President Obama Weekly Address: This Labor Day, Let’s Talk About the Minimum Wage

President Barack Obama discusses Ukraine during a meeting with members of his National Security Staff in the Oval Office, Feb. 28, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

August 30, 2014

Weekly Address: This Labor Day, Let’s Talk About the Minimum Wage

WASHINGTON, DC —In this week’s address, the President wished Americans a Happy Labor Day weekend, highlighted the important economic progress we’ve made, and reaffirmed his commitment to accelerate our progress and ensure that our growing economy fuels a strong middle class. To do this, the President reiterated that Congress should do right by hardworking Americans across the country and raise the minimum wage and he praised the 13 states and Washington, DC as well as employers large and small who have heeded his call and taken action to provide their citizens and employees a fair wage. The President underscored that America built the world’s greatest middle class by making sure that everyone who’s willing to work hard and play by the rules can get ahead – an economic patriotism worth remembering this Labor Day, and every day.

The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, August 30, 2014.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
August 30, 2014

Hi, everybody.  Whether you’re firing up the grill, fired up for some college football, or filling up the car for one last summer roadtrip – Happy Labor Day weekend.

We set aside Labor Day to honor the working men and women of America.  And this Labor Day, we’ve got more to celebrate.  Over the past 53 months, our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs.  Last month, for the first time since 1997, we created more than 200,000 jobs for six straight months.  And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders worldwide have declared, two years running, that the number one place to invest isn’t China – it’s America.

So there are reasons to be optimistic about where we’re headed.  And the decisions we make now will determine whether or not we accelerate this progress – whether economic gains flow to a few at the top, or whether a growing economy fuels rising incomes and a thriving middle class.

Think about it this Labor Day.  The things we often take for granted – Social Security and Medicare, workplace safety laws and the right to organize for better pay and benefits, even weekends – we didn’t always have these things.  Workers and the unions who get their back had to fight for them.  And those fights built a stronger middle class.

To build a stronger middle class in today’s changing economy, we’ve got to keep fighting.  We’ve got to fight for the right to affordable health insurance for everybody.  The right to fair pay, family leave, and workplace flexibility.  The right to a fair living wage. 

Let me focus on that last one for a minute.  In America, no one who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.  A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.  And raising the minimum wage would be one of the best ways to give a boost to working families.  It would help around 28 million Americans from all walks of life pay the bills, provide for their kids, and spend that money at local businesses.  And that grows the economy for everyone.

The bottom line is, America deserves a raise.  But until we’ve got a Congress that cares about raising working folks’ wages, it’s up to the rest of us to make it happen.  And in the year and a half since I first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, Americans of all walks of life are doing just that.

Thirteen states and D.C. have done their part by raising their minimum wages.  Four more states have minimum wage initiatives on the ballot this November.  And the states where the minimum wage has gone up this year have experienced higher job growth than the states that haven’t. 

Business leaders at companies like The Gap are doing their part.  They’re raising base wages for tens of thousands of workers because they know it’s good for business.

Mayors across the country are doing their part.  Mayor Emanuel in Chicago and Mayor Garcetti in L.A. are working to lift their cities’ wages over time to at least thirteen dollars an hour.

I’ve tried to do my part by requiring companies that get contracts with the federal government to pay their workers a fair wage of ten dollars and ten cents an hour. 

And earlier this month, the president of Kentucky State University set a great example by giving himself a $90,000 pay cut, so that he could give raises to his lowest-paid employees.  His sacrifice will give more of his workers and their families a little extra money to help make ends meet. 

That’s how America built the greatest middle class the world has ever known.  Not by making sure a fortunate few at the top are doing well, but by making sure that everyone who’s willing to work hard and play by the rules can get ahead.  That’s the bedrock this country is built on.  Hard work.  Responsibility.  Sacrifice.  And looking out for one another as one united American family.

Let’s keep that in mind this Labor Day, and every day.  Have a great weekend, everybody.

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Remarks by the President on Minimum Wage - University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Remarks by the President on Minimum Wage -- Ann Arbor, MI

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

2:52 P.M. EDT

April 02, 2014

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Michigan!  (Applause.)  Go Blue!  (Applause.)  This is a good-looking crowd.  (Applause.)  Just happy to be out of class.  (Applause.)  I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure these are all outstanding students.  (Applause.)  Good to see you.

First of all, give Mira a big round of applause for the great introduction.  (Applause.)  I want to say thanks to your president, Mary Sue Coleman, for her years of outstanding leadership here at Michigan.  (Applause.)  We’ve got a few other Michigan leaders who are here today.  We've got Congressman John Conyers.  (Applause.)  We've got Congressman Gary Peters.  (Applause.)  We've got your mayor, John Hieftje.  (Applause.)   Former Congressman Mark Schauer.  (Applause.)  Your Congressman, the legendary John Dingell, could not make it, but his wife Debbie is here.  Give her a big round of applause.  (Applause.)
  
Now, most importantly I know to all of you, we’ve got some Wolverines in the house here.  (Applause.)  We've got Greg Robinson III.  (Applause.)  We've got Jordan Morgan.  (Applause.) We've got Big Ten Player of the Year, Nik Stauskas.  (Applause.) And we've got quarterback, Devin Gardner.  (Applause.)  These guys were outstanding this year.  Give them a bigger round of applause than that.  (Applause.)

You guys had a great run.  That last game was as good of a game as we've seen the entire season.  I know you wish that that turned out a little bit later -- if you’d had five more seconds, it would have been helpful.  (Laughter.)  But I wanted to congratulate the coach, Coach Beilein, and the team for a great season.  (Applause.) 

And I understand that Jordan wanted me to talk about my bracket.  (Laughter.)  My bracket is a mess.  (Laughter.)  I've learned my lesson -- I will not pick against the Wolverines.  (Applause.)  It's not going to happen.  This is the problem with doing these brackets -- people just trash-talk you non-stop.  (Laughter.)  It's terrible. 

And I think it's worth mentioning, I want to congratulate Jordan for playing more games at Michigan than any other player in history -- not only earning an undergraduate degree in engineering -- (applause) -- pursuing a graduate degree in engineering as well.  That's the kind of student athlete we're talking about.  (Applause.)

Now, do some of you guys have chairs?  Because if you’ve got chairs, feel free to sit down.  But if you don't, don't sit down, because I don't want you getting hurt. 

