believe we should keep in place tax cuts for workers and small businesses that are set to expire. We have got to make sure that we are coming up with a solution, even if it is not a hundred percent of what I want or what the Republicans want. We should also extend unemployment insurance for workers who've lost their jobs through no fault of their own. And I should mention that is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do, because if millions of Americans who are not getting unemployment benefits stop spending money, that slows down businesses. That slows down hiring. It slows down our recovery. Now, even if we take these and other steps to boost our recovery in the short term, we are also going to have to make some serious decisions about our economy in the long run. We have got to look ahead, not just to the next year but to the next 10 years, the next 20 years. We have got to ask ourselves, where will the new jobs come from? What will it take to get them? And what will it take to keep the American Dream alive for our children and our grandchildren? Obviously, this recession had a devastating effect here, like it did everywhere else. But the trends have been going on for quite some time. I was just visiting with President Green, with some of the students here in the biotech field, wonderful people, from every walk of life. You had folks who had just gotten out of high school, and you had folks who had--were in midlife and had been laid off from a manufacturing job and had come here to retrain. But a bunch of them mentioned, Well, I was laid off because the textile industry has moved away here in North Carolina. I was laid off because the furniture industry has moved away here in North Carolina. And that means we have got to have a long-term vision about where we want to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now. Just like past generations did, we must be prepared to answer these questions in our time.


And over the next several weeks, I am going to be meeting with my economic team, with business leaders, and others to develop specific policies and budget recommendations for the coming year. Today I want to outline the broader vision that I believe should guide these policies, and it is a vision that will keep our economy strong and growing and competitive in the 21st century. And that vision begins with a recognition of how our economy has changed over time. When Forsyth Technical opened 50 years ago, it was known as Forsyth County Industrial Education Center, right? Machine shops and automotive mechanics were some of the first classes you could take. Of course, back then you did not even need a degree to earn a decent living. You could get a job at the local tobacco or textile plant and still be able to provide for yourself and your family. In the last few decades, revolutions in communications, revolutions in technology, have made businesses mobile and has made commerce global. So today, a company can set up shop, hire workers, and sell their products wherever there is an Internet connection. That is a transformation that is touched off a fierce competition among nations for the jobs and industries of the future. Some of you know I traveled through Asia several weeks ago. You have got a billion people in India who are suddenly plugged into the world economy. You have got over a billion people in China who are suddenly plugged into the global economy. And that means competition is going to be much more fierce, and the winners of this competition will be the countries that have the most educated workers, a serious commitment to research and technology, and access to quality infrastructure like roads and airports and high-speed rail and high-speed Internet. Those are the seeds of economic growth in the 21st century. Where they are planted, the most jobs and businesses will take root. Now, in the last century, America was that place where innovation happened and jobs and industry always took root. The business of America was business. Our economic leadership in the world went unmatched. Now it is up to us to make sure that we maintain that leadership in this century. And at this moment, the most important contest we face is not between Democrats and Republicans, it is between America and our economic competitors all around the world. That is the competition we have got to spend time thinking about. Now, I have no doubt we can win this competition.


We are the home of the world's best universities, the best research facilities, the most brilliant scientists, the brightest minds, some of the hardest working, most entrepreneurial people on Earth, right here in America. It is in our DNA. People came from all over the world to live here in the United States. The folks who did not want to take risks, they stayed back home. In the race for the future, America is in danger of falling behind. And when--if you hear a politician say it is not, they are not paying attention. In a generation, we have fallen from first place to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. When it comes to high school graduation rates, we are ranked 18th out of 24 industrialized nations--18th. We are 27th in the proportion of science and engineering degrees we hand out. We lag behind other nations in the quality of our math and science education. When global firms were asked a few years back where they planned on building new research and development facilities, nearly 80 percent said either China or India, because those countries are focused on math and science, and they are focused on training and educating their workforce. I sat down with President Lee of South Korea, and I asked him, what is the biggest problem you have in education? He said, You know, these parents, they come to me and they are constantly pressuring me; they want their kids to learn so fast, so much--they are even making me import English-speaking teachers in, because they want first-graders to know English. I asked him about investment in research and development. He says, We are putting aside 5 percent of our gross domestic product in research and development, 3 percent of it in clean energy. You go to Shanghai, China, and they have built more high-speed rail in the last year than we have built in the last 30 years. The largest private solar research and development facility in the world has recently opened in China, by an American company. Today, China also has the fastest trains and the fastest supercomputer in the world. In 1957, just before this college opened, the Soviet Union beat us into space by launching a satellite known as Sputnik. And that was a wake-up call that caused the United States to boost our investment in innovation and education, particularly in math and science.


And as a result, once we put our minds to it, once we got focused, once we got unified, not only did we surpass the Soviets, we developed new American technologies, industries, and jobs. If the recession has taught us anything, it is that we cannot go back to an economy that is driven by too much spending, too much borrowing, running up credit cards, taking out a lot of home equity loans, paper profits that are built on financial speculation. We have got to rebuild on a new and stronger foundation for economic growth. building, innovating, educating, making things. We do not want to be a nation that simply buys and consumes products from other countries. Made in America. So I came to Forsyth today because you have shown what this future can look like. Half a century later, you are still giving students the skills and training they need to get good jobs, but of course--but courses in machine shop and car mechanics have now broadened to degrees in mechanical engineering technology and nanotechnology and biotechnology. they come here, they stay here, they hire right here in Winston-Salem. As a national leader in bioscience and innovation, North Carolina is now the country's third largest employer in biotechnology. And when Caterpillar recently decided to build a plant in this community, they told President Green one of the main reasons was they were convinced that Forsyth Tech had the capability of providing them with the technical workforce that they need. That is something everybody in this room should be very proud of. And I know that business leaders from throughout the community have worked intensively with President Green and others to help make this happen. Now, none of this progress happened by itself. It happened thanks to the hard work of students here at Forsyth, the commitment of local leaders, foresight of local business leaders. Most importantly, it happened because there was a decision made to invest in the collective future of this community. It happened because there was a decision to invest in this college, and there were loans and scholarships that made it affordable to go here. To invest in the basic research and development that helped jump-start North Carolina's biotech industry, to invest in new buildings and laboratories and research facilities that make your work possible, these are the kinds of investments we need to keep making in communities across America, investments that will grow our economy and help us to stay competitive in the 21st century.


