"Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company. After September 11, they volunteered their best roofers to help repair the Pentagon. But half of their factory went unused, and the recession hit them hard. Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert's words, 'We reinvented ourselves'."
"Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense."
Of course, we are expected to excuse this promotion of the brain drain, which our friend Obama has no interest in trying to hide, we must excuse him given his passion for science and healthy competition.
The planet has been saved! Or, at least, it won't perish due to an excess of CO2 or for lack of energy. It reminds me of something that happened over 40 years ago when a group of enterprising young Cuban scientists spoke to me with great enthusiasm about this same idea, based on theoretical principles. My blind faith in science led me to find everything they asked for, including an isolated facility where they would work for years.
I'm not denying a great Californian institute, but please, Mr. President, share this information with the world so that other scientists can work on this same project. This is not a matter of profit, as humanity would be prepared to pay anything your scientists want.
The president, as I observed, did not mention a single word about the selective assassination of Iranian scientists by the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies, about which he was well informed.
Instead, he expanded on his remarks saying: "This is just a part of how we're sharing a world that favors peace and prosperity. With our European allies, we revitalized NATO and increased our cooperation on everything from counterterrorism to missile defense."
This freeze will require painful cuts. Already, we've frozen the salaries of hardworking federal employees for the next two years. I've proposed cuts to things I care deeply about, like community action programs. The Secretary of Defense has also agreed to cut tens of billions of dollars in spending that he and his generals believe our military can do without.
We did that in December. Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans' paychecks are a little bigger today. Every business can write off the full cost of new investments that they make this year. And these steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the economy and add to the more than one million private sector jobs created last year.
But we have to do more. These steps we've taken over the last two years may have broken the back of this recession, but to win the future, we'll need to take on challenges that have been decades in the making.
Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. For less than 1% of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning. And these standards were developed, by the way, not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country. And Race to the Top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that's more flexible and focused on what's best for our kids.
Although the majority of states did not receive funding, the Obama administration takes the position that the competition for the funding alone resulted in sweeping education changes in most states. In August, the Dept. of Education said in competing, "35 states and the District of Columbia have adopted rigorous common, college- and career-ready standards in reading and math, and 34 states have changed laws or policies to improve education."
With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.
Clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market. So tonight, I set a new goal: By 2035, 80% of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources.
The biggest conundrum is coal. Coal fuels 44% of electricity production. But "clean" coal, which usually refers to coal burned in a way that allows its carbon dioxide emissions to be captured and stored underground, is far from ready to step in and provide such a large share of the mix. The first large-scale "clean" coal plant is still under development. That means renewables like wind, solar and hydro will need to continue to expand their shares of the pie, as well as natural gas.
Obama also counts nuclear plants as "clean"--but that's a point that environmentalists debate, particularly since the question of what to do with the resulting highly radioactive waste has yet to be resolved.
Before I took office, I made it clear that we would enforce our trade agreements, and that I would only sign deals that keep faith with American workers and promote American jobs. That's what we did with Korea, and that's what I intend to do as we pursue agreements with Panama and Colombia and continue our Asia Pacific and global trade talks.
This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit. The health insurance law we passed last year will slow these rising costs, which is part of the reason that nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit. Still, I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year--medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.
The truth is that this largely remains to be seen. Many of the cost-saving measures the president has touted are untested, such as changes in the way care is delivered, new payment models and pilot projects that some experts applaud, and others question.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects that for most Americans, who get their insurance through work, health insurance premium costs won't change significantly from what they would have been without the law. CBO estimated that the major parts will cost $10 billion over the 2010-2019 period, while Medicare's Office of the Actuary determined savings of only $2 billion.
Overall, Medicare's chief actuary expects total spending on health care to rise over 10 years--but that's because about 34 million persons will gain health care coverage.
Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation. But because it's not always profitable for companies to invest in basic research, throughout our history, our government has provided cutting-edge scientists and inventors with the support that they need.
This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the Space Race. I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology--an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.
We've begun rebuilding for the 21st century. And tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble those efforts. We'll put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail. Within the next five years, we'll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans. This isn't just about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age.
Is it feasible to have 80% of Americans with access to high-speed rail? Well, if there's money and political will. About 80% of Americans live in urban areas, so connecting major cities would do it. Is it feasible in 25 years? We can't predict the future, but we'll note that efforts to launch high-speed rail corridors first began in 1991.
We've also taken the fight to al Qaeda and their allies abroad. In Afghanistan, our troops have taken Taliban strongholds and trained Afghan security forces. Our purpose is clear: By preventing the Taliban from reestablishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people, we will deny al Qaeda the safe haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11.
Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance. But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them. This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home.
[Let's] simplify the system. Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years--without adding to our deficit.
But that's still shy of the rate needed for doubling within five years, which would require an annual increase of nearly 15%, compounded. Furthermore, imports have also increased during the same period by a larger amount, resulting in a larger trade deficit.
With our European allies, we revitalized NATO and increased our cooperation on everything from counterterrorism to missile defense.
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The above quotations are from 2011 State of the Union address to Congress, plus the Republican Response and the Tea Party response: Jan. 25, 2011.
Click here for other excerpts from 2011 State of the Union address to Congress, plus the Republican Response and the Tea Party response: Jan. 25, 2011. Click here for other excerpts by Barack Obama. Click here for a profile of Barack Obama.
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