Before I came here today, I stopped at Zingerman’s, which is the -- (applause) -- which is the right thing to do when you're in Ann Arbor.  (Laughter.)  I stopped for two reasons.  The first is the Reuben is killer.  (Laughter.)  So I ordered like the small -- (laughter) -- and it didn’t look that small.  So I gave half to Valerie Jarrett, who’s traveling with us.  And then after I finished the half, I wanted the half back.  (Laughter.)  But it was too late.  All she had left was the pickle.  (Laughter.)  So I took the pickle.  (Laughter.)

So one of the reasons I went was because the sandwiches are outstanding.  The second reason, though, is Zingerman’s is a business that treats its workers well, and rewards honest work with honest wages.  (Applause.)  And that’s worth celebrating.  And that’s what I’m here to talk about today:   How do we rebuild an economy that creates jobs and opportunities for every American?  And I want to focus on something a lot of people in Michigan are working very hard to accomplish right now, and that is raising the minimum wage to help more folks get ahead.  (Applause.) 

Now, here’s the context.  Our economy is doing better.  It’s growing.  Our businesses are creating jobs -- 8.7 million new jobs over the past four years.  (Applause.)  Our manufacturing sector, which had been losing jobs throughout the ‘90s and throughout the -- what do you call it -- aughts?  (Laughter.)  You know, the 2000 to 2010, whatever you call that.  (Laughter.)
But manufacturing had been losing jobs -- about a third of manufacturing had lost -- and obviously that hit Michigan really hard.  But we’re now seeing the manufacturing sector add jobs for the first time since the 1990s.  So that is good news.  (Applause.) 

The housing market is recovering.  Obviously the stock market has recovered, which means people’s 401(k)s, if they have them, are doing a lot better. 

Troops that were fighting two wars, they’re coming home.  (Applause.)   We just went through the first month since 2003 where no U.S. soldier was killed in either Afghanistan or Iraq.  (Applause.)

Today you’ve got companies looking to invest in the U.S. instead of sending jobs overseas.  They want to create more jobs and invest right here in the United States.  We’re more competitive.  We’re more productive. 

Oh, and by the way, 7.1 million Americans have now signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.  (Applause.)  That’s a lot of people -- 7.1.  That’s enough to fill up The Big House 65 times.  (Applause.)  And by the way, that doesn’t count the more than 3 million young people who have been able to stay on their parents’ plans.  (Applause.) So we have seniors here who graduate and then it may take a couple months to find a job, or you’re doing an internship or something that does not provide health care, you’re going to be covered until you get that job that actually provides health insurance.  So it provides you the kind of protection you need.  (Applause.) 

So that’s the good news.  We fought back from the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes.  We’ve laid the foundation for America’s future growth.  But here’s the problem:  There’s been a long-term trend that has really been hitting middle-class folks and folks trying to get into the middle class, and that’s been going on since before most of you were born.  The economy increasingly has folks at the top doing really well, but then middle-class families, people who are struggling to get into the middle class, they’re working harder, but their wages, their incomes aren’t going up. 

And we’re a better country than that.  In America, we do not believe in opportunity just for the few.  We believe that everybody should have a chance at success.  Everybody.  (Applause.)  And we believe our economy grows best not from the top down, but from the middle out, and from the bottom up.  (Applause.)  And we want to make sure that no matter where you’re born, what circumstances, how you started out, what you look like, what your last name is, who you love -- it doesn’t matter, you can succeed.  That’s what we believe.  (Applause.)

We believe that what matters is the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams and our willingness to take responsibility for ourselves, but also for ourselves.  That's what America is about.  That’s the promise that this country is built on.  And for the sake of your generation, we got to make sure that that continues to be the case; that that’s not just something we’re nostalgic about; that that’s something that we project out into the future. 

So I had a State of the Union a while back and I laid out a four-part Opportunity Agenda to make sure everybody has a shot.  And that starts with something I know graduating seniors are thinking about:  More good jobs paying good wages; jobs in high-tech and manufacturing and energy and innovation.  And there are things we can do to create jobs -- rebuilding our infrastructure in this country, investing in R&D, closing wasteful loopholes that don't create jobs.  So we’re providing tax breaks to companies that are creating jobs right here in the United States. Those are things we can do right now.

Opportunity means training more Americans for the skills needed to fill those jobs.  We got to make sure everybody is ready with the skills they need.  Not everybody is going to be lucky enough to be a Wolverine and graduate from Michigan.  (Applause.)  But everybody can get a good, solid base so that they can have a job and a career.

Opportunity means guaranteeing every young people access to a world-class education, and that's got to start with pre-K, all the way through higher education.  (Applause.)  And it means making college more affordable.  (Applause.) 

Some of you may not know this, but before a lot of you even entered college, we took on the student loan system.  It was giving billions of taxpayer dollars to big banks to serve as middlemen in the student loan process.  We said, why do we need the banks?  We cut them out.  We used the savings that were generated, billions of dollars, to expand the grants that help millions of low-income students pay for college.  And we’re offering millions of students who are graduating the chance to cap monthly student loan payments at 10 percent of your income.  (Applause.)

This is something you need to talk to your counselors about, especially if you’re going into teaching or social work, or other professions where it’s a passion but you’re not going to be an investment banker salary situation.  So make sure you find out about this.  You can cap -- I mean, I know Stauskas has got the contract coming up, so he’ll -- (laughter) -- he doesn't have to worry about these things.  But I’m saying later -- I’m not telling him to leave.  (Laughter.)  I wasn’t editorializing on that.  (Laughter.)

My point is we got to make sure that everybody can afford to do things that may not pay huge sums of money but are really valuable to society.

And the good news is more young people are earning college degrees than ever before.  But we’ve still got to do more work to rein in tuition costs.  I talked to your president about this. And we got to help more students who are trapped by student loan debt -- because this country cannot afford striving young people to be priced out of a higher education.  Everybody has got to be able to afford it.  (Applause.)

Finally, opportunity means rewarding the hard work of every American -- not just some Americans, every American.  That means making sure that folks are paid equal for doing equal work.  (Applause.)  I do not want my daughters paid less than somebody else’s sons for doing the same job.  (Applause.)

It means making sure that there are decent benefits and, at minimum, that every American has access to quality, affordable health insurance.  It means paychecks and wages that allow you to support a family. 

