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President Obama: Thank you, guys. It is good to be back in Ohio!
(applause)
And it's good to be at one of GM's flagship plants
with all of you.
(applause)
I've got -- I've got a list of some wonderful people
that I want to make sure I acknowledge real quick.
First of all, a former colleague of mine,
somebody who's now collaborating with me to make sure that
working people are getting a fair shake in this country:
Please give it up for your United States
Senator Sherrod Brown.
(applause)
Where's Sherrod? There he is.
Your congressman, doing an outstanding job,
great young man: Tim Ryan.
(applause)
From the neighboring congressional district,
somebody who's responsible for Cash for Clunkers: Betty Sutton.
(applause)
And an outstanding congressman from Ohio as well,
Charlie Wilson.
Give Charlie a big round of applause.
(applause)
We've got -- we've got a great trio of mayors here
-- Mayor Michael O'Brien of Warren,
Michael Chaffee of Lordstown and Mayor
Jay Williams of Youngstown.
Give them all a big round of applause.
(applause)
We've got State Senator and Minority Leader --
Capri Cafaro is here.
How are you? She's a fireplug. I remember her.
(applause)
The CEO of General Motors, Fritz Henderson,
is in the house.
(applause)
Plant Manager John Donohoe is in the house.
(applause)
UAW servicing agent John Mohan is in the house.
(applause)
President of the UAW Local 1112 Jim Graham
is in the house.
(applause)
President of Local 1714 David Green is in the house.
(applause)
Chairperson of 1112 Ben Strickland.
(applause)
And Chairperson of Local 1714 Will Adams.
(applause)
Well, listen. I just finished having a productive discussion
with some of your co-workers about the challenges you're
facing, both here and in your communities,
and how we can meet them.
We talked about the economic troubles that you've been
weathering here, in Trumbull County, since long before
our current crisis.
Yeah, if you've got chairs, go ahead.
Feel free to sit down.
(laughter)
You don't have to stand this whole time.
(applause)
But let's face it, we've -- we've been -- we've
been going through some crises since -- since before this
economic crisis, this financial crisis hit.
Over the years, you've seen factories close;
you've seen friends and neighbors and relatives laid
off; your daughters and sons have had to move away in search
of jobs and opportunity.
I know it was painful around here earlier this year when
three shifts at this plant were cut down to one.
Today the local unemployment rate is unacceptably high in
this region, second highest in Ohio.
So I know at times it seems like this community's been on the
brink over and over and over again.
There are some who see this pain and suggest that somehow it's
inevitable, that the only way for America to get ahead is for
communities like yours to be left behind.
But I know better.
We know better.
We know that our success as a nation depends on the success of
communities just like this one.
We know -- (applause, cheers) -- we know that the battle for
America's future is not just going to be won in the big
cities, not just on the coasts, but in towns like Elkhart,
Indiana; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
and Warren and Youngstown.
(applause)
That's what we're fighting for.
That's why I'm proud to be here with all of you.
(applause)
You work hard.
You meet your responsibilities.
You deserve better.
Audience: Yeah!
President Obama: You deserve better than the attitude that's
prevailed in Washington, in Wall Street,
and sometimes in Detroit, for far too long,
an attitude that valued wealth over work,
and selfishness over sacrifice, and greed over responsibility.
Audience: Yeah!
(applause)
President Obama: That's why I want you to know
that every day that I step into the Oval Office,
I am thinking about you and your families.
I'm fighting for you and your families,
and I'm going to keep on doing it as long as I'm president of
the United States.
(cheers and applause)
Now, sometimes that involves making tough decisions
that have been put off for too long.
That's my job, making tough decisions.
If it's an easy decision, it doesn't get to my desk.
As I've said before, I didn't run for president to
manage auto companies.
It wasn't something on my to-do list.
It wasn't even something on my want-to-do list.
(laughter)
I like driving cars.
Sometimes, you know, I can change a spark plug or change a
tire, but I don't know so much about cars that I wanted to be
deeply involved in the car industry.
But here's what I knew: I wasn't going to put any more tax
dollars on the line if it meant perpetuating bad business
decisions that got us to a point where the U.S. auto
industry was in crisis.
But in the midst of a deep recession and financial crisis,
for me to have just let the auto industry collapse, to vanish,
would have caused unbelievable damage to our economy,
not just here in Lordstown, but all across the country.
