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Barack Obama Birther Birthers Donald Trump donaldtrump Hawaii United States

Donald Trump Lies. Is Donald Even His Name?

No one with common sense takes Donald Trump seriously, but being the noisiest wheel that he is, Trump has forced one of the web’s most respected organizations to check into his Birther accusations. The Donald and the Birthers believe the president was born in Kenya, and is therefore not a legitimate president.

Enter FactCheck.org – the group that originally debunked the birther conspiracy – is checking into the wild claims and accusations of Trump, and FactCheck finds that Trump is crazier than we think.

FactCheck found the following:

  • The Donald claims the president’s grandmother says Obama was born in Kenya. In fact, the recording to which he refers shows Sarah Obama repeatedly saying through a translator: “He was born in America.”
  • The Donald claims that no hospital in Hawaii has a record of Obama’s birth. Hospital records are confidential under federal law, but Honolulu’s Kapi’olani Medical Center has published a letter from Obama calling it “the place of my birth,” thus publicly confirming it as his birthplace.
  • The Donald insists that the official “Certification of Live Birth” that Obama produced in 2008 is “not a birth certificate.” That’s wrong. The U.S. Department of State uses “birth certificate” as a generic term to include the official Hawaii document, which satisfies legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport.
  • The Donald claims that there’s no signature or certification number on the document released by Obama. Wrong again. Photos of the document, which we posted in 2008, clearly show those details.
  • The Donald says newspaper announcements of Obama’s birth that appeared in Hawaii newspapers in 1961 “probably” were placed there fraudulently by his now-deceased American grandparents. Actually, a state health department official and a former managing editor of one of the newspapers said the information came straight from the state health department.
  • The Donald claims “nobody knew” Obama when he was growing up and “nobody ever comes forward” who knew him as a child. “If I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten,” Trump said. Well, two retired kindergarten teachers in a 2009 news story fondly recall teaching a young Barack Obama.

Recent polls have Trump leading in the field of misfits running for the Republican presidential nomination. Given that his entire campaign has so far been based on lies, it stands to reason that for Republicans, Teabaggers and Birthers, dealing in truth and reality disqualifies you from being their presidential candidate.

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Barack Obama failed Republican Sarah Palin Sarah Palin United States Wisconsin

The Wheels Fell Off The Sarah Palin Bus In Madison Wisconsin

Sarah Palin, in a weak attempt to get back into the spotlight again, rushed into Madison Wisconsin to deliver a “unions-bad-people-bad-corporations-good” message. But according to Wisconsin police and those in the audience, the message fell on deaf ears as a majority of the 6500 in attendance were there to protest the once beloved Sarah.

Sarah Palin rolled into Madison, Wisconsin today using a Tea Party rally as an excuse to attack union members, but the wheels promptly fell off of her bandwagon as only 6,500 people showed up for the rally, and reports on the scene say that many of those in attendance were there to protest Palin. Not even the Koch Brothers and their magic buses could draw a crowd for Palin.

The Koch Brothers threw their front group Americans For Prosperity into the effort to hold an anti-union rally in Madison headlined by Sarah Palin. All the resources were deployed, Palin fans were begged to attend, Americans For Prosperity had no less than 13 buses lined up, and despite all of this, the crowd never came.

Some people just don’t know when to give it up! Palin has been losing support from the most ardent Teaparty Republicans, but she still tries to capture the limelight with her folksy and meaningless slangs. Someone should tell The Palin that her message is no longer relevant.

Maybe she should take a page from The Donald’s play-book, and pander to the Birthers.

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Birthers Canada Donald Trump quotes Republican United States White House

Donald Trump: “I’m A Liberal On This One…!”

Back when all American presidents were automatically considered “American” because… they just were, and no one questioned whether birth certificates were authentic, Donald Trump made his first run for the White House. The year was 1999, and he ran as a Republican. After losing, The Donald saw a way to make some cash and wrote a book called, “The America We Deserve.” In it, The Trump took some very interesting positions. Here’s some of them;

  • “I really believe the Republicans are just too crazy, right?” he told Tim Russert onMeet the Press. “I mean, just what’s going on is just nuts.”
  • “We must have universal healthcare. I’m a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses.”
  • The goal of health care reform… should be a system that looks a lot like Canada. Doctors might be paid less than they are now, as is the case in Canada, but they would be able to treat more patients because of the reduction in their paperwork.
  • The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans.
  • We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing.
  • And on his criticism of George Bush and the Iraqi invasion, The Trump said, “He’d go into a country, attack Iraq, which had nothing to do with the World Trade Center, and just do it because he wanted to do it.”

Back then, those were the more popular positions to have so naturally, the opportunistic Donald took advantage. Today, however, he’s jumped on a different bandwagon that puts him in total opposition to his stance in ’99… one he considers fashionably popular – Birtherism.