All of which brings me back to this issue of the minimum wage, giving America a raise.  Now, raising the minimum wage is not going to solve all of our economic challenges.  The majority of folks who are working get paid more than the minimum wage.  As Americans we understand that some people will earn more than others.  But here’s one thing we do believe:  Nobody who works full-time should be raising their family in poverty, right?  (Applause.)  If you’re working, if you’re responsible, you should be able to pay the rent, pay the bills.  (Applause.)

But that's what’s happening right now.  All across the country, you can work full-time on the minimum wage and still be in poverty.  And that’s why, in the year since I first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, we’ve seen six states on their own pass laws to raise their minimum wage.  Last week, Connecticut became the first state in the country to raise its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  (Applause.)  Congratulations, Connecticut. 

You’ve got more states and counties and cities that are working to raise their minimum wage as we speak.  That includes your state legislators from Ann Arbor -- Adam Zemke and Jeff Irwin -- who are trying to raise it here in Michigan.  (Applause.)  We’re proud of them.  Stand up, guys.  Come on.  There they are.  (Applause.)  See, I used to be in the state legislature, so I was kind of partial to -- (laughter.)

But raising wages is not just a job for organizers, it’s not just a job for elected officials, it’s also a job for business.  It was here in Michigan 100 years ago that Henry Ford announced he was doubling his workers’ wages.  And at the time, some of his fellow business leaders thought he had lost his mind.  But Henry Ford understood it was going to be good for business.  Not only did it boost productivity, not only did it reduce turnover, not only did it make employees more loyal to the company, but it meant that the workers could afford to buy the cars that they were building.  (Applause.)  So you were building -- so by paying your workers more, you were building your own market for your products. 

And hugely successful companies today, like Costco, they take the same approach.  And it’s not just big businesses; small businesses, too.  In my State of the Union address, I called on more business leaders to boost their employees’ wages, give them a fair wage.  And since then, you’ve seen businesses across the country -- small ones, like an ice cream parlor in Florida, to a marketing agency in Georgia, to a pizzeria in St. Louis -- they’ve all said, you know what, this is the right thing to do. 

Recently, the Gap decided to raise its base wages, and that benefited about 65,000 workers in the United States -- and it led me to go shopping at Gap.  (Laughter and applause.)  Some of you may have seen the very attractive sweaters that I purchased for my daughters.  (Laughter.)  They have not worn them yet, so if they’re listening, make me feel good, just wear it one time.  (Laughter.) 

Now, Zingerman’s does not have as many workers as the Gap, obviously, but they try to do right by each and every one of them.  You’ve got some big businesses who go to Washington to lobby for special treatment for themselves.  So one of Zingerman’s owners, Paul Saginaw, flew to D.C. to lobby for his workers, to lobby for better treatment for workers through a higher minimum wage.  (Applause.)  That’s the kind of folks who are running Zingerman’s. 

Then afterwards, he held a sandwich summit here in Ann Arbor to help build support for Michigan’s minimum wage going up.  And Paul’s point is simple:  Fair wages and higher profits are not mutually exclusive; they can go hand-in-hand.  That’s what Henry Ford understood.  And Paul opened Zingerman’s doors 32 years ago last month so he knows a little bit about business.  But he and business owners like him believe higher wages are good for the bottom line. 

I happen to believe the same thing.  So I decided several months ago that the federal government should follow their lead. And so I issued an executive order that requires federal contractors, folks who are doing business with the government, to pay their employees on new contracts a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour.  It’s the right thing to do.  (Applause.) 

And I’m determined to do my part to lift wages, improve take-home pay any way I can.  My attitude is if you cook our troops’ meals, you wash their dishes, your country should pay you a living wage.  (Applause.)

Now, here’s the challenge.  What Zingerman’s can do on its own, what even I can do as the head of the executive branch of the federal government, that doesn’t reach everybody.  If we’re going to do right by our fellow Americans, we need Congress to get onboard.  (Applause.)  We’ve got to have Congress to get onboard.  We’ve got to have state legislators to get onboard.  (Applause.)  Because even though we’re bringing manufacturing jobs back to America, we’re creating more good-paying jobs in education and health care and business services, there are always going to be folks who do critical work, who bust their tails every day -- airport workers, restaurant workers, and hospital workers, and retail salespeople -- who deserve an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.  They’re doing necessary jobs -- they should be able to make a living.

So right now there is a bill before Congress that would boost America’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  It’s easy to remember:  10-10.  10-10.  Passing this bill would not just raise wages for minimum-wage workers; it would help lift wages for nearly 28 million Americans, including nearly a million people right here in Michigan.  It would lift millions of people out of poverty right away.  It would help millions more work their way out of poverty right away.  (Applause.)

It wouldn’t require any new taxes.  It doesn’t require new spending.  It doesn’t require new bureaucracy.  But what it would do is help those families and give businesses more customers with more money to spend.  And it would help grow the economy for everybody.

So you would think this would be a no-brainer.  Politically, you’d think that folks would be rushing to do this.  Nearly three in four Americans support raising the minimum wage -- nearly three in four.  Here’s the problem.  Republicans in Congress -- not Republicans out in America, because some of them get paid the minimum wage, so they want to see it raised -- Republicans in Congress don’t want to vote to raise it at all.  In fact, some want to just scrap the minimum wage.  One House Republican said, “It’s outlived its usefulness.”

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  No, that’s what he said. 

AUDIENCE PARTICIPANT:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Don’t boo, organize.  (Applause.)  That’s what you need to do, because they may not hear the boos, but they can read a petition and they can see votes.  (Applause.)

You’ve got some Republicans saying we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage because -- they said this -- because, well, it just helps young people.  Now, first of all, I think it’s pretty good to help young people.  (Applause.)  I don’t know what’s wrong with helping young people.  Folks who say that, next thing you know they’ll say, “Get off my lawn.”  (Laughter.)  I think it’s okay to help young people.  

But the fact is most people who would benefit from a higher minimum wage are not teenagers taking on their first job.  The average age of folks getting paid the minimum wage is 35.  A majority of lower-wage jobs are held by women.  Many of them work full-time, often to support a family. 

And, by the way, what’s wrong with helping young people get ahead?  (Laughter.)  Mira puts herself through college on a base wage of less than $3 an hour, because she’s working in a restaurant.  She works hard -- she does.  So we should be making it easier for your generation to gain a foothold on the ladder of opportunity.  We shouldn’t be making it harder.

