Post by bot on Feb 2, 2015 7:52:41 GMT -5
Hoyer Remarks Introducing President Obama
at the Democratic Issues Conference
WASHINGTON, DC – Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) introduced President Obama at the Democratic Issues Conference in Philadelphia this evening. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
“Tonight, I’m honored to welcome our President, and our partner, to the Democratic Issues Conference here in Philadelphia.
“Last week, in his State of the Union address, the President told Congress that – and I quote: ‘We have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on earth. It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years and for decades to come.’
“Working with a Democratically-led Congress, President Obama oversaw a period of extraordinary economic recovery from the depths of the worst recession Americans have experienced in over three-quarters of a century.
“Under President Obama, the unemployment rate has dropped from over ten percent to less than six. The budget deficit has been halved. Our country is now the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, making us less dependent on foreign energy imports and contributing to falling gas prices. Manufacturing exports are rising. So are high school graduation rates. And millions of previously uninsured Americans now have health coverage.
“By almost every indicator, our nation is doing better than it has been since the President's inauguration. Except for one, a critically important one, which President Obama talked at length about in his state of the union, and is the focus of this issues conference. And that is the state of our middle class.
“Each of us has heard stories from our constituents about how middle class status is slipping further and further from their grasp. It is our responsibility and our mission, as the President said, to create the future that America deserves by working together to ensure that the gains we’ve made will make the middle class and all who aspire to the middle class more prosperous, more confident, and more secure.
“Last Tuesday night, President Obama laid out a blueprint to do just that. The middle class economic agenda he put forward – which includes expanding access to higher education, a new child care tax credit, and paid family leave – is a common sense and compelling agenda that would give working families more hope and more security.
“This is not a partisan goal, and we hope Republicans will work with us to bring the President’s proposals to the floor for a vote. But if Republicans choose partisanship over progress, the American people must see us fighting for what we believe this country’s future ought to be.
“A future where being laid off doesn’t mean a lost decade for you and your family. A future where, when you work hard, you earn a living wage. A future where getting sick doesn’t mean a lifetime of debt and worry. A future where retirement does not need to be postponed again and again and again.
“We, and the President, believe that this future is one we can and must achieve for the American people. So it is up to us and the President, as one Democratic team, to work together to accomplish these objectives and this vision for our country and all those who strive to realize America's promise and dream.
“On the night he was elected in 2008, President Obama said: ‘Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.... in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.’ He went on to say: ‘What we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.’
“Ladies and gentleman, our partner for a better America, the President of the United States, Barack Obama.”
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