Look out for Trump’s next book, coming in 2013!

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Barack Obama Politics Republican Ronald Reagan White House

Republican Presidents Add More To The Debt Than Democratic Presidents Do

Something we already knew, but now the record proves it. Republican presidents run up debts, while Democratic presidents try to reduce it.

This is in stark contrast to the ideology constantly being drilled into our heads by the media and the Republican party, that conservatives are for fiscal discipline. If this is true, the conservatives who become president must leave their ‘discipline’ at the door of the White House.

According to the report,

Economist Mike Kimel notes that the last five Democratic Presidents (Clinton, Carter, LBJ, JFK, and Truman) all reduced public debt as a share of GDP, while the last four Republican Presidents (GW Bush, GHW Bush, Reagan, and Ford) all oversaw an increase in the country’s indebtedness.

Similarly, Republican David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, as op-ed contributor to the New York Times blamed the “ideological tax-cutters” of the Reagan administration for the increase of national debt during the 1980s.

Looking back, this trend was not always the case. Yesteryear’s Republican Presidents once had focused on bringing down the national debt,  but something changed right around the time Reagan got into office. See the chart below;

So next time these conservatives talk about “deficit reduction” and “cutting the budget,” maybe they should consider whose policies increased the national debt to where it is today. They should also consider educating their next presidential candidate, and beg that candidate to maintain their so-called “conservatism” if they manage to cross the threshold of the White House.

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Arizona Needs To Know What A Presidential Candidate’s Penis Looks Like

Great! Just when you thought it was safe to go to Arizona, the Birthers officially took over the place.

Today, the Arizona Republican Senate bowed to the Birthers, and passed a bill requiring all presidential candidates to prove he or she is a natural-born citizen of the United States, prove their age and also prove that they meet the residency requirements, as dictated in the bill. If the presidential contender cannot provide the required proof within the alloted time period, then according to the bill, that person’s name cannot appear on the Arizona presidential ballot.

Also according to the bill, which passed both the Arizona House and Senate, the political party of the candidate must “provide to the Secretary of State written notice of that party’s nomination for President and Vice President.” The bill then states that within 10 days after the political party provides the names of their nominee, an affidavit must be presented to Arizona, stating “the candidate’s citizenship and age and shall append to the affidavit documents that prove the candidate is a natural-born citizen.”

And get this… just in case the candidate cannot provide their long-form birth certificate, the legislation has an alternative. The presidential candidate will be allowed to put their name on the Arizona ballot if they can provide, among other things, their circumcision certificate.

So to understand exactly what is required to be on the Arizona presidential ballot starting in 2012, all candidates will need; proof of age, proof of residency, a long-form birth certificate, and if all else fails, then your circumcision certificate will do.

Of course, that requirement is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, which clearly states, “no person except a natural born Citizen” shall be eligible for President of the United States. But apparently, the founding fathers forgot to mention the circumcision certificate as proof of eligibility.

The bill now heads back to the Arizona House for a final vote where it is expected to pass, then it goes to Republican Governor Jan Brewer’s desk for her to sign it into law. That too, is expected to happen.

Wonder if those founding fathers ever thought that a description of one’s penis will be a qualifier for a United States presidential candidate?

I don’t think so.

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Abortion Planned Parenthood Politics Senate United States

Jon Kyl Deletes His Lie From Congressional Record

It’s as if it never happened. The outrageous claim by Republican Senator Jon Kyl last Friday, that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is providing abortions, has magically disappeared from the Congressional records. Apparently, senators can review their statements on the floor of the senate after making them, and make changes for the record.

Last Friday, in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, the Arizona Republican senator stood on the floor of the United States Senate and lied, claiming, “if you want an abortion you go to Planned Parenthood and that’s well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.” Of course, the truth of the matter is, about 3% of Planned Parenthood services are abortions. The organization also offers a wide range of health care to women, including cancer screenings.

But after waving the magic wand over the official congressional record, his statement now says, “if you want an abortion you go to Planned Parenthood and that is what Planned Parenthood does.”

Let’s see him wave his wand over Youtube and change the video below.

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Barack Obama Planned Parenthood Politics United States

President Obama Caught On Open Microphone Talking About Republicans

President Obama was caught on an open microphone making some very interesting remarks about the Republicans and their recent 2011 budget negotiations to keep the government funded for the remainder of this fiscal year. The President, unaware that the microphones were on recalls, among other things, the unsuccessful reasoning given by representatives of John Boehner, in reference to repealing Health care.

Listen to the audio below.

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Collective bargaining Politics United States Wisconsin

Dennis Kucinich vs Scott Walker–Who Won?

Last time we heard about Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic Congressman was questioning whether or not President Obama should be impeached for his actions in Libya. Kucinich believes he  should be.