Now, the truth is the Republicans’ refusal so far to raise the minimum wage is pretty consistent with their general worldview -- (laughter) -- which says -- it says basically you’re on your own; government doesn’t have a role to play in making sure that the marketplace is working for everybody. 
 
Just yesterday, Republicans in Congress put forward a budget for the country that I believe would shrink opportunity for your generation.  It starts by giving a massive tax cut to households making more than $1 million a year, the very folks who’ve benefited the most over the last 20 years from this economy that is benefiting people at the top.  Then, so they don’t blow a hole in the deficit, they’d have to raise taxes on middle-class families with kids.  Then they’d force deep cuts to the investments that help our economy grow, like research and clean energy, and investments in middle-class families, like education and job training.

When they put these budgets together, usually they don’t tell you exactly what they’d cut because they know you wouldn’t like it, so you have to kind of do the math.  But compared to my budget, if they cut everything evenly in the amount that they’re talking about, within a few years about 170,000 kids would get cut from early childhood education.  About 200,000 new moms and children would get cut off from the programs that help them to get healthy food.  Funding for 21,000 special education teachers would be cut off.  And if they wanted to make smaller cuts in any of these -- in any one of these areas, they’d have to make bigger cuts in others.  It even cuts Pell grants, which makes it harder for students to pay for a college education. 

Now, to give them credit, they do have one original idea, which is to repeal Obamacare -- (laughter) -- because they haven’t tried that 50 times.  (Applause.)  Fifty times they’ve tried to do that.  (Laughter.)  So that means they would take away health coverage not only for more than 7 million Americans who’ve done the responsible thing, signed up, bought health care for themselves and their families, but for the 3 million young adults who’ve been able to stay on their parents’ plan under this law.  What I just told you about being able to stay on your parent’s plan -- the Republicans don’t like that. 

And their budget guts the rules we put in place to protect middle-class families from another financial crisis like the one that we’ve endured.  So if this all sounds familiar, it should be familiar because it was their economic plan in the 2012 campaign, it was their economic plan in 2010.  It’s like that movie Groundhog Day -- (laughter) -- except it’s not funny.  (Applause.)  If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman’s, they’d have to call it the Stinkburger, or the Meanwich.  (Laughter and applause.)

 Look, here’s the truth.  They’re not necessarily cold-hearted, they just sincerely believe that if we give more tax breaks to a fortunate few and we invest less in the middle class, and we reduce or eliminate the safety net for the poor and the sick, and we cut food stamps, and we cut Medicaid, and we let banks and polluters and credit card companies and insurers do only what’s best for their bottom line without the responsibility to the rest of us, then somehow the economy will boom, and jobs and prosperity will trickle down to everybody. 

And when I say it that way, I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating -- except I’m not.  This is their theory.  They’re pretty unabashed about it.  And it’s not a new theory.  They’ve held it for decades, through good times and bad.  They were making the same argument against FDR when he was setting up Social Security.

 And, look, it does create opportunity for a handful of people who are already doing really, really well.  But we believe in opportunity for everybody.  More good jobs for everybody.  More workers to fill those jobs.  (Applause.)  A world-class education for everybody.  Hard work that pays off with wages you can live on and savings you can retire on and health care you can count on.  That’s what “opportunity for all” means.  (Applause.) That’s what it means.  

 Now, next week, members of Congress have a fresh chance to show which side they’re on.  They’re going to get a yes or no vote on raising the minimum wage all across this country.  And they’ve got to make a clear choice:  Talk the talk about valuing hardworking families, or walk the walk and actually value hardworking families.  (Applause.)  You’ve got a choice.  You can give America the shaft, or you can give it a raise.  (Applause.)

 Here in Michigan, your Senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow -- (applause) -- your Representatives, John Dingell and John Conyers and Gary Peters, they are already onboard.  But every American deserves to know where their elected representatives stand on this choice.  So those of you -- if you’re going back home for spring break or something or -- did that already happen, spring break? 

 AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m sorry.  (Laughter.)  Everybody is all, aw, yeah.  (Laughter.)  Well, I hope you had a good time.  (Laughter.)  But if you have the chance to talk to a congressman who’s not supporting it, you need to ask him, do you support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour?  If they say yes, then you should say thank you -- (laughter) -- because elected officials do not hear that very often.  When they do the right thing, you should reward them. 

 AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you, President Obama!

 THE PRESIDENT:  You’re welcome.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

 Now, if they say no, you shouldn’t yell at them.  Be polite.  Ask them why not.  Ask them to reconsider.  Tell them to join the rest of the country.  For once, instead of just saying no, say yes.  It’s time for $10.10.  It’s time to give America a raise.

 And as I’m looking out at all of you I’m reminded, four years ago I had the privilege of delivering the commencement address at the university, over in the big stadium.  (Applause.) And I said our democracy, it's always been noisy, it’s always been messy.  We have big arguments.  But in the end, we’ve always had the ability to look past our differences and our disagreements and forge a common future.  And we’ve got common values -- hard work, responsibility, pursuing your individual dreams. 

 What the argument is right now about is whether we also affirm the values that make sure we’ve giving everybody a chance; making sure our fellow citizens can also pursue their dreams; that we’re not just looking out for ourselves all the time, but we’re also looking out for the person next to you.  That's also what America is about.  That's what we have to do again.

 We’ve got more jobs to create.  We’ve got more kids to educate.  We’ve got more clean energy to create.  (Applause.)  We’ve got more troops to bring home.  We got more veterans to care for.  We got an immigration system we got to fix.  (Applause.)  We got to build a middle class.  We got to give opportunity for everybody who strives for it.  We got to make sure everybody -- black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, with or without a disability, folks in the inner city, folks outside the borders of the city -- everybody has got a chance.  (Applause.)   America is a place for everybody.  That's what we’re fighting for.  That's what I need you to go out there and talk about.  (Applause.)

 Thank you.  God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.)

END
3:26 P.M. EDT

* * *  Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - contributing to fund efforts to help homeless female military veterans come home.  Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

Subscribe in a reader to Dennys Global Politics

* Check out Dennys News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food - a place where all my other 20 blogs link so you can choose from among the latest posts all in one place. A free to read online newspaper from independent journalist blogger Denny Lyon. * 

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Remarks by the President at DCCC Dinner - Miami, FL

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

Private Residence
Miami, Florida

8:45 P.M. EDT

March 20, 2014

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Everybody, have a seat, have a seat.  Now, first of all, I think it's clear that Tracy’s introduction was much better than Alonzo’s.  (Applause.)  Now, the truth is I was a big fan of Alonzo’s before I had a chance to meet him, and that's despite being a Bulls’ fan.  And the reason is, is because he had a warrior’s heart and he always fought for what he believed in, and he was always a team player.  And having gotten to know Alonzo and Tracy and the kids and Tracy’s mom, I've just grown to love them even more.  And not only is the Heat lucky, but all of south Florida is lucky to have them in their community and doing such great work.  So we really appreciate them.  They’re great friends.  (Applause.) 

