a middle class moment for make or break defined by Obama

President Obama on Tuesday traveled to Osawatomie, Kansas to call for an economic agenda based on shared sacrifice. He said: "This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class," Mr. Obama said from Osawatomie High School. "At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement."

"I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules," he said. "Those aren't Democratic or Republican values; these aren't 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They're American values, and we have to reclaim them."

Obama chose to promote broad economic ideas, such as investing in science and research, promoting education and encouraging domestic manufacturing. The president said, "some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress.. He said "Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. Well, I'm here to say they are wrong,"  He noted that "Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can."

a middle class moment for make or break defined by Obama

 

"We simply cannot return to this brand of your-on-your-own economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country," he said. "It doesn't result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that's enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens."

In the last few decades, the average income of the top one percent has gone up by more than 250 percent, he said, while over the last decade, the incomes of most Americans have fallen by about six percent. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her workers now earns 110 times more. Income inequality hurts the nation economically, Mr. Obama argued, and it also "runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder."

Citing both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement, Mr. Obama called the restoration of the middle class "the defining issue of our time."

While Obama’s 55 minute-long speech lacked new ideas for righting the U.S. economy, the president used the opportunity to turn up the heat on Republicans for failing to pass a payroll tax cut extension. Obama warned that if Congress fails to extend the tax cut, set to expire at the end of this month, 160 million American will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,000.

“We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to make the investments we need in things like education, and research, and high-tech manufacturing? Or do we want to keep in place the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can’t afford to do both. That’s not politics. That’s just math,” he said.

The speech meant to echo a historic address given by the former US president Theodore Roosevelt in the same Kansas town more than 100 years ago, Obama railed against "gaping" economic inequality and pressed the case for policies he insisted would help ordinary Americans get through hard times. Roosevelt made a similar pitch in Osawatomie, calling for a "New Nationalism."

Sources:
CBS News
content.usatoday
guardian.co.uk
ABC News
Barack Obama.com
The Washington Post
Los Angeles Times