So we intervened for one simple and compelling reason: Your
survival and the success of our economy depended on making sure
that we got the U.S. auto industry back on its feet.
And there were some people who said you can't do it. But
our belief was that if GM retooled and reinvented itself
for the 21st century, it would be good for American workers;
it would be good for American manufacturing;
it would be good for America's economy.
And I'm pleased to report that that is exactly what has begun
to happen at plants like this and others across the country.
(applause)
So I know that some of those decisions may not have
been popular, but I -- I will tell you what.
I will double down on the American people and the American
worker and all of you any day of the week.
(applause)
One of the other efforts we undertook was the
Cash for Clunkers program.
Folks said that wouldn't work either.
That program was good for automakers,
it was good for consumers, and, by the way,
it was good for our environment. And you know what?
The Chevy Cobalt that you build here was one of GM's
most-sought-after cars under that program.
(applause)
Dealers across the country started running out.
You needed to build more. And one other thing.
For too long, our auto industries faced uncertain and
conflicting fuel-economy standards,
and that made it difficult for you to plan down the road.
And that's why today we are launching,
for the first time in history, a new national standard aimed at
both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse-gas
pollution for all cars and trucks sold in America.
Creates an even playing field.
It's an action that is long overdue.
It will give our auto companies some clarity and
stability and predictability.
In the past, an agreement like this would have been impossible,
but this time it was different, because automakers, the UAW,
environmental advocates, Democrats, Republicans,
states all across the country, all of them came together
pledging to set aside the quarrels of the past for the
sake of the future.
Because of the steps we've taken,
this plant is about to shift into high gear.
(applause)
A hundred and fifty of your coworkers came
back to work yesterday.
(applause)
More than a thousand will be coming back to work in less than
three weeks as production of the Cobalt ramps up.
(applause)
That's worth standing for.
(applause)
And next year, this plant will begin production of
the Chevy Cruze -- (applause) -- a new car that will get more
than 40 miles per gallon.
I just sat in the car. I asked for the keys.
They wouldn't give me the keys.
(laughter)
I was going to -- I was going to -- I was going to
take it for a little spin.
(laughter)
But it was nice sitting in there. It was a roomy car.
Forty miles per gallon.
So if you picked up a copy of the Youngstown Vindicator back
in January, you would have seen a headline that read,
"Worries mount in wake of layoffs."
A couple weeks ago, you would have read a different story:
"Good news at Lordstown is good news for all."
And today, you made, by the way, some more good news.
I understand that the one millionth Cobalt rolled off the
assembly line late last night.
(applause)
So I don't want to just congratulate you,
I want to thank you.
You're doing your part to move us forward and make sure that
the high-quality, well-engineered,
safe and fuel-efficient cars of the future will be built where
they've always been built -- right here in Ohio --
(applause)
-- right across the Midwest, right here in the
United States of America.
(applause)
Audience: (chanting) USA! USA! USA!
President Obama: Now, even though you're proving that
American automakers are getting back in the game,
I think everybody understands our economic
troubles are far from over.
I don't want to -- I don't want to over promise here.
We've still got a lot of work to do.
We got in a deep hole over a course of years.
It's going to take some years to get back out of this hole.
Audience Member: You're right.
President Obama: We have a lot of work to do to not just to get
this community moving again and this economy moving again,
but we've got to build a stronger foundation for economic
growth into the future.
There's some people in Washington,
they've already forgotten just what it was that we walked
into eight months ago.
So let me just go through -- let me go through the facts here
real quick, in case you all have forgotten: a financial system
near collapse; 700,000 workers losing their jobs every,
single month; a sudden decline in credit that made it difficult
to take out a mortgage or a student loan or a small-business
loan or an auto loan. You couldn't get an auto loan.
Audience Member: Tell them about it!
Audience Member: Right!
President Obama: It was so bad that experts of all political
persuasions feared a second coming of the Great Depression.
So we took bold, swift action to make sure that didn't happen.
We moved to keep responsible homeowners in their homes.
We moved to jumpstart lending.
We passed a sweeping recovery act without the usual Washington
earmarks or pork-barrel spending,
by putting people back to work.
And that plan is now working.
I want you to know what's happened here.
One-third of our recovery act went to tax relief.
We cut your taxes.
Ninety-five percent of America's working families -- 4.5 million
families right here in Ohio -- we cut your taxes.