I've got some other people I love that I just want to mention real quick, and that is, first and foremost, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, I believe will go down in history as one of the greatest speakers in our history, which is one of the reason I want to get her back there -- but she is as tough and principled and as visionary as any member of Congress that we've ever seen and I'm grateful to call her a friend -- Nancy Pelosi.  Give Nancy a big round of applause.  (Applause.) 

We've got some outstanding members of the congressional delegation from Florida here -- Representative Corinne Brown is here.  (Applause.)  Representative Ted Deutch is here.  (Applause.)  Representative Lois Frankel is here.  (Applause.)  Representative Joe Garcia is here.  And that's Joe Garcia’s dad. (Applause.)  And our chairwoman at the DNC who is doing a great job -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz is here.  (Applause.)  Love Debbie.  And of course, all of you are here. 

Tracy told a story -- with a few embellishments from her mom  -- (laughter) -- that in some ways captures better than anything I could say what America is about and what the Democratic Party has to be about.  This afternoon, I was up in Orlando.  We went to Valencia College.  It's one of the best community colleges in the country.  And I met with a group of women; all of them had a story to tell about overcoming in some ways.  This is part of a process that Nancy and the White House and others are launching across the country -- having a conversation just about women and families and how do we make sure that folks who work hard and are taking responsibility for themselves and have dreams about something better for their kids -- how do we make sure that that hard work pays off.  So this is all going to be culminating in a White House summit on working families in June.  And so we're having these roundtable discussions in various parts of the country. 

One of the women I met with is now the president of the college, this local college.  She was raised by a mother who is blind -- single mom, blind, in poverty, raises her daughter to become the president of the community college.  And the president of the community college was explaining -- African American woman -- she was explaining how when she had her son, he was born prematurely, she had to take leave, and when she was ready to go back to work she couldn't afford child care.  Her mom moved in with her, so her blind mother didn’t just raise her but now is providing child care for her as she is going on to get her education and advance until she ended up having a doctorate in education. 

Another woman there had a severely autistic son.  She was an engineer by training; had to take 12 years off to help raise her son, then needed to go back to work, went back to school, is now teaching mathematics.  Another young woman who was there had premature twins; lost her job because there was no way that she could afford the child care required; for a time was on food stamps, went back to work, is now successfully pursuing a career in education.

Every single story you heard were of these remarkable women who were putting everything they had into their families and their children, and they’re working.  And they were telling stories that I remember from when my single mom was raising me.  We joked about how when I was 10 years old I complained to my mom, “Why is it we eat the same thing every three –- there are three meals we eat every day?”  And she had to take me aside when I was like 10 years old and say, “Let me explain something to you –- I’m working, I’m going to school.  This is the only thing I’ve got time to cook right now.”  And when I told that story, these women, they said, “Can I tell my son that you said that?”  (Laughter.)  Because apparently they were having the exact same conversation.

The point is that so many of us here who, as Tracy said, have experienced incredible blessings, we experience those things because previous generations have poured that same effort and blood and sweat and tears, and had the same kinds of dreams for us.  And as a consequence, in this country, we have made it.  But it’s also been because we had a society and a government that at critical junctures said, you know what, let’s give you a hand up. You’re making an effort -- let’s give you a scholarship to go to school.  You had an illness in your family –- we’re going to make sure that there’s a net beneath you so you can get back on your feet.  You’re a child who’s born into poverty -- it doesn’t matter, we’re going to make sure that the public school can deliver a good education for you.

And it’s because of that collective effort that we’ve made that this country that started off with a few colonies ended up being the greatest, most powerful, wealthiest nation in the history of the world.  And what we now fight for is making sure that that same value, those same visions are there for the next generation, and the generation after that, and the generation after that.

And Tracy is exactly right -- those of us who have been blessed by this country have an obligation to make sure that that vision continues.  And ultimately, that’s what our politics has to be about.  I’ve run my last race.  But when I think back to the very first race I ran, and I think back about what I do today, there’s a running thread and it’s exactly what Tracy and her mom represent, and that is this sense that regardless of what you look like, where you come from, what your last name is, what faith you are, that you can make it.  And we’ve got to make sure we don’t lose that.

And when I came into office and Nancy was the speaker, we were facing the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and our top priority was making sure that we stopped the bleeding and we started the economy growing again.  And we’ve done that.  The economy is now growing.  For four consecutive years we’ve now seen 8.7 million jobs created.  Energy is booming.  Clean energy has doubled.  The auto industry is roaring.  Housing has recovered, including here in Florida.

So we’ve got more things going for us economically than any other country on Earth.  And it’s fascinating when I talk to foreign leaders and they say, boy, you guys have it so good.  We had the French leader here; he was bragging about we’re trying to adopt policies so we can grow like you.  But that’s not how it feels to a lot of folks who are cleaning houses.  That’s not how it feels to a lot of folks who are working in a fast-food establishment.  That’s not how it’s feeling to a lot of middle-class families right now, because even though the economy is growing again, incomes, wages -- they’re flat.  And people are having a hard time getting traction and feeling confident that their children, in fact, are going to do better than they are.

So everything we’re fighting for now is designed to make sure that not just the economy is growing, not only are we investing in research and development and staying on the cutting-edge when it comes to technology, and not only are we developing traditional sources of energy and clean energy and becoming more energy efficient -- not only are we doing all the things required to become more competitive, but we’re also paying attention to middle-class families and working families, and women like Tracy’s mom, and making sure that they are getting a fair shake

-- which means raising the minimum wage.  (Applause.)  It means making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work.  (Applause.) 

It means policies to provide families the flexibility and women the flexibility where if a child gets sick, if somebody like Elijah gets sick, that that mom can go home and take care of that child without losing her job or having her pay docked so that at the end of the month she can’t pay the bills.  It means making sure that we’ve got early childhood education so that the word gap that kids experience -- poor kids hearing 30 million fewer words than our kids by the time they get to school -- closing that gap.  Making sure that third graders are literate.  Making sure that our high schools are actually training kids with the skills they need to go further.  Those are all the things that we’re fighting for.

