Still Hope Versus Fear

In the last days of the 2008 election, Barack Obama visited Cleveland for one of the final rallies of his presidential campaign. Today he returned for a major address on his plans for moving the economy forward. While much has changed since 2008, some things remain the same as we stand faced with another important election:

“A lot has changed since I came here in those final days of the last election, but what hasn’t is the choice facing this country.  It’s still fear versus hope; the past versus the future.  It’s still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward.  That’s what this election is about.  That’s the choice you’ll face in November.”

The President used his address to lay out three major new initiatives to create jobs and grow our economy. First is a new effort to rebuild America’s transportation infrastructure—our roads, bridges, and airport runways. The second is expanding, simplifying, and permanently extending the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit. And the third is to allow companies to deduct investments in their business through the end of 2011, speeding up job creation and private investment. These big investments will help the families and workers who are struggling while building a strong infrastructure for our country’s economic growth.

As the President said today, his own family benefited from a country that invested in its middle class, which is what we need to do again:

"Michelle and I are where we are today because even though our families didn’t have much, they worked tirelessly – without complaint – so that we might have a better life.  My grandfather marched off to Europe in World War II and my grandmother worked in factories on the home front.  I had a single mom who put herself through school, and would wake before dawn to make sure I got a decent education.  Michelle can still remember her father heading out to his job as a city worker long after Multiple Sclerosis had made it impossible for him to walk without crutches….

“That’s the America I believe in.  That’s what led me to work in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant on the South Side of Chicago when I was a community organizer.  It’s what led me to fight for factory workers at manufacturing plants that were closing across Illinois when I was a Senator.  It’s what led me to run for President – because I don’t believe we can have a strong and growing economy without a strong and growing middle-class.”

But as the President pushes for jobs and laying a strong economic foundation, Republicans like John Boehner are saying ‘no’ to progress while offering no new ideas:

“A few weeks ago, the Republican leader of the House came here to Cleveland and offered his party’s answer to our economic challenges.  Now, it would be one thing if he admitted his party’s mistakes during the eight years they were in power, and was offering a credible new approach to solving our country’s problems.

“But that’s not what happened.  There were no new policies from Mr. Boehner.  There were no new ideas.  There was just the same philosophy we already tried for the last decade – the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place:  cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations.  Instead of coming together like past generations did to build a better country for our children and grandchildren, their argument is that we should let insurance companies go back to denying care to folks who are sick, and let credit card companies go back to raising rates without any reason.  Instead of setting our sights higher, they’re asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness, and a shrinking middle class.”

Voters face a choice this November, and it boils down to whether we continue moving forward to create jobs and build a strong economy, or go back to the failed policies of the past. As the President said, if we are again able to "choose hope over fear; to choose the future over the past; to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy; rebuild our middle-class; and reclaim the American Dream for the next generation.”