Now, I want to emphasize I say this knowing full well we face a very difficult fiscal situation. I am looking at the books back in Washington, and folks were not doing a real good job with their math for the last decade. So now that the threat of a depression has passed and a recovery is beginning to take hold, reducing our long-term deficit has to be a priority. And in the long run, we will not be able to compete with countries like China if we keep borrowing from countries like China. We will not be able to do it. So we have already started making some tough decisions. And they are unpopular and people get mad, but we have got to make some decisions. I have proposed a 3-year freeze in all spending that does not have to do with national security. And I proposed a 2-year freeze in the pay for Federal workers. That is why we are currently studying recommendations of the bipartisan deficit reduction panel that I commissioned. We are going to have to be bold and courageous in eliminating spending and programs that we do not need and we cannot afford. But here is where there is going to be a debate in Washington over the next year and over the next couple of years and maybe over the next 5 years, because I will argue and insist that we cannot cut back on those investments that have the biggest impact on our economic growth. Because I was talking with President Green, and he said much of the equipment here would not be here if it had not been for the assistance of the Recovery Act, the assistance of the Department of Labor. All this stuff that we have done over the last couple of years that people were questioning, you can see it translated in the classrooms right here. The work that we are doing on student loans and Pell grants, you can see it in the students who are able to finance their retraining right here. So we cannot stop making those investments. The best antidote to a growing deficit, by the way, is a growing economy. To borrow an analogy, cutting the deficit by cutting investments in areas like education, areas like innovation, that is like trying to reduce the weight of an overloaded aircraft by removing the engine. There may be some things you need to get rid of, but you got to keep the engine.


That is why even as we scour the budget for cuts and savings in the months ahead, I will continue to fight for those investments that will help America win the race for the jobs and industries of the future, and that means investments in education and innovation and infrastructure. I will be fighting for that. In an era where most new jobs will require some kind of higher education, we have to keep investing in the skills and education of our workers. By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That is a commitment that we are making. So to get there, we are making college more affordable for millions of students. We have made an unprecedented investment in community colleges just like this one. And just like Forsyth, we have launched a nationwide initiative to connect graduates that need a job with businesses that need their skills. We are reforming K-12 education not from the top down, but from the bottom up. Instead of indiscriminately pouring money into a system that is not working, we are challenging schools and States to compete with each other to see who can come up with reforms that raise standards and recruit and retain good teachers, raise student achievement, especially in math and science. We call it Race to the Top, where you get more funding if you show more results, because part of the argument here is, is that if we are going to have a government that is smart and helping people compete in this new global economy, then we have got to spend our money wisely. And that means we want to invest in things that are working, not in things that are not working just because that is how things have always been done. Now, once our students graduate with the skills they need for the jobs of the future, we have also got to make sure those jobs end up right here in America. We have got to make sure that the United States is the best place to do business and the best place to innovate. So it is time, for example, that we have a Tax Code that encourages job creation here in America. And to boost our recovery, I have already proposed that all American businesses should be allowed to write off all the investments they do in 2011. We want to jump-start, starting next year, plants and equipment investment right here in Winston-Salem and all across North Carolina and all across the United States of America. To encourage homegrown American innovation we should make it easier to patent a new idea or a new invention.


And if you want to know one reason why more companies are choosing to do their research and development in places like China and India, it is because the United States now ranks 24th out of 38 countries in the generosity of the tax incentives we provide for research and development. So that is why I have proposed a bigger, permanent tax credit for companies for all the research and innovation they do right here in America--all of it. Now, what is also true is a lot of companies do not invest in basic research because it does not pay off right away. But that does not mean it is not essential to our economic future. Forty years ago, it probably did not seem useful or profitable for scientists and engineers to figure out how to increase the capacity of integrated circuits. Forty years later, I am still not sure what that means. What I do know is that discoveries in integrated circuits made back then led to the iPod and cell phones and GPS and CT scans, products that have led to new companies and countless new jobs in manufacturing and retail and other sectors. That is why I have set a goal of investing a full 3 percent--not 2 percent, not 2.5 percent--a full 3 percent of our gross domestic product into research and development. If this is truly going to be our Sputnik moment, we need a commitment to innovation that we have not seen since President Kennedy challenged us to go to the Moon. And we are directing a lot of that research into one of the most promising areas for economic growth and job creation, and that is clean energy technology. I do not want to see new solar panels or electric cars or advanced batteries manufactured in Europe or in Asia. I want to see them made right here in America, by American businesses and American workers. I also want to make it easier for our businesses and workers to sell their products all over the world. The more we export abroad, the more jobs we support at home. We have got to change the formula. We have got to flip the script, because what is been happening is, is that we have been doing all the buying; somebody else has been doing all the selling. We have got to start selling and have them do some buying. And that is why we have set a goal of doubling U.S. exports in 5 years. And that is why I am pleased that last week, we came closer to meeting that goal by finalizing a trade agreement with our ally, South Korea.


This is a nation that offers one of the fastest growing markets for American goods. Now, here in North Carolina and all across the country, there are a lot of people that say, trade, we are not sure that that helps us. It seems like maybe it is hurt us in areas like furniture. South Korea is selling a whole bunch of stuff here, and we are not selling it there. The current deal is not a good one for us. Let us sign any trade agreement; let us cut any deal, without thinking ahead about how this is going to impact America. What this deal does is boost our annual exports to South Korea by $11 billion. That means it will support at least 70,000 American jobs--70,000 American jobs. our roads, our railways, our runways, our information superhighways. Over the last 2 years, our investment in infrastructure projects--yes, through the Recovery Act--have led to thousands of good private sector jobs and improved infrastructure here in North Carolina and all across the country. But we have got a long way to go. There is no reason that over 90 percent of the homes in South Korea have broadband Internet access and only 65 percent of American households do. There is no reason why China should have nearly 10,000 miles of high-speed rail by 2020 and America has 400. They have got 10,000; we have got 400. They have got trains that operate at speeds of over 200 mph, and I do not know how fast our trains are going. We are the nation that built the transcontinental railroad. We are the nation that took the first airplane into flight. We constructed a massive Interstate Highway System. We introduced the world to the Internet. And if we want to attract the best jobs and businesses to our shores, we have got to be that nation again. And throughout history, the investments I have talked about--in education and innovation and infrastructure--have historically commanded the support from both Democrats and Republicans. It was Abraham Lincoln who launched the transcontinental railroad and opened the National Academy of Sciences. He did it in the middle of a war, by the way. But he knew this was so important we had to make these investments for future generations. Dwight Eisenhower helped build our highways. Republican Members of Congress worked with FDR to pass the GI bill. More recently, infrastructure bills have found support on both sides of the congressional aisle.