Now, unfortunately, we’ve got on the other side folks who have a different vision of America.  They’re no less patriotic.  They love their families just as much.  Many of them do wonderful things in their communities.  But their basic vision is that we don’t have an obligation, at least through our government, to help; everybody has got to just look out for themselves or the community that you’ve built in your church or synagogue or your block or your family.  We don’t have to worry about that kid on the other side of town.  We don’t have to worry about that woman who is cleaning our house -- which is why every initiative we put forward they say no to.

And that’s what not just this election but the next five elections are going to be about.  Now, the good news is on every individual issue, America is on our side.  You take a poll of whether or not it’s a good thing to invest in early childhood education, everybody says yes.  Take a poll and you ask, does it make sense for us to raise the minimum wage, the majority of people say yes; a majority of Republicans say yes.  Take a poll, should we have immigration reform to make sure that folks who are part of our communities, whose kids are in our schools alongside ours, who are making incredible contributions, should they have a chance to get out of the shadows and make sure that they can live out their dreams -- the majority say yes. 

So the problem is not that the American people disagree with us on the issues.  The challenge is, is that our politics in Washington have become so toxic that people just lose faith and finally they just say, you know what, I’m not interested, I’m not going to bother, I’m not going to vote.

And that’s especially true during the midterms.  During presidential elections, young people vote, women are more likely to vote, blacks, Hispanics more likely to vote.  And suddenly a more representative cross-section of America gets out there and we do pretty well in presidential elections.  But in midterms we get clobbered -- either because we don’t think it’s important or we’ve become so discouraged about what’s happening in Washington that we think it’s not worth our while. 

And the reason today is so important and the reason that I’m so appreciative for all you being here is because we’re going to have to get over that.  This is a top priority.  We need Nancy Pelosi as speaker because folks like Nana over there, cleaning houses, may need her help and she’s going to look out for her.  We need Harry Reid staying as Democratic Leader in the Senate because there are kids just like Elijah but who aren’t as lucky to have parents with the resources that Alonzo and Tracy have.  Just a mile away from here, they look just like him, just as much talent, but they don’t have the resources and they need somebody who is going to be fighting for them. 

And the good news is when we actually make these investments in kids like Elijah, when we’re looking out for women like Tracy’s mom, we all do better.  Businesses have more customers, the country hums, people’s attitudes are better, consumer confidence is up.  That’s how America has always grown. 

So that’s what’s at stake.  And I’m just hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do.  Like I said, I’m not on the ballot this time, but I didn’t get into politics just for the office.  I got into it because I believe in what we’re fighting for.  But I can’t do it alone.  Nancy can’t do it alone. Debbie can’t do it alone.  We’re going to need you.  And I’m grateful you’re here for that.

Thank you.  (Applause.)

END
9:07 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Obama on the Minimum Wage at Valencia College, Orlando, Florida

Remarks by the President on the Minimum Wage

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

Valencia College
Orlando, Florida

3:00 P.M. EDT

March 20, 2014

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Valencia!  (Applause.)  Well, thank you so much.  It is great to be back in Orlando.  (Applause.)   I’m glad some of you came to work while a lot of folks are pretending to work and watching -- (laughter) -- the tournament. I know there must be some Gators fans around here.  (Applause.)  They are an outstanding team.  I put out my Men’s bracket -- I've got them going to the Final Four. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  They’re going to win!

THE PRESIDENT:  And they could win the whole thing -- in which case, I won't win the billion dollars.  (Laughter.)  You can only pick one winner.  There are 63 colleges mad at me.  (Laughter.)  I understand there are some neighbors up the road in Gainesville who are not happy with me.  (Laughter.)  There will be even more tomorrow when I release my Women’s bracket -- because you can't please everybody. 

But we’ve got some terrific elected officials here.  I just want to, in particular, thank the Mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer, who’s been a great friend.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  And I want to thank the president of Valencia College, Sandy -- (applause) -- where’s Sandy?  Sandy Shugart -- there he is.  We've got the president of the West Campus who I just had an amazing conversation with -- Falecia Williams.  Where’s Falecia?  Right there.  (Applause.)  I want to thank everybody here at Valencia for having me. 

A few years ago, I announced a new competition called the Aspen Prize to recognize exceptional community colleges, and, lo and behold -- (laughter) -- your school, Valencia -- (applause) -- was the very first school in the entire country to win this prize.  (Applause.)  So between the students’ hard work, the outstanding faculty, the administrators who are making sure everybody has what they need to succeed, Valencia graduates are leaving here ready for a career; ready to continue their education; ready to pursue their dreams, wherever they may lead.

And so this college represents what’s best in America -- the idea that here in this country, if you work hard, you can get ahead.  And restoring that opportunity for every American, that's been our driving focus as a country.  That’s driven everything I’ve done since I came into office. 

And today, we’re at a moment when, after the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, after just some devastating losses that people had -- their homes, or their retirement accounts, or their jobs -- now we've see businesses creating 8.7 million new jobs over the past four years.  American manufacturers are adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s.  In American energy, we’re producing more oil here at home than we buy from other countries for the first time in two decades.  We're generating more renewable energy.  The housing market is rebounding, including here in Florida.  Our high school graduation rate is the highest on record.  (Applause.)  Absolutely.  More young people are earning college degrees than ever before.  (Applause.)

So even as we are digging ourselves out of the economic hole that we were in back in 2008, we've also worked to lay a new foundation for America’s future growth.  Here’s the problem, though -- there are a bunch of good things happening, the economy is starting to grow, but some of the trends that have really battered middle-class families and people who are working hard to get into the middle class for decades -- those have not yet gotten better.  Folks at the top are doing better than ever, but over the past four years, average wages have barely budged.  So you’ve got too many Americans who are working harder than ever just to keep up.  

And it’s our job to reverse these trends.  We've got to build an economy that works for everybody, not just for a few.  We’ve got to restore opportunity for all people -- the basic idea that no matter where you started, no matter what you look like, if you work hard you can get ahead.  America has got to be a place where if you’re responsible and you apply yourself you can make it.