Today, Kucinich somewhat redeemed himself and was able to reconnect with his Democratic roots during his questioning of Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker. Walker went to congress to give his testimony about his recent actions of stripping Wisconsin’s public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Mr. Walker has always maintained that taking away these rights from Wisconsin’s public employees was a necessary step towards deficit reduction.

Enter Dennis Kucinich;

KUCINICH: Let me ask you about some of the specific provisions in your proposals to strip collective bargaining rights. First, your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue representing their own members. Can you please explain to me and members of this committee how much money this provision saves for your state budget?

WALKER: That and a number of other provisions we put in because if you’re going to ask, if you’re going to put in place a change like that, we wanted to make sure we protected the workers of our state, so they got value out of that.

KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?

WALKER: It doesn’t save any.

KUCINICH: I want to ask about another one of your proposals. Under your plan you would prohibit paying union member dues from their paychecks. How much money would this provision save your state budget?

WALKER: It would save employees a thousand dollars a year they could use to pay for their pensions and health care contributions.

KUCINICH: Governor, it wouldn’t save anything.

I think Kucinich wins…!

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Democratic democrats Planned Parenthood Politics Republican right winged United States United States Environmental Protection Agency

Republicans Are Masters of The Game

It is an obvious game of chicken and well-played by the Republicans. The object of the game is to establish your position in a metaphoric staring contest, wait to see who blinks first, then take all you can and run!

Think about it. Every single policy that involves negotiations, Republicans take the most extreme right winged position available. They then go on the so-called “main-stream media” and repeat their extreme arguments over and over and over again, in essence brainwashing otherwise rational Americans into thinking these far-fetched positions are normal.

After a constant barrage of talking points from every congressional Republican who gets  in front of a microphone or camera, these extreme positions take on a life of their own, as everyday folks begin to consider the possibilities of enacting these policies. People take up positions, usually along party lines, and the pros and cons are measured.

Democrats too, hear these arguments, for they are repeated by every single congressional Republican verbatim. So when the time comes to negotiate, Democrats, who tend to start in the middle, move more and more to the right, a move seen by Republicans as progress in the negotiations, and the end result is a piece of legislation that is somewhere between center and far right.

Look at the most recent negotiations between Democrats and Republicans – the 2011 budget. Weeks before the deadline arrived, Republicans gathered all their talking points, memorized them and spewed them out on every cable and radio network. The most extreme positions were demanding a $100 billion budget cut, defunding Education, defunding Planned Parenthood and stopping abortions, with no regards to women’s health or how she conceived – whether it be through rape or incest –  and with no regards to the health or survivability of the fetus. They also got bombarded with news from across the nation that Republican governors were enacting some of the most extreme policies this country has seen in decades regarding union collective bargaining capabilities. All this was done in unison, as the full effort to modify America’s thinking had begun.

As the deadline to agree on a budget approached, Republicans dug in even further. They were relentless in getting their message out, everyone reciting the same scripts, some even protesting outside of Harry Reid’s office demanding that Planned Parenthood be abolished. Democrats were not immune to the Republican’s efforts, and instead of taking up what many considered to be  traditional liberal positions on the issues, found themselves being more centrist in order to avoid looking as left-winged extremists.

Starting from this centrist position was an automatic win for the Republicans, but they continued digging in until the eleventh hour – literally! Democrats gave a little more, and the total outcome was an agreement to continue funding the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, but considerable cuts to programs geared towards saving lives, like the EPA and local police enforcement, as well as some cuts to Education among others. Cuts totaling $38.5 billion.

Republicans are masters of the art of negotiation. Take the most extreme positions, and stay there until the other side flinches.

The same strategy will be seen in the next big fight – raising the debt ceiling. And the Paul Ryan Plan, which will ultimately transfer $4.2 trillion from the middle class to the wealthy, is the extreme right winged position they will be using to get more centrist-right cuts. And their position now is, if Ryan’s plan doesn’t go into effect, then the debt ceiling will not be raised. Turn on your cable news station, and you are almost guaranteed to see  Republicans preaching that “we don’t have a tax problem, we have a spending problem,” and “Ryan’s proposed budget is the only responsible plan to tackle America’s long-term debt,” or that they only “intend to vote for Ryan’s budget cuts.”

They are a well oiled machine. But this game is not solitaire, so  it requires an opponent. Democrats must stand up for the middle class, like they’ve done for decades.

Democrats know the game being played by the Republicans, and they must play accordingly. In the words of GI-Joe, a favorite American hero: “… knowing is half the battle!”

 

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Barack Obama MSNBC Politics United States

Corporations Don’t Need A Conscience…They Have Your Leaders

Take a few minutes out of your day to keep it real. Be honest, we’ve seen this movie before. The heroes and villains are as staged as professional wrestling. The soap opera dramas of  “All My Children”,  “Young And The Restless”  and the others have nothing on the modern day “Hatfields & McCoys” that is the Democratic and Republican parties.