The permanent extension of research and development tax credits was proposed by both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Our education reforms have been praised by both Democratic and Republican Governors. So the point is there should not be any inherent ideological differences that prevent Democrats and Republicans from making our economy more competitive with the rest of the world. If we are willing to put aside short-term politics, if our objective is not simply winning elections but winning the future, then we should be able to get our act together here, because we are all Americans and we are in this race together. So those of us who work in Washington have a choice to make in the coming weeks and months. We can focus on what is necessary for each party to win the news cycle or the next election. We can do what we have been doing. Or we can do what this moment demands and focus on what is necessary for America to win the future. For as difficult as the times may be, the good news is that we know what the future could look like for the United States. We can see it in the classrooms that are experimenting with groundbreaking reforms and giving children new math and science skills at an early age. We can see it in the wind farms and solar plants and advanced battery plants that are opening all across America. We can see it here at Forsyth, in your laboratories and your research facilities, and over at the biotechnology firms that are churning out jobs and businesses and lifesaving discoveries. You see it in the faces of the young people who we just visited to--visited with, Dr. Green and myself--some not-so-young faces, but people who, despite layoffs, despite hardships, felt confident in their future. Just the other month, I saw part of America's future during a science fair we held at the White House. And we talked to some of these amazing young people. It was probably as much fun as I have had in several months. But there was a team from Tennessee that had designed a self-powered water filtration plant so that homes in Appalachia could have access to clean water. And then there were these young people--these are all high school, some younger than high school--there were young people who had designed a way to make an entire town more energy efficient.


And there were young people who had entered into rocket contests, and they were showing me all the rockets that they had been shooting up, and they had won an international contest, and explained to me the designs of these things--and robots that were running around in the State Dining Room and bumping into things. And then the last person I spoke to was a young woman from Dallas, Texas, and her name was Amy Chyao. She is a child of immigrants. Her parents came to the United States from China, but Amy was born here. And when she was a freshman in high school, she got interested in cancer research. She had studied biology and she got interested in cancer research. So she decided--get this--she decided to teach herself chemistry over the summer. And then she designed a device that uses light to kill hard-to-reach cancer cells while leaving the healthy ones untouched. She goes on to win the international science competition. All these kids from all around the world--she wins the competition. So now she is being approached by laboratories all across the country who want to work with her on developing this potential breakthrough cancer drug that she is designed. And I am talking to Amy and pretending like I understand what she is explaining. And as I am listening to her, I am looking at the portrait of Abraham Lincoln that hangs over her head in the State Dining Room. And I remembered all that we have been through and all that we have overcome. And I thought to myself, you know what, the idea of America is alive and well. We are going to be just fine as long as there are people like Amy and her parents who still want to come to this country and add to our story; as long as there are people like the men and women here at Forsyth Technical, who are keeping us at the top of our game; as long as we are willing to look past the disagreements of the moment and focus on the future that we share. If we can do that, I have no doubt that this will be remembered as another American century. We will meet that Sputnik moment, but we are going to all have to do it together. God bless you, and God bless America.


I am very sorry I cannot be with you personally today, because I have enjoyed that experience in the past. But I have asked my assistant and your good friend, Brooks Hays, to represent me at your conference. This conference is a matter of great interest to me and to the National Government, because we have been devoting a good deal of our time and effort to attempt to assist you in meeting the problems of our growing urban areas, an area and an environment where over 70 percent of our people live. Because of this great national challenge, we have in the past months doubled our urban renewal program to help you in your fights against slum and blight. We have developed a program to broaden the housing opportunities for people of low and moderate incomes in our great cities and towns across the country. And after a year of experience with a temporary program, we now have before the Congress a major proposal on urban mass transportation. I am confident that the Congress, which is proceeding rapidly in its consideration of this measure, will act on it favorably this year. We have greatly expanded the water pollution control program in order to join with you in providing adequate supplies of good water to meet urban and industrial needs. And we have recommended to the Congress a comprehensive program in the field of air pollution control. We have joined in attempting to assist you in the acquisition of much-needed open space land in urban areas, and I believe that last year's enactment of airport aid legislation will assure continuing progress towards meeting the objectives of the national airport plan. Through the retraining and area redevelopment programs, we are engaged in a pioneering effort to reduce chronic unemployment in many of our communities. And we have recently recommended to the Congress a public improvements program as an additional means of combating unemployment. I am sure as city officials you have been heartened by the United States Supreme Court decision requiring more equitable representation of our urban areas in State legislatures, because from that I believe progress can come. Our urban areas, and I think the country, suffered a set-back in our recent failure in establishing a Department of Urban Affairs and Housing, but I believe that this country will come more and more to realize--and the Congress will--the necessity for us organizing those departments of the federal Government which are concerned with urban affairs, in such a way as to provide maximum service to your people. This is a matter of great challenge to us in the years ahead.

Remarks by Telephone to the Mayors' Conference at Miami Beach.


I am really proud that all of you came to the picnic that Rosalynn and I and Amy have put on with you, along with 3M Company. We are glad to be your cohosts and also the guests of a very fine example of the free enterprise system of our country. 3M was the first company in our Nation that was given the national award for conserving energy. And I think what they have done is typical of what has been done throughout the State of Wisconsin. When your former Governor, Pat Lucey, who is now a very distinguished and able Ambassador to Mexico, was in office, he initiated some conservation measures in Wisconsin which have been good as an example for the entire Nation. You as a people in Wisconsin use 20 percent less energy per person than the average throughout our country, in spite of the fact that you rank 12th in industrial production and in spite of the fact that on normal days you have cooler weather than we do in Georgia-but I think today you have equaled the Georgia climate and temperature. And neither has anyone in the United States done well enough in saving energy. Our country has a great challenge before us at this time. There is no conflict between the two things that we must do. One is to conserve energy, to stop waste, and secondly, to produce more energy in our own Nation. Our Nation's security is threatened because we are too dependent on foreign oil. So, everyone in the United States must do as we have done in the past when our country was in danger or when it was threatened-unite with one another, instead of being divided one from another, and realize that every single American is important, cut back on waste of energy in your driving habits, obey the speed limits, join in the vanpool system that 3M is doing in other parts of the country-will soon be doing here-make sure that you do not waste energy in your home, do everything you can to save precious energy. And secondly, we will have to use more solar power. We will have to use more coal from within our own country, and we will produce more oil and gas and synthetic fuels. If we do those things, there is no doubt in my mind that we can meet this present challenge. Our country, as you well know, is the greatest nation on Earth. And we have got something else as well.