So what we focused on is an opportunity agenda that has four parts.  Part one is more good jobs that pay good wages, whether it’s in manufacturing, in energy, in innovation and technology, in the service industries.  And one of the things we’ve done in Orlando is focus on growing tourism.  Buddy knows this.  Two years ago, I came here to announce an executive order to track more foreign tourists to the United States and last year spending by foreign tourists was up almost 10 percent.  That is a huge boost to Florida.  We’ve got to keep on taking those kinds of steps.

Part two of our opportunity agenda -- we’ve got to train more Americans with the skills that they need to fill the jobs that are actually out there not just today but also tomorrow. 

Part three you know something about -- we’ve got to make sure every young person has access to a world-class education, from high-quality preschool for every four-year-old to an affordable college education for all you striving young people. 

And part four is making sure that our economy rewards the hard work of every American with wages that you can live on, savings you can retire on, health care that’s there when you need it. 

And in pursuit of this opportunity agenda, I’m going to work with Congress wherever I can.  But Congress doesn’t always -- (laughter) -- move the way we’d like, and so we’re calling this a Year of Action.  Wherever I see a chance to go ahead and expand opportunity for more Americans, I’m going to take it.  I’m not going to wait for Congress.  We’ve just got to go ahead and get it done.  (Applause.)

I’ll give you a couple of examples.  In the past few weeks I’ve used my executive authority to require federal contractors to pay their employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour to make sure that folks, if they’re working full-time, aren’t living in poverty.  I’ve signed another executive order to make sure that they’re actually paid the overtime that they’ve earned, because everybody who works hard deserves that chance to get ahead.  And if you work more, you should get paid a little more.

As part of making sure our economy rewards the hard work of every American, I’m also coming here today to make sure that our economy rewards the hard work of women.  (Applause.)  Now, I just want to be clear -- I just want to be clear.  I’ve got nothing against you men.  (Laughter.)  We’re working hard to make sure that you’re doing the right thing, too, and that you’re getting opportunity as well.  But I’ve got a personal stake in seeing women get ahead. 

First of all, women make up 80 percent of my household -- (laughter) -- if you count my mother-in-law.  And I always count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter.)  But I also personally know the challenges that women face in our economy, and there are some particular challenges that women face.  I grew up the son of a single mom who struggled to put herself through school and make ends meet, and raise my sister and me the right way.  And she couldn’t have done it if it weren’t for my grandparents.  And the most important breadwinner in my family was my grandmother, who worked her way up from being a secretary to being a vice president of a bank -- never got a college degree -- but then hit a glass ceiling at that local bank where she worked.  So she’d train men to eventually be her boss, even though she knew a lot more than they did.

When Michelle and I had our girls, we gave everything we had to try to balance raising a family and chasing careers.  But I’ll be honest with you, it was harder for her than it was for me.  Because when she was with the girls, she’d feel guilty about, am I doing everything I need to be doing on the job; when she was at work, she’d feel bad about, are the girls missing me -- and I know Barack is messing up somehow.  (Laughter.)  So she’s calling to check.

And so today, obviously we’re lucky and Michelle and I usually get to have dinner with the girls every night and they’re doing great.  And the highlight of every day for me is sitting with them at the dinner table.  And I want to make sure my daughters are getting the same chances as men.  I don’t want them paid less for doing the same job as some guy is doing.  When they have children, I want to make sure that they’re not having to quit their jobs, or in some other fashion be hampered because we don’t have the kinds of policies in this country that support them.

My point is -- and I’m saying now to the men -- we’ve all got a stake in this.  Women make up about half of our workforce. Over half of Valencia students, 56 percent, are women.  In fact, for more than two decades, women have earned over half of the higher education degrees awarded in this country.  So that means soon, for the first time, America’s highly educated workforce will be made up of more women than men. 

But the thing is our economy hasn’t caught up to that reality yet.  So we’ve got too many women who work hard to support themselves and their families, including the 20 percent of women enrolled in college who are trying to raise kids while earning a degree, and they’re facing unfair choices or outdated workplace policies that are holding them back.  That has to change -- because it holds all of us back.

When women make less than men, that hurts their families, including their partners, their husbands, their kids.  They’ve got less to get by on.  It hurts businesses because now their customers have less to spend.  When a job doesn’t offer adequate family leave to care for a new baby or an ailing parent that burdens men and children.  When any of our citizens can’t fulfill their potential for any reason that doesn’t have to do with their talent or their character or their work ethic, well, that’s holding us back.  We do better when everybody participates, when everybody’s talents are put to use, everybody has a fair shot. 

And I had a wonderful conversation before I came out here with Carolyn and we had a group of other women, including Dr. Williams, and you should just have heard these stories.  I mean, I don’t know if Dr. Williams has shared her story, but her mom was blind and raised her, a single mom.  And she had to go to school and get a job, and when her child was born prematurely, her blind mother comes down to provide child care because that’s the only way she could manage it. 

You had another woman describing what it’s like when you’ve got twins, preemie babies, and she’s having to quit her job because there’s no child care available, and how she needed WIC and other programs to support her even though she had a loving husband who was helping out.

So this is a family agenda.  But it starts with making sure that every woman is getting a fair shot.  It’s time for a woman’s economic agenda that grows our economy for everybody.  Now, that begins with making sure women receive equal pay for equal work.  This is a really simple principle.  This should not be confusing. (Laughter and applause.)  It’s not that complicated. 

Today, more women are their family’s main breadwinner than ever before.  But on average, women are still earning just 77 cents on every dollar that a man does.  Women with college degrees may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less over the course of her career than a man at the same educational level.  And that’s wrong.  This isn’t 1958, it’s 2014.  That’s why the first bill I signed into law was called the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- (applause) -- and it made sure that it was easier for women to sue if they weren’t being paid the same as men. 

And in the coming weeks, Congress will have a chance to go even further by voting yes or no on what’s called the Paycheck Fairness Act.  Right now, a majority of the senators support that bill but so far Republicans have blocked it.  We’ve got to get them to change their minds and join us in this century -- (laughter) -- because a woman deserves equal pay for equal work. It’s pretty straightforward.  (Applause.)

And Congress should not stop there.  A woman deserves workplace policies that protect her right to have a baby without losing her job.  It's pretty clear that if men were having babies -- (laughter) -- we’d have different policies.  I mean, we know that, that’s for certain.  A woman deserves to take a day off to care for a sick child or a parent without running into hardship. (Applause.)