Stop lying…and stop lying to yourself by allowing yourself to be lied to.  We’ve been like masochists, addicted to abuse. Or an abused wife that suffers through the pain and makes excuses for her husband’s abuse of her. All the right words will be spoken and promises made, some by well meaning candidates…some by career politicians who know full well the powerlessness of their post to effect actual progress but are content in being “the face man” of authority. The truth is ‘HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE’.

The reason universal healthcare was watered down and made to order for the insurance companies is because  those companies financial contributions to those with the ‘power’ of the pen. According to Barack Obama himself, America’s  health industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and to stall other proposed legislation. Corporate power at work. There are two wars going on right now that benefit absolutely nobody but corporate interests and the weapons merchants that get paid to arm both sides of the conflict. Again, corporate interests at work.

The once great continent of Africa and all its natural resources is fertile ground for imperialists and multi-national corporate “investors” with the help of the military and propaganda to continue becoming the new legalized slave masters of the indigenous people. But don’t expect this to be a topic of interest in any presidential election, you see those same corporate investors have invested in the candidates. The 2009 election was infested with financial pay dirt. JP Morgan Chase funded both McCain and Obama, Morgan Stanley funded both  McCain and Obama, Citigroup funded both candidates as well, the list of corporate hush money donations go on… and on. These are the aforementioned ‘payers of the piper’, they are the ones calling the tunes by which we dance.

“What?” you say. “No way, surely we would’ve been hipped to this”.

Really?

General Electric’s media holdings include MSNBC, BRAVO and Telemundo. Disney, another multinational, multi-tentacled, multi mind-bending corporation controls 277 radio stations and the ABC network. There are others; Viacom, Time Warner etc., These are main sources of information and so called news for the vast majority of people. A corporations job is to expand, to grow, not to care for those trampled upon as a result of their expansion efforts. So since our sources of information are fitered through them, since our politicians are outright owned by them, since our minds have been reduced to mere robotic consumers of their products…I am appealing to us to recognize that we can’t afford to believe that we have permanent friends in the white house. Black or white. If the politician, the  preacher, teacher or corporation is not serving our best interests, the only corporation that will… starts in the mirror.

Son of Man

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Barack Obama Democratic Politics Republican United States

New Poll Finds Americans Have Soured On The Republicans

Call it buyer’s remorse, a recall on faulty merchandise. Or call it a demand for a refund due to false advertising. Whatever you call it, Americans are beginning to see that this batch of Republicans in Congress are not what they had bargained for.

A new PPP poll finds that just a few months after handing the control of the House of Representatives  over to the Republican party, 43% think John Boehner and company are doing a worse job than Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats did when they were in charge.

The poll finds that even among Independents, Republicans have lost support;

Independents say by a 44-30 margin that Republicans have been doing worse.  Further, 48% trust President Obama more to lead the country in the right direction, while 42% have more faith in the GOP.  The sentiment with independents is 49-37 for Obama.

And when it comes to the question of who is  the most  extreme, Americans point the finger directly to the Republicans as the nut-jobs;

Americans also see the Democratic Party as being more mainstream (46%) than extremist (39%).  Their opinion of the GOP is almost the opposite: 40% see that party as mainstream, and 48% as extremist.  Independents say by a 49-33 margin that the GOP is extremist and by a 49-36 margin that the Democrats are mainstream

Based on these findings, Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling expressed his opinion on the Democrats chances in the next election;

“The conventional wisdom is that Democrats will have a very hard time winning back control of the House next year, but that may be wrong- voters have soured on the new Republican majority in record time.

Soured is not the word. Is there some way we can pack this group of Republicans up and ship them off to a country more suitable for them? Like Somalia?

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Domestic Policies United States

President Obama’s Remarks on Fiscal Responsibility

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please have a seat. Please have a seat, everyone.

It is wonderful to be back at GW. I want you to know that one of the reasons that I worked so hard with Democrats and Republicans to keep the government open was so that I could show up here today. I wanted to make sure that all of you had one more excuse to skip class. (Laughter.) You’re welcome. (Laughter.)

I want to give a special thanks to Steven Knapp, the president of GW. I just saw him — where is he? There he is right there. (Applause.)

We’ve got a lot of distinguished guests here — a couple of people I want to acknowledge. First of all, my outstanding Vice President, Joe Biden, is here. (Applause.) Our Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, is in the house. (Applause.) Jack Lew, the Director of the Office of Mangement and Budget. (Applause.) Gene Sperling, Chair of the National Economic Council, is here. (Applause.) Members of our bipartisan Fiscal Commission are here, including the two outstanding chairs — Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson — are here. (Applause.)

And we have a number of members of Congress here today. I’m grateful for all of you taking the time to attend.