Remarks at a Picnic Sponsored by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin


First of all, I want to thank Ron and Beth for having all of us here and for being so generous with their time and their home. However, now that I-you know, I thought I knew them pretty well. I never knew they met at a Chuck Robb fundraiser. We ought to put that out. We can raise millions of dollars on this. All the lovelorn who can write a check or show up at your fundraisers-this is wonderful. So I want to thank them. And I want to thank all of you for coming and for supporting Chuck, and in just a minute, I am going to tell you why. Let me say to all of you, you went through the line and had your picture taken. I appreciate the many nice things you said and especially those of you who expressed your support for my wife, whom I hope will be helping to swell the Democratic majority in the Senate after November. I want to thank Lynda Robb for being our friend for probably 20 years now. Chuck and I were Governors together in the early eighties. Out at Camp David I have got this beautiful picture of a carriage from colonial Williamsburg, from the Southern Governors' Association meeting in 1984, that Chuck Robb gave me. And I want to tell you, quite briefly, why I am here tonight, besides the fact that, yes, I'd show up if Ron and Beth asked me to come, and yes, I'd show up if Chuck and Lynda asked me to come. But there is a great question before the American people in this election, very different from the one we faced in 1992, but in some ways, maybe even more important and perhaps even more difficult to answer properly. In 1992 the American people gave Al Gore and me a chance, but the country was mired in difficulty, and everyone knew that the way that things were being done in Washington was not working. You remember how it was then; you just took a position on an issue, and there was a position you had to take. If you were a Democrat, you had to take one position. If you were Republican, you had to take the other. And then you just stood off from one another and screamed as loud as you could and hoped you'd get your 10 seconds on the evening news, which might have been good politics but did not move America forward very much. So we set about turning the ship of state around.

Remarks at a Reception for Senator Charles S. Robb


And without being self-serving, I think it is fair to say we did a pretty good job, and things are going in the right direction now. And I think it is one reason to vote for Chuck Robb and for Al Gore, because it was not because I was ENTITY; it was because we were all doing the right things. You know, some of my adversaries, now that they want to win the election before us, they spent 7 years telling everybody how bad I was; now they say I am the only guy that jumps higher than Michael Jordan-let us throw the other Democrats out. That has nothing to do with it. We did the right things, and it is very, very important. So now the question is not, how are we going to turn the ship of state around; how are we going to build our bridge to the 21st century? The question is, what are we going to do with these good times? We never had such good times before. We never had at one time so much economic progress, social progress with the absence of severe domestic distress or external threat. So what are we going to do? It is easy to get people together when they are under the gun. It is hard to get people together when things are fun. And what I would like to say to you is that I am old enough to know that nothing lasts forever and that these moments come along once in a generation if you are lucky, and you have got to make the most of them. I am also experienced enough in politics to know that our adversaries, both in the Virginia Senate race and the White House, they will be very adroit at speaking in reassuring terms and helping to blur the lines of the election. But the truth is, as Senator Robb just said, there are huge consequences to the choices the American people will make. And you have to come to terms with that, as well. If you want to change the economic policy of the country and go back to the way they did it, you can do it. If you like the way things are going, you have got to vote for Chuck Robb and for the Vice President. If you want someone to do something serious about gun violence, to keep building on the record of the last 7 1/2 years, to keep crime coming down, you can have it.


If you want someone who will not touch this issue with a 10-foot pole and will not do anything the NRA does not want them to do, you can have that, too. But you have got to make up your mind. And you cannot pretend that there are no consequences to this election. You know, one of the things I really respect about Chuck Robb is, he is a fiscal conservative; he voted with me on that budget, knowing it could beat him in the '94 election. He did not blink; he got up there and voted in '93 for the budget. And if he had not voted for it, it would have never passed. But also, after his distinguished career in the United States Marine Corps, he has supported me on every human rights initiative, including gay rights, I have ever advanced. And I respect that more than I can say. And he has supported sensible efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children. Yesterday Hillary and I had-and I like it, because Al Gore and I need some Southern cover, you know. I do not know if you saw it, but there was a picture in the paper that said, gunnery sergeant for responsible gun control -it was a great sign, yesterday at this thing. You know, I just want to take a minute. This is a big choice you have got in the election. But do not let anybody you know pretend that they are voting-the Senate race or the President's race is not about what our policy is with regard to safety, public safety, or pretend that it is not about our policy with regard to human rights or pretend that it is not about our policy with regard to economics and whether you like having this surplus and you want to get America out of debt and keep investing in education or you'd rather go back and try it the way it was. I am telling you, those are three inescapable consequences of this election and your choice. Will we change economic policy? Will we continue to try to make America a safer country and have responsible measures to promote gun safety? Will we continue to advance the cause of human rights? And the fourth inescapable consequence is, will we continue to grow the economy and improve the environment at the same time or let the old way prevail, and say the heck with that?


