Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello, St. Paul! (Applause.) It is good to be back in Minnesota. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. That's why I came here. Good to see you.
Although, can I just say that when we got off the plane, Secretary Foxx, who is from
North Carolina, turned to me and he said, this is the coldest I've ever been in my life.
(Laughter.) Now, we were only out there for like a minute -- (laughter) -- which goes
to show how soft these folks from North Carolina are when it comes to the weather. (Laughter
and applause). I, on the other hand, am from Chicago -- (applause) -- I walked off those
stairs and I was like, this is balmy, this is great. (Laughter.) February, in Minnesota
-- can't beat it. Cannot beat it.
Now, in addition to Secretary Foxx, who I want to -- give him a big round of applause
for that introduction. (Applause.) You've two champions for the people of Minnesota
who are here today. You've got Representative Betty McCollum -- (applause) -- and Representative
Keith Ellison. (Applause.) You've got your Mayor, Chris Coleman, in the house. (Applause.)
The new Mayor of Minneapolis, Betsy Hodges, is here. (Applause.) And my great friend,
who actually told me I was running for President before I knew I was running for President
-- R.T. Rybak. Love that name. (Applause.) Where's R.T.?
Now, I want to thank everybody who showed me around Union Depot and gave me a preview
of this new light rail line. It is fantastic. (Applause.) And I also just want to say -- even
though he's not here today -- I want to say to everybody how Michelle and I have been
keeping in our thoughts and prayers one of the great Americans that we know, as well
as a great Minnesotan -- Walter Mondale. (Applause.)
Now, like millions of Americans, I've spent some time with Minnesotans lately -- because
I was watching the Olympics. (Laughter.) Minnesota sent 19 athletes to the games. (Applause.)
That's tied for second most of any state, and they did us all proud. It is not shocking
that Minnesotans might be pretty good at the Winter Olympics. (Laughter.) What is particularly
interesting is that, once again, the tiny town of Warroad proved that it really is Hockeytown,
USA, thanks to T.J. Oshie and Gigi Marvin, who we're just so proud of. And T.J.'s shootout
performance against the Russians I might say I enjoyed a lot. (Applause.) I tweeted at
him about it.
So we've spent some time over the last few weeks on hockey, but I'm not here to talk
about hockey. By the way, I cannot play hockey. (Laughter.) I grew up in Hawaii -- we do not
have hockey in Hawaii. But I'm here to talk about what you're doing in the Twin Cities,
and how you're helping to create new jobs and new opportunities for every American.
We are at a moment when our economy is growing. Our businesses have created about 8.5 million
new jobs in the past four years. Unemployment is at the lowest it's been in over five years;
in Minnesota, it's lower than it's been in six and a half years. (Applause.) And, by
the way, you've got a great governor who I served with in the Senate, Mark Dayton, who
is helping to make that happen. (Applause.)
So in a lot of ways things are looking up. But in some ways, the trends that had been
battering middle-class families for a long time have gotten even starker, because those
at the top are doing better than ever, while wages and incomes for a lot of families have
barely budged. And too many families are working harder than ever just to keep up. So as I
said at the State of the Union address a few weeks back, our job is to reverse those trends.
(Applause.) We've got to build an economy that works for everybody. We've got to restore
opportunity for all people, so that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you
look like, you can get ahead if you work hard and you're responsible.
And so I laid out an opportunity agenda that has four parts. Number one, good jobs that
pay good wages in manufacturing, in energy, in innovation and infrastructure. Number two,
train folks with the skills they need to get those good jobs, something that your senator,
Al Franken, is doing great work on every single day. He cares a lot about that job training
issue. (Applause.) Number three, guaranteeing every child has access to a world-class education.
(Applause.) And, number four, making sure that hard work is rewarded with wages you
can live on, and savings you can retire on, and health care you can count on. That's what
we're fighting for. (Applause.)
Minnesota is helping to lead the way on these issues. Your state legislature is poised to
raise your minimum wage this year. (Applause.) In my State of the Union address, I called
for a new women's economic agenda. It's actually a family economic agenda -- equal pay for
equal work, paid sick leave and more. And there are leaders in your state legislature
that are working hard at this, because they know when women succeed, America succeeds.