What we’ve been debating here in Washington over the last few weeks will affect the lives of the students here and families all across America in potentially profound ways. This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page; it’s about more than just cutting and spending. It’s about the kind of future that we want. It’s about the kind of country that we believe in. And that’s what I want to spend some time talking about today.

From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America’s wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.

But there’s always been another thread running through our history -– a belief that we’re all connected, and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation. We believe, in the words of our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.

And so we’ve built a strong military to keep us secure, and public schools and universities to educate our citizens. We’ve laid down railroads and highways to facilitate travel and commerce. We’ve supported the work of scientists and researchers whose discoveries have saved lives, unleashed repeated technological revolutions, and led to countless new jobs and entire new industries. Each of us has benefitted from these investments, and we’re a more prosperous country as a result.
Part of this American belief that we’re all connected also expresses itself in a conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security and dignity. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff may strike any one of us. “There but for the grace of God go I,” we say to ourselves. And so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, those with disabilities. We’re a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further. We would not be a great country without those commitments.

Now, for much of the last century, our nation found a way to afford these investments and priorities with the taxes paid by its citizens. As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally borne a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. Everybody pays, but the wealthier have borne a little more. This is not because we begrudge those who’ve done well -– we rightly celebrate their success. Instead, it’s a basic reflection of our belief that those who’ve benefited most from our way of life can afford to give back a little bit more. Moreover, this belief hasn’t hindered the success of those at the top of the income scale. They continue to do better and better with each passing year.

Now, at certain times -– particularly during war or recession -– our nation has had to borrow money to pay for some of our priorities. And as most families understand, a little credit card debt isn’t going to hurt if it’s temporary.

But as far back as the 1980s, America started amassing debt at more alarming levels, and our leaders began to realize that a larger challenge was on the horizon. They knew that eventually, the Baby Boom generation would retire, which meant a much bigger portion of our citizens would be relying on programs like Medicare, Social Security, and possibly Medicaid. Like parents with young children who know they have to start saving for the college years, America had to start borrowing less and saving more to prepare for the retirement of an entire generation.

To meet this challenge, our leaders came together three times during the 1990s to reduce our nation’s deficit — three times. They forged historic agreements that required tough decisions made by the first President Bush, then made by President Clinton, by Democratic Congresses and by a Republican Congress. All three agreements asked for shared responsibility and shared sacrifice. But they largely protected the middle class; they largely protected our commitment to seniors; they protected our key investments in our future.

As a result of these bipartisan efforts, America’s finances were in great shape by the year 2000. We went from deficit to surplus. America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the Baby Boomers.

But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program -– but we didn’t pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts -– tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade.

To give you an idea of how much damage this caused to our nation’s checkbook, consider this: In the last decade, if we had simply found a way to pay for the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit, our deficit would currently be at low historical levels in the coming years.

But that’s not what happened. And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place. When I took office, our projected deficit, annually, was more than $1 trillion. On top of that, we faced a terrible financial crisis and a recession that, like most recessions, led us to temporarily borrow even more.

In this case, we took a series of emergency steps that saved millions of jobs, kept credit flowing, and provided working families extra money in their pocket. It was absolutely the right thing to do, but these steps were expensive, and added to our deficits in the short term.

So that’s how our fiscal challenge was created. That’s how we got here. And now that our economic recovery is gaining strength, Democrats and Republicans must come together and restore the fiscal responsibility that served us so well in the 1990s. We have to live within our means. We have to reduce our deficit, and we have to get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt. And we have to do it in a way that protects the recovery, protects the investments we need to grow, create jobs, and helps us win the future.

Now, before I get into how we can achieve this goal, some of you, particularly the younger people here — you don’t qualify, Joe. (Laughter.) Some of you might be wondering, “Why is this so important? Why does this matter to me?”

Well, here’s why. Even after our economy recovers, our government will still be on track to spend more money than it takes in throughout this decade and beyond. That means we’ll have to keep borrowing more from countries like China. That means more of your tax dollars each year will go towards paying off the interest on all the loans that we keep taking out. By the end of this decade, the interest that we owe on our debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion. Think about that. That’s the interest — just the interest payments.

Then, as the Baby Boomers start to retire in greater numbers and health care costs continue to rise, the situation will get even worse. By 2025, the amount of taxes we currently pay will only be enough to finance our health care programs — Medicare and Medicaid — Social Security, and the interest we owe on our debt. That’s it. Every other national priority -– education, transportation, even our national security -– will have to be paid for with borrowed money.

Now, ultimately, all this rising debt will cost us jobs and damage our economy. It will prevent us from making the investments we need to win the future. We won’t be able to afford good schools, new research, or the repair of roads -– all the things that create new jobs and businesses here in America. Businesses will be less likely to invest and open shop in a country that seems unwilling or unable to balance its books. And if our creditors start worrying that we may be unable to pay back our debts, that could drive up interest rates for everybody who borrows money -– making it harder for businesses to expand and hire, or families to take out a mortgage.