America's history books are filled with the names of places that are far removed from America's shores, where her strength and her will were tested, and where they triumphed. We know most of those places very well-the Argonne Anzio Okinawa and the Pusan Perimeter. Now they will add the Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. In one critical month there in the fall of 1965, American troops were locked in major combat with regular forces from North Vietnam. The enemy can never win Vietnam by armed conquest. the 1st Cavalry Division . Their performance in the Ia Drang Valley from October 23 to November at, 1965, has earned them a Presidential Unit Citation for heroism. Air cavalry with its mobility and its potential for surprise on the battlefield was a promising but untried concept, until the men of the 1st Cavalry, in their first test of arms, proved its validity. They proved more than a concept. To the Vietnamese people who had lived under Vietcong control for so long, their presence helped destroy the myth which the enemy had carefully built that the area was permanently tied to the enemy. The war in Vietnam, as all of you know, is a new kind of conflict. American arms are being tested there by a new kind of aggression. Of that, we and the rest of the world may be sure. In past years, our military gave us only the alternatives of permitting the enemy to have his victory undeterred, or of stopping him with a massiveness that could provoke a nuclear war. America needed a new response to meet the new form of aggression. Great names went into the construction of that response-John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor. What the 1st Cavalry Division did in the Ia Drang Valley demonstrated that the new kind of warfare could be met and could be mastered. They dealt a hard blow to the Communist belief that freedom can be destroyed piece by piece. What happens in Vietnam is extremely important to this Nation's freedom and it is extremely important to the United States security. The cavalrymen who took their stand in the Central Highlands, and showed that America could meet its responsibilities in fact as well as in theory, knew that. The men in Vietnam today know it. And because they fought with such bravery and such skill, I salute them here this morning on behalf of all of their fellow citizens who live in this Nation of which all of us are so proud.

Remarks Upon Presenting the Presidential Unit Citation to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and Attached Units.


By virtue of the authority vested in me as ENTITY and as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States I have today awarded The 1st Cavalry Division and attached units distinguished themselves by outstanding performance of duty and extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy in the Republic of Vietnam during the period 23 October 1965 to 26 November 1965. Following the attack on a Special Forces camp at Plei Me, in Pleiku Province, on 19 October 1965 by regular units of the ENTITY of North Vietnam, the 1st Cavalry Division was committed to action. The division was initially assigned the mission of protecting the key communications center of Pleiku, in addition to providing fire support both for an ENTITY of the Republic of Vietnam armored column dispatched to the relief of the besieged camp, and for the camp itself. The 1st Cavalry Division , having recently been organized under a completely new concept in tactical mobility, and having arrived in the Republic of Vietnam only a month earlier, responded quickly with an infantry brigade and supporting forces. Using air assault techniques, the division deployed artillery batteries into firing positions deep within enemy-held territory and provided the vital fire support needed by the ARVN forces to accomplish the relief of the Special Forces camp. By 27 October, the tactical and strategic impact of the presence of a North Vietnamese regular army division in Pleiku Province necessitated a change in missions for the 1st Cavalry Division. The division was given an unlimited offensive role to seek out and destroy the enemy force. With bold thrusts, elements of the division pursued the North Vietnamese regiments across the dense and trackless jungles of the west-central highlands, seeking the enemy out in his previously secure sanctuaries and giving him no quarter. In unfavorable terrain and under logistical and tactical conditions that would have stopped a unit with less capability, motivation and esprit, the cavalrymen repeatedly and decisively defeated numerically superior enemy forces. The superb training, unflinching devotion to duty, and unsurpassed gallantry and intrepidity of the cavalrymen, individually and collectively, resulted in numerous victories and succeeded in driving the invading North Vietnamese division back from its positions at Plei Me to the foot of the Chu Pong Massif. There, in the valley of the Ia Drang, the enemy was reinforced by a fresh regiment and undertook preparations for more incursions into Pleiku Province.


I am profoundly moved by the trust you have placed in me. I deeply feel the responsibility which goes with your nomination for President of the United States at this grave hour of our nation's history. That I have not sought this responsibility, all of you know. I told the people of my State, two years ago, that it was my intention to devote my full term as governor exclusively to their service. In accordance with the principles of our republican form of government you have laid upon me the highest duty to which an American can be called. No one has a right to refuse such a call. With the help of God, I will try to be worthy of the trust. I accept the nomination. I am happy and proud to be associated with my good friend from the State of Ohio, John W. Bricker. For many months, John Bricker has gone from state to state telling the people of the issues, of the great need for better government, for the sound principles of government, and the leader-ship which will come to it with a Republican victory this year. Never before have I seen such good sportsmenship as that displayed by John Bricker here this morning and I am proud to be associated with him. I come to this great task a free man. I have made no pledges, promises or commitments, expressed or implied, to any man or woman. I shall make none, except to the American people. To men and women of the Republican Party everywhere I pledge my utmost efforts in the months ahead. In return, I ask for your support. Without it, I cannot discharge the heavy obligation you lay upon me. To Americans of every party I pledge that on Jan. 20 next year our government will again have a cabinet of the ablest men and women to be found in America. The members of that Cabinet will expect and will receive full delegation of the powers of their office. They will be capable of administering those powers. They will each be experienced in the task to be done and young enough to do it. This election will bring an end to one-man government in America. To Americans of every party I pledge a campaign dedicated to one and above all others-that this nation under God may continue in the years ahead a free nation of free men. At this moment on battlegrounds around the world Americans are dying for the freedom of our country. Their comrades are pressing on in the face of hardship and suffering. They are pressing on for total victory and for the liberties of all of us.

Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois


Everything we say or do today and in the future must be devoted to the single purpose of that victory. Then, when victory is won, we must devote ourselves with equal unity of purpose to re-winning at home the freedom they have won at such desperate cost abroad. The American people are united with you to the limit of our resources and manpower, devoted to the single task of victory and the establishment of a firm and lasting peace. By this political campaign, which you are unable to understand, our will to victory will be strengthened, and with every day you further delay surrender the consequences to you will be more severe. That we shall win this war none of us and few of our enemies can now have any doubt. But how we win this war is of major importance for the years ahead. We won the last war but it did not stay won. This time we must also win the purposes for which we are fighting. Germany must never again nourish the delusion that she could have won. We must carry to Japan a defeat so crushing and complete that every last man among them knows that he has been beaten. We must not merely defeat the armies and the navies of our enemies. We must defeat, once and for all, their will to make war. Never again. The military conduct of the war is outside this campaign. It is and must remain completely out of politics. General Marshall and Admiral King are doing a superb job. Let me make it crystal clear that a change of administration next January cannot and will not involve any change in the military conduct of the war. If there is not now any civilian interference with the military and naval commands, a change in administration will not alter this status. If there is civilian interference, the new administration will put a stop to it forthwith. But the war is being fought on the home front as well as abroad, while all of us are deeply proud of the military conduct of the war, can we honestly say that the home front could not bear improvement? The present administration in Washington has been in office for more than 11 years. Today, it is at war with Congress, and at war with itself. Squabbles between Cabinet members, feuds between rival bureaucrats and bitterness between the President and his own party members, in and out of Congress, have become the order of the day. In the vital matters of taxation, price control, rationing, labor relations, manpower, we have become familiar with the spectacle of wrangling, bungling and confusion.


