Obama Continues to Draw the Contrast

An Excerpt from the Transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: Now, our problems were a long time in the making –- we’re not going to solve them overnight. But there are things we can do right now to put people back to work -- right now. There are things we should do right now to give the economy the jolt that it needs. So that’s why I sent Congress the American Jobs Act. (Applause.) … Keep in mind -- keep in mind, Asheville, this is the kind of bill containing the kinds of proposals that in the past have received support from Democrats and Republicans. It’s completely paid for -- by asking our wealthiest citizens, folks making more than a million dollars a year, to pay their fair share. (Applause.) … 63 percent of Americans support the ideas in this jobs bill. (Applause.) So 63 percent of Americans support the jobs bill that I put forward; 100 percent of Republicans in the Senate voted against it. That doesn’t make any sense, does it?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE PRESIDENT: No, it does not. Now, it turns out that the Republicans have a plan, too. I want to be fair. They call -- they put forward this plan last week. They called it the “Real American Jobs Act.” The "real one" -- that’s what they called it -- just in case you were wondering. (Laughter.) So let’s take a look at what the Republican American jobs act looks like. It turns out the Republican plan boils down to a few basic ideas: They want to gut regulations; they want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: They want to drill more.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: And they want to repeal health care reform.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: That's their jobs plan. So let’s do a little comparison here. The Republican plan says that what’s been standing in the way between us and full employment are laws that keep companies from polluting as much as they want. On the other hand, our plan puts teachers, construction workers, firefighters and police officers back on the job. (Applause.) Their plan says the big problem we have is that we helped to get 30 million Americans health insurance. They figure we should throw those folks off the health insurance rolls; somehow that's going to help people find jobs.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: Our plan says we’re better off if every small business and worker in America gets a tax cut, and that's what’s in my jobs bill. (Applause.) Their plan says we should go back to the good old days before the financial crisis when Wall Street was writing its own rules. They want to roll back all the reforms that we’ve put into place.

AUDIENCE: No!

THE PRESIDENT: Our plan says we need to make it easier for small businesses to grow and hire and push this economy forward. (Applause.) All right, so you’ve gotten a sense -- you got their plan, and then we got my plan. My plan says we’re going to put teachers back in the classroom; construction workers back to work rebuilding America, rebuilding our schools -- (applause) -- tax cuts for small businesses; tax cuts for hiring veterans; tax cuts if you give your worker a raise. (Applause.) That's my plan. And then you got their plan, which is let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: Less people with health insurance.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: All right so, so far at least, I feel better about my plan. (Laughter and applause.) But let’s admit I’m a little biased. So remember those independent economists who said our plan would create jobs, maybe as many as almost 2 million jobs, grow the economy by as much as 2 percent? So one of the same economists that took a look at our plan took a look at the Republican plan, and they said, well, this won’t do much to help the economy in the short term -- it could actually cost us jobs. We could actually lose jobs with their plan. So I’ll let you decide which plan is the real American Jobs Act. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Obama's plan!

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Look, I appreciate the “four more years,” but right now I’m thinking about the next 13 months. (Applause.) Because, yes, we’ve got an election coming up, but that election is a long ways away, and a lot of folks can’t wait. A lot of folks are living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of folks are living week to week. You’ve got kids right now who’ve lost their teachers because at the local level you ended up having layoffs. You’ve got bridges right now that are crumbling and deteriorating. So we don’t have time to wait. And we’ve got a choice right now -- right now.