Here’s the good news: That doesn’t have to be our future. That doesn’t have to be the country that we leave our children. We can solve this problem. We came together as Democrats and Republicans to meet this challenge before; we can do it again.

But that starts by being honest about what’s causing our deficit. You see, most Americans tend to dislike government spending in the abstract, but like the stuff that it buys. Most of us, regardless of party affiliation, believe that we should have a strong military and a strong defense. Most Americans believe we should invest in education and medical research. Most Americans think we should protect commitments like Social Security and Medicare. And without even looking at a poll, my finely honed political instincts tell me that almost nobody believes they should be paying higher taxes. (Laughter.)

So because all this spending is popular with both Republicans and Democrats alike, and because nobody wants to pay higher taxes, politicians are often eager to feed the impression that solving the problem is just a matter of eliminating waste and abuse. You’ll hear that phrase a lot. “We just need to eliminate waste and abuse.” The implication is that tackling the deficit issue won’t require tough choices. Or politicians suggest that we can somehow close our entire deficit by eliminating things like foreign aid, even though foreign aid makes up about 1 percent of our entire federal budget.

So here’s the truth. Around two-thirds of our budget — two-thirds — is spent on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and national security. Two-thirds. Programs like unemployment
insurance, student loans, veterans’ benefits, and tax credits for working families take up another 20 percent. What’s left, after interest on the debt, is just 12 percent for everything else. That’s 12 percent for all of our national priorities — education, clean energy, medical research, transportation, our national parks, food safety, keeping our air and water clean — you name it — all of that accounts for 12 percent of our budget.

Now, up till now, the debate here in Washington, the cuts proposed by a lot of folks in Washington, have focused exclusively on that 12 percent. But cuts to that 12 percent alone won’t solve the problem. So any serious plan to tackle our deficit will require us to put everything on the table, and take on excess spending wherever it exists in the budget.

A serious plan doesn’t require us to balance our budget overnight –- in fact, economists think that with the economy just starting to grow again, we need a phased-in approach –- but it does require tough decisions and support from our leaders in both parties now. Above all, it will require us to choose a vision of the America we want to see five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road.

Now, to their credit, one vision has been presented and championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives and embraced by several of their party’s presidential candidates. It’s a plan that aims to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, and one that addresses the challenge of Medicare and Medicaid in the years after that.

These are both worthy goals. They’re worthy goals for us to achieve. But the way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we’ve known certainly in my lifetime. In fact, I think it would be fundamentally different than what we’ve known throughout our history.

A 70 percent cut in clean energy. A 25 percent cut in education. A 30 percent cut in transportation. Cuts in college Pell Grants that will grow to more than $1,000 per year. That’s the proposal. These aren’t the kind of cuts you make when you’re trying to get rid of some waste or find extra savings in the budget. These aren’t the kinds of cuts that the Fiscal Commission proposed. These are the kinds of cuts that tell us we can’t afford the America that I believe in and I think you believe in.

I believe it paints a vision of our future that is deeply pessimistic. It’s a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can’t afford to fix them. If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can’t afford to send them.

Go to China and you’ll see businesses opening research labs and solar facilities. South Korean children are outpacing our kids in math and science. They’re scrambling to figure out how they put more money into education. Brazil is investing billions in new infrastructure and can run half their cars not on high-priced gasoline, but on biofuels. And yet, we are presented with a vision that says the American people, the United States of America -– the greatest nation on Earth -– can’t afford any of this.

It’s a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors. It says that 10 years from now, if you’re a 65-year-old who’s eligible for Medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6,400 more than you would today. It says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn’t worth enough to buy the insurance that’s available in the open marketplace, well, tough luck -– you’re on your own. Put simply, it ends Medicare as we know it.

It’s a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. Who are these 50 million Americans? Many are somebody’s grandparents — may be one of yours — who wouldn’t be able to afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some of these kids with disabilities are — the disabilities are so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.

And worst of all, this is a vision that says even though Americans can’t afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can’t afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare and Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about that.

In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90 percent of all working Americans actually declined. Meanwhile, the top 1 percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. That’s who needs to pay less taxes?

They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. That’s not right. And it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President. (Applause.)

This vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America. Ronald Reagan’s own budget director said, there’s nothing “serious” or “courageous” about this plan. There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don’t think there’s anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill. That’s not a vision of the America I know.

The America I know is generous and compassionate. It’s a land of opportunity and optimism. Yes, we take responsibility for ourselves, but we also take responsibility for each other; for the country we want and the future that we share. We’re a nation that built a railroad across a continent and brought light to communities shrouded in darkness. We sent a generation to college on the GI Bill and we saved millions of seniors from poverty with Social Security and Medicare. We have led the world in scientific research and technological breakthroughs that have transformed millions of lives. That’s who we are. This is the America that I know. We don’t have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit our investment in our people and our country.