Does anyone suggest that the present national administration is giving either efficient or competent government? We have not heard that claim made, even by its most fanatical supporters. No, all they tell us is that in its young days it did some good things. That we freely grant. But now it has grown old in office. It seems that the great men who founded this nation really did know what they were talking about when they said that three terms were too many. When we have won the war, we shall still have to win the peace. We are agreed, all of us, that America will participate with other sovereign nations in a cooperative effort to prevent future wars. Let us face up boldly to the magnitude of that task. We shall not make secure the peace of the world by mere words. We cannot do it simply by drawing up a fine-sounding treaty. It can not be the work of any one man or of a little group of rulers who meet together in private conferences. The structure of peace must be built. It must be the work of many men. We must have as our representatives in this task the ablest men and women America can pro-duce, and the structure they join in building must rest upon the solid rock of a united American public opinion. I am not one of those who despair of achieving that end. I am utterly confident we can do it. For years, we have had men in Washington who were notoriously weak in certain branches of arithmetic but they specialized in division. They have been playing up minor differences of opinion among our people until the people of other countries might have thought that America was cleft in two. Recently the overwhelming majesty of that broad area of agreement has become obvious. The Republican Party can take pride in helping to define it and broaden it. There are only a few, a very few, who really believe that America should try to remain aloof from the world. There are only a relatively few who believe it would be practical for America or her allies to renounce all sovereignty and join a Super-state. I certainly would not deny these two extremes the right to their opinions; but I stand firmly with the overwhelming majority of my fellow citizens in that great wide area of agreement. That agreement was clearly expressed by the Republican Mackinac Declaration and was adopted in the foreign policy plank of this Convention. No organization for peace will last if it is slipped through by stealth or trickery or the momentary hypnotism of high-sounding phrases.


We shall have to work and pray and be patient and make sacrifices to achieve a really lasting peace. That is not too much to ask in the name of those who have died for the future of our country. This is no task for men who specialize in dividing our people. It is no task to be entrusted to stubborn men, grown old and tired and quarrelsome in office. We learned that in 1919. The building of the peace is more than a matter of international co-operation. God has endowed America with such blessings as to fit her for a great role in the world. We can only play that role if we are strong and healthy and vigorous as nature has equipped us to be. It would be a tragedy if after this war Americans returned from our armed forces and failed to find the freedom and opportunity for which they fought. This must be a land where every man and woman has a fair chance to work and get ahead. Never again must free Americans face the spectre of long-continued, mass unemployment. We Republicans are agreed that full employment shall be a first objective of national policy. And by full employment I mean a real chance for every man and woman to earn a decent living. What hope does the present administration offer here? In 1940, the year before this country entered the war, there were still 10,000,000 unemployed. After seven years of unequalled power and unparalleled spending, the New Deal had failed utterly to solve that problem. It never solved that problem. It was left to be solved by war. Do we have to have a war to get jobs? What are we now offered? Only the dreary prospect of a continued war economy after the war, with interference piled on interference and petty tyrannies rivaling the very regimentation against which we are now at war. The present administration has never solved this fundamental problem of jobs and opportunity. It can never solve this problem. It has never even understood what makes a job. It has never been for full production. It has lived in chattering fear of abundance. It has specialized in curtailment and restriction. It has been consistently hostile to and abusive of American business and American industry, although it is in business and industry that most of us make our living. In all the record of the past 11 years is there anything that suggests the present administration can bring about high-level employment after this war? Is there any reason to believe that those who have so signally failed in the past can succeed in the future?


The problem of jobs will not be easily solved; but it will never be solved at all unless we get a new, progressive administration in Washington-and that means a Republican administration. For one hundred and fifty years America was the hope of the world. Here on this great broad continent we had brought into being something for which men had longed throughout all history. Here, government derived its just powers from the consent of the governed. Here men believed passionately in freedom, independence-the God-given right of the individual to be his own master. Yet, with all of this freedom-I insist-because of this freedom-ours was a land of plenty. In a fashion unequalled anywhere else in the world, America grew and strengthened; our standard of living became the envy of the world. In all lands, men and women looked toward America as the pattern of what they, themselves, desired. And because we were what we were, good will flowed toward us from all corners of the earth. An American was welcomed everywhere and looked upon with admiration and regard. At times, we had our troubles; made our share of mistakes; but we faltered only to go forward with renewed vigor. It remained for the past eleven years, under the present national administration, for continuing unemployment to be accepted with resignation as the inevitable condition of a nation past its prime. It is the New Deal which tells us that America has lost its capacity to grow. We shall never build a better world by listening to those counsels of defeat. Is America old and worn out as the New Dealers tell us? Look to the reaches of the wide Pacific-to the corners of the world where American men are fighting. our country is just fighting its way through to new horizons. The future of America has no limit. True, we now pass through dark and troubled times, scarcely a home escapes the touch of dread anxiety and grief; yet in this hour the American spirit rises, faith returns-faith in our God, faith in our fellowman, faith in the land our fathers died to win, faith in the future, limitless and bright, of this, our country. In the name of that faith we shall carry our cause in the coming months to the American people.


Can I ask you, make it so quiet temporarily you can hear a pin drop? It is great to be in Rochester-Monroe County and the great State of New York. It is my privilege and honor to be here with some of your wonderful local people, some that represent the whole State. And let me express my deep appreciation and gratitude to your senior Senator, Jack Javits. And then we have got one of your hometown boys--he has grown quite a bit--the former judge and our State chairman, Dick Rosenbaum. Now, let me say something about some people that I want to be with me in Washington for the next 4 years. First, I want you to reelect for your benefit, for the country's benefit, for our benefit, Frank Horton. And then another one of your outstanding, super guys that has helped me so much, who can help you, help the State, help the country, Barber Conable. And then I want you to send down to Washington--or to keep him there, that is what I really mean-your good friend, your Senator, Jim Buckley. Now, for just a minute I would like to first express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the tremendous turnout in Michigan weather. Now, having said that, when I became your President 26 months ago, things were tough. We were on the brink of a recession. People had lost faith and confidence in the White House. We were still involved in Vietnam. And as I stood in the East Room of the White House and took the oath of office, it was not an easy time--America was in turmoil. You have not confirmed me by your ballots. I ask that you confirm me by your prayers. And the net result is America got our ship of state on a steady course, we put a firm hand on the tiller. And America has made an incredible comeback, and you did it, and I thank you. We have cut inflation by more than 50 percent, and we are going to do better. We have added 4 million jobs in the last 18 months, and we are going to do better. We have restored trust and honesty in the White House, and I pledge that is the way it will be for the next 4 years. But today, we can all be proud and thankful that not a single young American is fighting or dying on any foreign battlefield.