(Applause.)
So on all these issues, we're reaching out to members of Congress, looking to see if
they're willing to work with us on some of these priorities. But what I also said at
the State of the Union is, in this year of action, whenever I can partner directly with
states or cities or business leaders or civic leaders to act on this opportunity agenda,
I'm going to go ahead and do it. We can't wait. We've got to move. We've got to get
things going. Too many families are counting on it. (Applause.)
So yesterday, I launched new hubs to attract 21st century manufacturing jobs to America.
And today, I'm here to launch a new competition for 21st century infrastructure and the jobs
that come with it, because any opportunity agenda begins with creating more good jobs.
And one of the fastest and best ways to create good jobs is by rebuilding America's infrastructure
-- our roads, our bridges, our rails, our ports, our airports, our schools, our power
grids. We've got a lot of work to do out there, and we've got to put folks to work. (Applause.)
One of the most difficult things about the financial crisis we went through was the housing
bubble bursting, and construction workers were hammered harder than just about anybody.
And while we've cut the unemployment rate for construction workers almost in half since
2010, too many are still looking for jobs at a time when we've got so much that we could
put them to work on rebuilding. We've got ports that aren't ready for the next generation
of supertankers. We've got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for
Medicare. (Laughter.)
Everybody knows, and nobody knows better than Minnesotans, when we've gone through a winter
like this, roads are wrecked, full of potholes all across the country. (Applause.)
Now, other countries are not waiting to rebuild their infrastructure. They're trying to out-build
us today so they can out-compete us tomorrow. As a percentage of GDP, countries like China,
Germany, they're spending about twice what we're spending in order to build infrastructure
-- because they know that if they have the fastest trains on the planet or the highest-rated
airports or the busiest, most efficient ports that businesses will go there.
But we don't want businesses to go there. We want them to come here to Minnesota. (Applause.)
We want them to come here to the United States of America. And that means the best airports
and the best roads and the best trains should be right here in America.
At a time when companies are saying they intend to hire more people this year, we need to
make that decision easier for them. And we can create jobs at the same time, rebuilding
our transportation systems, our power grids, our communications networks -- all the things
that commerce relies on and that help get workers to those jobs.
So the bottom line is there's work to be done, workers ready to do it. Rebuilding our infrastructure
is vital to business. It creates good-paying jobs that, by the way, cannot be outsourced.
(Applause.) This is one of Congress's major responsibilities -- helping states and cities
fund new infrastructure projects. (Applause.)
And part of the reason I'm focused on this is Congress has an important deadline coming
up. If Congress doesn't finish a transportation bill by the end of the summer, we could see
construction projects stop in their tracks, machines sitting idle, workers off the job.
So next week, I'm going to send Congress a budget that funds rebuilding our transportation
infrastructure in a more responsible way -- by doing it over four years, which gives cities
and states and private investors the certainty they need to plan major projects. Projects
like repairing essential highways and bridges; building new transit systems in fast-growing
cities and communities, so folks who live there can get to work and school every day
and spend less time sitting in traffic. (Applause.) And we're going to have to construct smarter,
more resilient transportation systems that can withstand the worst impacts of climate
change, like bigger surges of water that we've seen in recent floods.
So, all told, my transportation budget will support millions of jobs nationwide. And we'll
pay for these investments in part by simplifying the tax code. We're going to close wasteful
tax loopholes, lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs here at home, stop rewarding
companies for sending jobs to other countries, use the money we save in this transition to
create good jobs with good wages rebuilding America. It makes sense. (Applause.)
Now, I'll be honest with you, there are leaders in both parties who are willing to reach across
the aisle in Congress when it comes to American infrastructure. They know how important it
is. And infrastructure didn't use to be a partisan issue -- shouldn't be Democrat or
Republican. Everybody uses roads, everybody uses ports, airports. Unfortunately, time
and again over the past few years, there have been some Republicans in Congress who refused
to act on common-sense proposals that will create jobs and grow our economy. It's not
that they're -- I guess they don't like roads; they just don't want to pay for them. It doesn't
work that way. You've got to come up with a way to get these projects going.
