Before discussing the many ways that “America is back” from the crippling Great Recession — and proclaiming General Motors as once again the world’s largest automaker — Obama torched trade partner China, putting them on full blast for enabling illegal copyright piracy and other unfair practices before forewarning Wall Street barons who’ve taken over America’s wealth at the expense of his citizens that the practice is about to end.
Obama also pronounced that he was coming to the defense of the middle class by providing “fair tax codes,” using billionaire Warren Buffett as an example to drive home his point of how ridiculous it was for Buffett to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.
“You can call it class warfare all you want. But to ask the billionaire to pay as much in taxes as his secretary is not class warfare,” he said. The American people see it as “common sense.”
So effective was the president that he even used the Republican hero, Abraham Lincoln, against the GOP when he stated that “Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves and no more.”
Exemplifying disgust at a Washington that he says is “broken” as we know and that the Congress was locked in a campaign of mutual destruction” with “rigid ideologies,” Obama effectively countered the verbal arrows being shot at his administration by rival Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich..
Here are a few other highlights from Obama’s speech:
“As long as I’m President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”
“My message is simple: it’s time to stop rewarding corporations that send jobs overseas and start rewarding corporations that create jobs right here at home. Send me these tax forms and I will sign them right away.”
“So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.”
No American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here.”
“The wealthiest 400 people in America now own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans.”
“No bail outs, no handouts, no cop-outs!”
”…In exchange for HELP, we demand responsibility,” Obama said in regards to bailouts that were properly paid back, if at all.
—terry shopshire