Gerald R. Ford Remarks on Departure From Rochester, New York


I thank you. We love Wisconsin. But you know we are having massive crowds all over the place and I will tell you what, I look at a poll we are even in Wisconsin. With what I have done for you, USMCA, we got rid of those horrible You know what you were being charged? 287% tariff to do business with Canada. I heard about that. I did not like that. Your specialty milk people got me. Do you believe it? It was all about specialty milk. That was like the straw that broke the camel's back. I said, What do you mean? And we knocked the hell out of it and we got the brand new USMCA. Sleepy Joe cannot do that, it is not in his vocabulary. He has no idea what we just said. He is sitting in his basement right now watching us. He has no idea. I hate to do this to you. I was a great hair day, and then I heard you at 40 mile an hour winds. I said, All right, give me the cap. I do not do it often. But now I am looking at that beautiful sight. As beautiful as that is, OSHA, as beautiful as that is, I do not know that I'd want to be those people right in that little corner. But they have no fear, do you? You have confidence in ENTITY. Yeah, we get good equipment. It is great to be back in Wisconsin with thousands of loyal, hard-working Americans. We had a problem, big problem in Texas. We had a surge, they opened it up, it is all opened up. Arizona, they had a surge. I will tell you what, when you look at our numbers compared to what is going on in Europe and other places, but we are doing well. We are going to have one of the best economic years we have ever had next year. One of the best we have ever had. 17 days from now, we are going to win the state of Wisconsin, and we are going to win four more years in the running. By the way, early voting begins on Tuesday, so get out and vote. Now, we have had great success in your state and I have been very good to you, likewise, with the ships. You build good ships. You know that, right? A lot of other states wanted that contract. I probably lost some states because of it, but we gave you the big contract.

Donald Trump Rally Transcript Janesville, WI October 17


Honestly, I went to the yards. It is incredible what you do. This is the most important election in the history of our country. Six months ago I was saying, Well, how do you compare with the last one? The fact is, this is the single most important election in the history of our country. Sleepy Joe Biden's made a corrupt bargain. You saw the bargain he made, in exchange for his party's nomination, which he should not have gotten because if Pocahontas got out one day early, I'd be running against Crazy Bernie, which would have been okay, too. I would have had a small but energized base. Now we have a little bit larger base to run against, but there is zero energy. They are reporting on it. We have got the most energy in the history of politics, and he is got the least. Biden handed control of his party over to hardcore militant left. The Democrat Party, you once knew no longer exists, it is now a party of socialists and Marxists and left wing extremists. They would kill your jobs, dismantle your police departments, and you have a lot of great law enforcement people here today. I think we have every single law enforcement group in the country's endorsed us. You know they endorsed us, first time they have ever endorsed a presidential candidate. Everybody's endorsed us. During the debate, I said, Joe, name one group, law enforcement, that is endorsed you. And then, Chris Wallace bailed him out. I said, Joe, say the words law and order. He would not do it. I said, Say the words loiter, then Chris Wallace bailed him again. But he cannot , because if he says law and order, that means he loses the radical left, which I think he is losing anyway. But they want to dissolve your borders, raise your taxes, destroy your suburbs. Oh, have I saved your suburbs. The women, they keep telling me about suburban women. I think suburban women liked it. I have only saved your house, and frankly, I have saved your way of life. I have saved the American dream. But they keep saying, ENTITY has a problem. Well, last time they said the same thing. They said I had a problem with women, period. Was that the greatest of all time? It is probably the greatest night in the history of television, right? We had so much fun.


The tears that were flowing out of pure We have another one of them coming up next week, Kristen Welker. She deleted her entire account. I have known her for a long time. We did very well the other night with a person I knew was even more unfair, Savannah. In fact, nobody's seen Savannah for two days. What happened to Savannah? What happened to Savannah? They said, We'd like to give Savannah Guthrie I said, That is all right. What difference does it make? They ask you a question, you give them an answer. But she was sort of jumping out of her seat. She was like, I told you. I told you. I said, I do not care what you told me. What does that mean? We actually got eight plus marks on that. Then you watch Sleepy Joe get interviewed by George Stephanopoulos. I interviewed with him two weeks ago. He is giving these lobs in slow motion, lobs. But they want to fund extreme, late-term abortion. They want to pack the Supreme Court. It could end up with 16, 1920. They want to put far left judges on the court. They are going to pick people so far left, and you will end up with far left justices like we have never had ever before. They want to protect criminals and disarm law-abiding Americans. They want to take away your second amendment. If Biden wins the lawless demonstrators in our streets, and you see them all the time, they are democratic-run. They should actually change their name to the Democratic. I said, Why do not you try changing your name officially? But they are lawless demonstrators, and they are, they are all Democrat-run cities and states, almost every single one of them, and they do not want to really take care of it. They do not want to take care of law enforcement. You see what is going on in Seattle. First of all, the police who we love, they are all quitting, they are all leaving. They'd still be occupying Seattle, except they found out that we were going in the morning that they all raised their hands. The reason they raised their hands is we were going in that morning, we were going to take over. Can you believe it? We are going to take over the section, the large section of Seattle that these anarchists had.