So while Congress is deciding what it's going to do next, I'm just going to go ahead and
do what I can to create more good jobs. And that's why I came here to St. Paul. (Applause.)
Because this project symbolizes what's possible. Union Depot was renovated and expanded with
the help of what we call TIGER grants. These are competitive grants that we created as
part of the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus, which actually worked despite what
everybody claims. (Applause.) So the idea is, if a city or state comes up with a plan
to modernize transportation infrastructure that will have a significant impact on economic
activity, and if they line up other sources of funding to help pay for it, they can win
a TIGER grant and the federal government becomes a partner with these local communities.
So far, these grants have given a boost to 270 infrastructure projects across all 50
states. (Applause.) And you heard Secretary Foxx talk about -- these grants are helping
cities like LA and states like North Carolina, and they helped you rebuild this depot into
a hub that will bring different modes of transportation together under one roof instead of scattered
across the city. Amtrak is going to be here. The new Metro Green Line will be here. Bus
lines will be here. (Applause.)
And I just had a chance to take a look at some of those spiffy new trains. (Laughter.)
They are nice. And they're energy efficient. They're going to be reliable. You can get
from one downtown to the other in a little over 30 minutes instead of when it's snowing
being in traffic for two hours. (Applause.) The trains were made in California, which
meant folks were put to work here in the United States building them. (Applause.)
And here's the best part of it: Not only have you made a more efficient transportation system,
cutting down commutes, saving on gas, reducing carbon pollution, but this depot has helped
to boost economic development in Lowertown St. Paul. (Applause.) Just across the street
the old downtown post office building is becoming apartments and shops. All told, more than
4,000 jobs were created for this project. (Applause.) And we're seeing businesses crop
up and new development crop up all along the line.
So everybody is winning. And in part because of some flexibility that we showed during
the planning process, the line is also going to stop in some poor neighborhoods that oftentimes
have difficulty getting to the places where there are jobs. (Applause.) So it's going
to help folks who are willing to work hard, trying to get into the middle class, it helps
them get access -- helps people get access to opportunity that, up until this point,
had a tough time.
So we know this works. Today, we're kicking off the next round of competition for TIGER
grants. Mayors and governors, city councils, state legislatures, all of you who are watching
here today, if you've got a great idea for your city or your state, then let us know
your plan. If it will encourage economic activity and support local businesses, and help put
people to work, then your country is interested in partnering with you.
And TIGER grants aren't the only way that we can help cities like St. Paul and Minneapolis
rebuild their infrastructure. You've got -- federal funding helped to build the Green Line; that's
going to make it easier than ever to travel between the two cities. You've got more than
5,000 construction workers from all over Minnesota helping to build it. Nearly 200 police officers,
train operators and maintenance workers are being hired. And that's not counting all the
jobs that are being created from the offices and the apartment buildings that are going
to be built along the line. Because the trains stopped at neighborhoods that have access
to public transportation, those folks are going to work. And all of this can be duplicated
all across the country.
But unfortunately, funding for these projects are going to be in jeopardy unless Congress
passes this new transportation bill. So I want everybody to understand. Now, the good
news is Keith Ellison, Betty, they're already onboard. (Applause.) They know this needs
to happen. Al Franken, all over it. Some Democrats and Republicans are already working together
to make sure transportation doesn't -- funding doesn't run out. And we're seeing some glimmers
of hope, because this new round of TIGER grants was the result of bipartisan cooperation.
That's what needs to happen when we work together.
But we're going to need your voices telling a story around the country about why this
is so important. Roads and bridges should not be a partisan issue. More Americans should
have access to the kind of efficient, affordable transit you're going to have with the Green
Line. (Applause.) There's no faster way or better way for Congress to create jobs right
now and to grow our economy right now, and have a positive impact on our economy for
decades than if we start more projects and finish more projects like this one.
Let's create more good jobs, build smarter schools, better airports, faster railways,
better broadband networks. Let's educate our kids and our workers better. Let's rebuild
an economy where everybody who is willing to hard has a chance to get ahead. (Applause.)
This is the beginning, not the end. We've got a lot more rail we got to lay. We've got
a lot more roads we got to travel. Let's get going, Minnesota.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)