(applause)
And we cut taxes for small businesses on investments
that they make.
(applause)
That was a third of our recovery act,
and that gave everybody a little more money in their pockets to
spend, which helped boost the economy.
Then, what we did was, we put another third
into emergency relief.
All those Americans who were laid off,
we extended unemployment benefits.
And that's made a difference for 12 million Americans,
including 570,000 right here in Ohio.
(applause)
And for all those people who had lost their jobs
and they were worried about losing their health care,
they were going to have to try to get on COBRA,
but you know how much COBRA costs;
having to pick up your whole health-care premium.
So what we did was, we made health insurance, through COBRA,
65 percent cheaper for families while they
were looking for work.
(applause)
We saved the jobs of tens of thousands of state and
local workers, including 336 police officers
right here in Ohio.
(applause)
That was part of our recovery act.
Now, the last third is investing in your towns and your future.
Over in Canfield, we awarded a competitive contract to a local
company to repair a bridge on Route 11.
That allowed them to avoid layoffs they were
otherwise going to make.
That allowed local folks to keep coming to work,
doing the work America needs done.
(applause)
We've got projects like that all across Ohio and
all across the country, rebuilding our roads and our
bridges, laying broadband lines, making sure that we're building
the wind turbines and solar panels that are going to drive
our energy future.
That's what the recovery act has been all about.
Now, we've still got a long way to go.
But there is little debate the decisions we've made and the
steps we've taken helped stop our economic freefall.
In some places, they've helped us turn the corner.
Home sales are up; business investment is
starting to stabilize.
For the first time in 18 months, we're actually seeing growth in
American manufacturing instead of decline.
(applause)
I know that's small consolation when so many people
you know are still out of work.
It's going to take some time to achieve a complete recovery.
But I want you to all know, I will not rest until anybody
who's looking for a job can find one.
And I'm not talking about just any job,
but good jobs that give every American decent wages and decent
benefits and a fair shot at the American dream.
(applause)
That's what I'm fighting for every single day.
(applause)
We're fighting for an America where your children will
be armed with the skills they need to compete with any worker
anywhere in the world.
We're making a historic commitment to strengthening and
improving education from cradle to a career.
And I've set a goal: by 2020, America will once again have the
highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
(applause)
There's no reason why we can't have that number-one
ranking once again.
We're fighting for an America where clean energy
generates green jobs that can't be outsourced, that help us free
ourselves from our grip of foreign oil; jobs that make sure
the cars of the future and the technologies like the new
batteries that power them are made right here in the
United States of America.
(applause)
And yes, just in case you were wondering,
we are fighting for an America where no American should have to
worry about going without health insurance or fear that
one illness could cost them everything they have.
(applause)
We're going to reform the system to provide more security
and stability to those of you who have health insurance.
We're going to offer quality, affordable choices to those who
currently don't have health insurance.
And we're going to bring health-care costs for our
families and our businesses and our government under control.
Think about it.
If you're a member of the union right now,
you're spending all your time negotiating about health care.
You need to be spending some time negotiating about wages.
But you can't do it --
(applause)
-- but -- but I want to make sure --
(applause)
-- but I want to make sure that you understand -- you got to
understand Fritz's position here.
He's trying to build this company back up.
And if health-care costs are going up 30 percent or 20
percent every year, it's pretty tough for him.
So we all have an interest in reforming the health-care system
so that the costs for employers don't go up,
that means the costs for you don't go up,
and that means you can actually start bringing home a little
more take-home pay.
(applause)
That's what this is all about if you've already
got health insurance.
(applause)
So that's what we're fighting for,
to bring Lordstown and Youngstown and Warren back,
to make sure that our towns and our middle class,
a middle class forged just like in plants that you're seeing
here, I want them not just to survive today,
but to thrive tomorrow.
I want you to deliver a message to the GM team members who are
manning the line and couldn't join us today: As long as you've
still got an ounce of fight left in you,
I've got a ton of fight left in me.
(applause)
I've said it before; I'm skinny, but I'm tough.
(laughter)
And as long as I have the privilege of
being your president,
I'm going to keep fighting for a future that is brighter
for this community and brighter for Ohio and brighter
for the United States of America.
I need your help, so give it to me, guys,
because we're going to rebuild, right here, right now.
(applause)
We're going to make Ohio work again.
Thank you, everybody.
God bless you.