So Congress needs to act so that Americans join every other advanced nation on Earth by offering paid leave to folks who work hard every day.  It’s time to do away with some of these workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode.  (Laughter.)  We’ve got to make sure that every woman has the opportunities that she deserves -- because when women succeed, America succeeds.  I truly believe that.  (Applause.) 

On the ride over here we were talking about some of the best practices of companies that are highly successful.  It turns out that if you give families -- you give your workers some flexibility so that if they’ve got a sick child or a sick parent they can have a little time off, those employees are more productive, the companies do better, you have less turnover.  So it’s good business practice.  It’s the right thing to do.

At a time when women hold the majority of low-wage jobs, Congress is going to get a chance to vote yes or no on whether millions of women who work hard all day deserve a raise.  There’s a bill before Congress that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  That would lift wages for nearly 28 million Americans across the country.  And, again, it would be good for business.  Because what happens is more customers have more money to spend.  It will grow the economy for everybody.  It’s time for Congress to join the rest of the country.  It’s time for -- we’re calling it the $10.10 campaign.  Give America a raise.  And that, in particular, will help the disproportionate number of women who are in lower wage jobs.

And on each of these issues, members of Congress will have to choose between helping women and families get ahead or holding them back.  Part of our challenge is fewer than 20 seats in Congress are held by women.  I think we’re all clear that Congress would get more done if you kind of evened that out a little bit.  (Applause.)  I’m pretty confident about that.

But in the meantime, we’re going to keep making the case as to why these policies are the right ones for working families and for businesses.  So over the next few months, my administration is going to host a series of roundtable discussions like the one I had in different parts of the country just to hear stories about issues like workplace flexibility and opening up new leadership opportunities for women.  And it’s all going to lead up to the first-ever White House summit on Working Families that we’re going to be holding this summer.  And maybe some of you will participate, because we want to hear your stories.  (Applause.)

Let me close by mentioning one last policy that’s benefitting millions of women right now, and that is the Affordable Care Act.  (Applause.)  I know there’s a lot of politics around it.  I know there are a lot of TV ads around that don’t always accurately reflect what’s going on.  But right now, despite the fact that the website was really bad for the first month -- (laughter) -- it’s now fixed -- more than 5 million Americans have signed up for plans at healthcare.gov.  More than 5 million.  (Applause.)  More than 3 million young people have gained coverage because this law lets you stay on your parents’ plan until you turn 26.  So I’ll bet there are some young people right now who have health insurance in this auditorium because of the law.  (Applause.) 

And thanks to this law, no American -- zero -- can ever again be denied health insurance because of a preexisting condition.  (Applause.)  Not to mention no woman can ever again be charged more for just being a woman.  (Applause.) 

Now, this is something that people don’t realize.  Before we passed Obamacare, it was routine for insurance companies to charge women significantly more than men for health insurance.  It’s just like the drycleaners.  (Laughter.)  You send in a blouse, I send in a shirt -- they charge you twice as much.  (Laughter.)  But the same thing was happening in health insurance.  And so we’ve banned that policy for everybody, not just folks who were getting health insurance on the exchange.  But if you were getting health insurance on the job, they can’t discriminate against women in that same fashion.  Not to mention tens of millions of women have gained access to free preventive care like mammograms and contraceptive care.  The point is no woman should have to put off the potentially lifesaving care she needs just because money is tight.

And in the roundtable I just had there were at least three or four folks in that roundtable, the majority of the women I just talked to had an instance in their lives where either because of a sick child or a premature baby or an ailing parent, they would be bankrupt had they not had health insurance.  Broke. So when you hear folks talking about Obamacare and I’m not using it because I’ve got health insurance or I’m healthy, well, yes, you don’t need health insurance until you need health insurance. (Laughter.)  It seems like a drag until you actually confront what life does to all of us at some point.  Some unexpected thing happens and you want to make sure that you’ve got that support.

Now, none of that has stopped Republicans in Congress from spending the last few years not focused on legislation to create jobs, or raise wages, or help more young people afford college.  They’ve taken 50 votes to try to repeal or undermine this law -- 50.  You know what they say -- the 50th time is the charm.  (Laughter.)  Fifty times.  And it’s not just to try to improve the law or here’s a particular problem.  No, we just want to scrap it so that millions of people who now have health insurance, we want them to go back to not having health insurance. 

Well, that’s not going to happen.  They can keep wasting their time repealing -- trying to repeal the ACA; we’re going to keep working to make this law work better because every person and every woman deserves to control her own health care choices  -- not her boss, not her insurer, surely not Congress. 

So there’s an important deadline coming up, by the way.  This is now the last call for 2014.  If you’ve been thinking about buying one of the new plans on healthcare.gov -- and a large proportion of people, the majority, in fact, may be able to buy health insurance for as little as $100 or less a month -- less than your cable or your cell phone bill.  I saw everybody had a cell phone.  (Laughter.)  But the deadline to get covered this year is March 31st, which is just 11 days away.  So if you are uninsured, check out your new choices at healthcare.gov.  Many of you will be able to get covered for $100 a month or less. If you’re already covered, then help get a friend covered, because that’s part of what America is about -- taking responsibility for working to achieve our own dreams; also coming together to help our fellow citizens pursue and secure their own dreams as well.

There are just such amazing stories of the women that I talked with before I came out here.  Every one of them, at some point, had made a major sacrifice on behalf of their families.  One woman had a severely autistic son; took 12 years off to raise her three kids, including this son, before now going back to school and being able to teach once again.  Just like my mom. Just like my grandma.  I didn’t fully appreciate at the time the sacrifice they were making.  I was talking about how I used to complain to my mom when she was going to school and working, why are we eating the same thing every night?  (Laughter.)  Because she was doing so much, and then coming home and still taking the time to make sure that I had a decent meal. 

That’s what built this country -- those kinds of sacrifices. And we’ve got to make sure that we as a country are helping people who are so courageous and so brave and working so hard -- all those moms and grandmas and young women like Carolyn who are trying to start their own businesses. 

We’ve come a long way together over these past five years, but we’ve got to do more to restore opportunity for everybody. Whether you’re a man or a woman; whether you are black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, with or without a disability, all of us have something to offer.  All of us have a place in this American story.  And as long as I have the privilege of being President, I’m going to keep working to make sure every single one of us have a chance to succeed.  (Applause.)  Or as you say here at Valencia, “We Say You Can.” 

Thank you, everybody.  God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

END
3:26 P.M. EDT

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