In theory, we have to be asked and the Federal Government has to be asked. But we went into Minneapolis, and you know what happened? Remember, they formed a line, they formed another line, they were not socially distance, which is very bad. In fact, they were very close. They had helmets that cost a fortune. They formed those lines, and then they said, Okay, let us go. This is after two weeks of destruction in Minneapolis. That is why we are going to win Minnesota for the first time since 1972, Republican Party. Now, it does not hurt that in Minnesota they have Ilhan Omar, who hates our country, who is broken the law, she is broken the law. Let us see what happens, but she is broken the law. But she hates our country. We are going to win because of what we did with Minneapolis, we saved Minneapolis, and we saved Seattle. Do you want to know the truth? We are sort of saving the whole country if you really think about it. That is why we have spirit, the likes of which I do not think any campaign has ever had. You know something? I just left Michigan. You know that. It is supposed to go like 70, 80% to the Democrats, and then we come in with the big red wave. So they will start big heavy when it gets the early voting, but especially on that November third day, we are going to be swamping it. So this is early, but still hundreds of thousands of votes. We are supposed to be down big, and then we catch it like a race horse. That was what was supposed to sort of happen, and then you see what happens in the end. But something strange has happened in Michigan. We brought back many car plants, many, many. They had not brought back a plant, I think it is 42 years, and we brought back many and expansion the car plant. In Michigan, a strange thing has happened. We are leading substantially in the early voting. What is that all about? What is that all about? You cannot see it. As far as the eye can see, you have people. This election day, the people of Wisconsin, and you know what? We win Wisconsin, we win the whole ballgame. What the hell do you think I am doing here on a freezing night with 45 degree winds. What do you think? Do you think I am doing this for my health? I am not doing this for my health.


I am doing it for that, and I am doing it for that. This election day, the people of Wisconsin must stop these anti-American radicals by issuing Sleepy Joe Biden. He has no clue anyway. Look, let us not kid ourselves. Let us not kid ourselves. Think of it, think of it, because this puts pressure on you. I am running against perhaps in the history of presidential politics, the worst candidate. Obama would not even endorse him. And then even after he won, I did not think Obama Now I heard that today, they said, Sir? Well, we have a little problem. Obama is going to campaign for him. He campaigned harder than Hillary Clinton did for Hillary, and it just made us stronger. But it is true, by issuing Joe Biden, a tremendous defeat at the ballot box. 56% of the American people, Gallup poll, right, say that they are better off today than they were four years ago under the Obama/Biden Administration. Think of what we are saying. By the way, that is a record, 56% of the people, and that is during, and we are rounding the corner, we got the vaccines, all that, but even without it, we are rounding the corner. You will see it. We are rounding the corner. Frankly, except for a little politics, but we have unbelievable vaccines are coming out real soon, and the therapeutics are unbelievable, and the cures. I did not feel so good, I will be honest with you. I had not been sick in a long time. I do not have any time to get sick. If you are busy, you do not get sick because you have no time. You do not think about it. I was not feeling like Superman. All of a sudden, the doctor, we have great doctors. One thing with being president, you got more doctors than any human being. I am lying down in a bed, I got 12 doctors from Johns Hopkins Hospital, university, great people, all great. And they love their president. They love their country. But I have doctors, they wanted to touch every single part of my body. All I know is the next morning I felt stronger than I have ever I wanted to get out there and I wanted to make new trade deals for your jobs, and I wanted to deal a lot of things. We have done a great job.


But the most menacing aspect of the Biden/Harris agenda is their attack of law and order. I came in and I had your sheriff, and what a great guy, Beth, I had your sheriff's endorsement and a lot of other endorsements in Kenosha. You ever hear of a place called Kenosha? Say what you want. I will tell you what. I give your governor credit. Unlike Oregon, because we could solve Portland in about, I'd say, 22 minutes. They live in the basement with their parents. They go home with their parents, but wise guys, right? You know nobody likes to say it. We can solve that in two minutes, but they do not want to do it. At least you governor said, Let us go in and let us solve the problem. And we solved it. But we solved and we saved Kenosha. And I want to thank the sheriff and I want to thank the chief, I want to thank all of the law enforcement that was there. I want to thank the people that were helping rebuild their stores and their businesses. I never thought of Kenosha that it would be an important part of my life. But I will tell you what. Your law enforcement did a great job, we did a great job, and I want to thank everybody involved. Our law enforcement in this country, if you let them do fairly what they do better than anybody in the world, they would not have any problem. They would not have any problem. You look at what is going on in New York under Democrats. You look at what is going on in Chicago under Democrats, Portland, Oakland under Democrats, Baltimore under Democrats. We have a great young Congress woman, hopefully running in Baltimore. I hope she gets her shot, Republican. I hope she gets her shot. Today, I want to explain to you the threat that their far left plans pose to the safety of your family, your community, and your country. If you give the power to Democrats, the radical left will defund, disband, disarm, and dismantle police departments all across America. Ask if he supports slashing police funding. You saw this last week. Honestly, look, he did not even understand the question, but that is what he said. It is just like fracking, right? He said, There'll be no fracking for a year. Elizabeth Warren refuses to get out so Bernie can have the nomination.


Joe lucks into it on a Super Tuesday, and now he is standing in Pennsylvania and they want to frack because they have a million fracking jobs and because we are energy independent and things. He goes from saying for a year and a half, There will be no fracking. I wanted to put on a screen, but it was so windy we would've needed 15 cranes to hold up the screen. But we have it. He says no fracking like 18 times. Goes to Pennsylvania, which we are going to win, too. Because in Pennsylvania, I know it, I went to school there, in Pennsylvania, they believe in law and order, and they believe in energy, and they believe in intelligence. They believe in intelligence. He now goes to Pennsylvania, he gets hit hard, and he all of a sudden says, I never said that. First of all, always follow with these politicians, because I have only been doing this for a short while. No, I have only been doing it for a short while, but one thing I have learned But I have known politics. I have been dealing on the other side of politics. And he said it for a long time, along with everybody else in his party, and there is no way he could not do what he did not agree to in the first place. He gets up and he says, In Pennsylvania, no, no, we will frack. And the whole place, and not one, see all the fake news media back there, nobody said to him, But for a year and a half, you said there'd be no fracking, and now you said there'll be fracking. Nobody asked him that question. Only in Wisconsin could this happen. I know you well. As long as I am president, we will never defund the police. We will strongly defend our police. I will always stand with the heroes of law enforcement. I think I am endorsed by every law enforcement group all over the country, beyond the country. I get world endorsements. I want common sense. The Biden plan calls for abolishing cash bail. You have a murderer. Look at what happened to New York. They abolished cash bail. They are going to release 400,000 criminals onto your streets and into your neighborhoods if crazy Joe becomes president. No, no, running against him, it puts such pressure because I am running against the worst in the history of presidential.