“The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away. But we can’t stop there,” Obama said. “As I’ve argued since I ran for this office, we have to look beyond the immediate crisis and start building an economy that lasts into the future—an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs that pay well and offer security. … We have to be able to out-build and out-educate and out-innovate every other country on Earth.”
To provide long-term economic stability, the president said he again would propose raising taxes on the very wealthiest Americans who can afford it, as well as closing loopholes in the corporate tax code that “give an advantage to companies that can afford the best-connected lobbyists.”
“We have to decide what our priorities are,” Obama said. “Should we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires? Or should we put teachers back to work so our kids can graduate ready for college and good jobs? Right now, we can’t afford to do both.”
He added: “This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math.”
Obama also slammed recent efforts by Republican-controlled state legislatures in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere to roll back collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public employees.
“I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy,” he said. “We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. America should be in a race to the top. And I believe we can win that race.”
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