To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I’m President, we won’t.

So today, I’m proposing a more balanced approach to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 12 years. It’s an approach that borrows from the recommendations of the bipartisan Fiscal Commission that I appointed last year, and it builds on the roughly $1 trillion in deficit reduction I already proposed in my 2012 budget. It’s an approach that puts every kind of spending on the table — but one that protects the middle class, our promise to seniors, and our investments in the future.

The first step in our approach is to keep annual domestic spending low by building on the savings that both parties agreed to last week. That step alone will save us about $750 billion over 12 years. We will make the tough cuts necessary to achieve these savings, including in programs that I care deeply about, but I will not sacrifice the core investments that we need to grow and create jobs. We will invest in medical research. We will invest in clean energy technology. We will invest in new roads and airports and broadband access. We will invest in education. We will invest in job training. We will do what we need to do to compete, and we will win the future.

The second step in our approach is to find additional savings in our defense budget. Now, as Commander-in-Chief, I have no greater responsibility than protecting our national security, and I will never accept cuts that compromise our ability to defend our homeland or America’s interests around the world. But as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, has said, the greatest long-term threat to America’s national security is America’s debt. So just as we must find more savings in domestic programs, we must do the same in defense. And we can do that while still keeping ourselves safe.

Over the last two years, Secretary Bob Gates has courageously taken on wasteful spending, saving $400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again. We need to not only eliminate waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness, but we’re going to have to conduct a fundamental review of America’s missions, capabilities, and our role in a changing world. I intend to work with Secretary Gates and the Joint Chiefs on this review, and I will make specific decisions about spending after it’s complete.

The third step in our approach is to further reduce health care spending in our budget. Now, here, the difference with the House Republican plan could not be clearer. Their plan essentially lowers the government’s health care bills by asking seniors and poor families to pay them instead. Our approach lowers the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself.

Already, the reforms we passed in the health care law will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion. My approach would build on these reforms. We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments. We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare’s purchasing power to drive greater efficiency and speed generic brands of medicine onto the market. We will work with governors of both parties to demand more efficiency and accountability from Medicaid.

We will change the way we pay for health care -– not by the procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. And we will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services that seniors need.

Now, we believe the reforms we’ve proposed to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid will enable us to keep these commitments to our citizens while saving us $500 billion by 2023, and an additional $1 trillion in the decade after that. But if we’re wrong, and Medicare costs rise faster than we expect, then this approach will give the independent commission the authority to make additional savings by further improving Medicare.

But let me be absolutely clear: I will preserve these health care programs as a promise we make to each other in this society. I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.

That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security. While Social Security is not the cause of our deficit, it faces real long-term challenges in a country that’s growing older. As I said in the State of the Union, both parties should work together now to strengthen Social Security for future generations. But we have to do it without putting at risk current retirees, or the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market. And it can be done.

The fourth step in our approach is to reduce spending in the tax code, so-called tax expenditures. In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

Beyond that, the tax code is also loaded up with spending on things like itemized deductions. And while I agree with the goals of many of these deductions, from homeownership to charitable giving, we can’t ignore the fact that they provide millionaires an average tax break of $75,000 but do nothing for the typical middle-class family that doesn’t itemize. So my budget calls for limiting itemized deductions for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans — a reform that would reduce the deficit by $320 billion over 10 years.

But to reduce the deficit, I believe we should go further. And that’s why I’m calling on Congress to reform our individual tax code so that it is fair and simple — so that the amount of taxes you pay isn’t determined by what kind of accountant you can afford.

I believe reform should protect the middle class, promote economic growth, and build on the fiscal commission’s model of reducing tax expenditures so that there’s enough savings to both lower rates and lower the deficit. And as I called for in the State of the Union, we should reform our corporate tax code as well, to make our businesses and our economy more competitive.

So this is my approach to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. It’s an approach that achieves about $2 trillion in spending cuts across the budget. It will lower our interest payments on the debt by $1 trillion. It calls for tax reform to cut about $1 trillion in tax expenditures — spending in the tax code. And it achieves these goals while protecting the middle class, protecting our commitment to seniors, and protecting our investments in the future.

Now, in the coming years, if the recovery speeds up and our economy grows faster than our current projections, we can make even greater progress than I’ve pledged here. But just to hold Washington — and to hold me — accountable and make sure that the debt burden continues to decline, my plan includes a debt failsafe. If, by 2014, our debt is not projected to fall as a share of the economy -– if we haven’t hit our targets, if Congress has failed to act -– then my plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code. That should be an incentive for us to act boldly now, instead of kicking our problems further down the road.

So this is our vision for America -– this is my vision for America — a vision where we live within our means while still investing in our future; where everyone makes sacrifices but no one bears all the burden; where we provide a basic measure of security for our citizens and we provide rising opportunity for our children.

There will be those who vigorously disagree with my approach. I can guarantee that as well. (Laughter.) Some will argue we should not even consider ever — ever — raising taxes, even if only on the wealthiest Americans. It’s just an article of faith to them. I say that at a time when the tax burden on the wealthy is at its lowest level in half a century, the most fortunate among us can afford to pay a little more. I don’t need another tax cut. Warren Buffett doesn’t need another tax cut. Not if we have to pay for it by making seniors pay more for Medicare. Or by cutting kids from Head Start. Or by taking away college scholarships that I wouldn’t be here without and that some of you would not be here without.

And here’s the thing: I believe that most wealthy Americans would agree with me. They want to give back to their country, a country that’s done so much for them. It’s just Washington hasn’t asked them to.

Others will say that we shouldn’t even talk about cutting spending until the economy is fully recovered. These are mostly folks in my party. I’m sympathetic to this view — which is one of the reasons I supported the payroll tax cuts we passed in December. It’s also why we have to use a scalpel and not a machete to reduce the deficit, so that we can keep making the investments that create jobs. But doing nothing on the deficit is just not an option. Our debt has grown so large that we could do real damage to the economy if we don’t begin a process now to get our fiscal house in order.

Finally, there are those who believe we shouldn’t make any reforms to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, out of fear that any talk of change to these programs will immediately usher in the sort of steps that the House Republicans have proposed. And I understand those fears. But I guarantee that if we don’t make any changes at all, we won’t be able to keep our commitment to a retiring generation that will live longer and will face higher health care costs than those who came before.

Indeed, to those in my own party, I say that if we truly believe in a progressive vision of our society, we have an obligation to prove that we can afford our commitments. If we believe the government can make a difference in people’s lives, we have the obligation to prove that it works -– by making government smarter, and leaner and more effective.

Of course, there are those who simply say there’s no way we can come together at all and agree on a solution to this challenge. They’ll say the politics of this city are just too broken; the choices are just too hard; the parties are just too far apart. And after a few years on this job, I have some sympathy for this view. (Laughter.)

But I also know that we’ve come together before and met big challenges. Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill came together to save Social Security for future generations. The first President Bush and a Democratic Congress came together to reduce the deficit. President Clinton and a Republican Congress battled each other ferociously, disagreed on just about everything, but they still found a way to balance the budget. And in the last few months, both parties have come together to pass historic tax relief and spending cuts.

And I know there are Republicans and Democrats in Congress who want to see a balanced approach to deficit reduction. And even those Republicans I disagree with most strongly I believe are sincere about wanting to do right by their country. We may disagree on our visions, but I truly believe they want to do the right thing.

So I believe we can, and must, come together again. This morning, I met with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to discuss the approach that I laid out today. And in early May, the Vice President will begin regular meetings with leaders in both parties with the aim of reaching a final agreement on a plan to reduce the deficit and get it done by the end of June.

I don’t expect the details in any final agreement to look exactly like the approach I laid out today. This a democracy; that’s not how things work. I’m eager to hear other ideas from all ends of the political spectrum. And though I’m sure the criticism of what I’ve said here today will be fierce in some quarters, and my critique of the House Republican approach has been strong, Americans deserve and will demand that we all make an effort to bridge our differences and find common ground.

This larger debate that we’re having — this larger debate about the size and the role of government — it has been with us since our founding days. And during moments of great challenge and change, like the one that we’re living through now, the debate gets sharper and it gets more vigorous. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. As a country that prizes both our individual freedom and our obligations to one another, this is one of the most important debates that we can have.

But no matter what we argue, no matter where we stand, we’ve always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can’t just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country that made these liberties possible. We have to think about our fellow citizens with whom we share a community. And we have to think about what’s required to preserve the American Dream for future generations.

This sense of responsibility — to each other and to our country — this isn’t a partisan feeling. It isn’t a Democratic or a Republican idea. It’s patriotism.

The other day I received a letter from a man in Florida. He started off by telling me he didn’t vote for me and he hasn’t always agreed with me. But even though he’s worried about our economy and the state of our politics — here’s what he said — he said, “I still believe. I believe in that great country that my grandfather told me about. I believe that somewhere lost in this quagmire of petty bickering on every news station, the ‘American Dream’ is still alive…We need to use our dollars here rebuilding, refurbishing and restoring all that our ancestors struggled to create and maintain… We as a people must do this together, no matter the color of the state one comes from or the side of the aisle one might sit on.”

“I still believe.” I still believe as well. And I know that if we can come together and uphold our responsibilities to one another and to this larger enterprise that is America, we will keep the dream of our founding alive — in our time; and we will pass it on to our children. We will pass on to our children a country that we believe in.

Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END

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