The comments came during a rally at Cornell College here, his first public appearance following the second presidential debate Tuesday night in New York.
Century Fox Exclusive: Obama-Romney second round of Debate, as it happened.
What follows are Obama’s comments in all three areas: his vision, his view of Romney’s proposals, and the accomplishments he’s had in office.
OBAMA’S VISION: MIDDLE CLASS
“You cannot grow this economy from the top down. You grow this economy from the middle class out.”
OUTSOURCE FEWER JOBS
“I’ve got a plan to grow the economy, to create jobs and build more security for middle class families. I talked about it last night. I want to export more products, outsource fewer jobs. We can give tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas or we can give those tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Iowa, right here in the United States of America.”
ENERGY
“I want to control more of our own energy.”
“We have doubled the amount of renewable energy that we generate from wind and solar and biofuels.”
“Today the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last two decades.
“The question is whether we build on the progress for the new energy sources for the future.”
“I’m not going to keep on giving corporate taxpayer-funded welfare to oil companies, $4 billion a year, when we can be using that money to continue to promote wind and solar.”
EDUCATION
“I want to give more Americans a chance to get a great education and get the skills they need to compete for the 21st century. I tried to talk about education last night. We kept on getting waylaid.”
“We could gut education to pay for Gov. Romney’s $5 trillion tax cut or we could recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers over the next decade.”
INFRASTRUCTURE REBUILDING
“The 4th part of the plan is use some of the money saving from ending wars in Iraq and winding down war in Afghanistan to pay down our deficit, put people back to work, including our veterans, rebuilding roads and bridges all across America.”
DEFICIT REDUCTION
“Finally, I want to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years and I’ve worked with Republicans and Democrats already to cut a trillion dollars worth of spending. I’m ready to cut more spending that is not contributing to our growth. But we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. We’ve got to make investments in science, research and infrastructure.”
CRITIQUING ROMNEY:
ROMNEY HAS ONLY A ONE-POINT PLAN.
“As I pointed out last night, as you guys heard for yourself, it’s really a one-point plan. It says folks at the very top play by their own set of rules. That’s why they can pay lower taxes than you. Or they can use off-shore accounts. Or they can invest in a company, bankrupt it, fire the workers, take away the pensions, ship the jobs overseas and still make money doing it. It’s the one point that says it’s OK for Wall Street to keep engaging in the reckless behavior that got us into the mess we’ve been fighting back from for the last four years. … It’s the same philosophy that we saw in the previous administration and I have seen too much pain and too much struggle to let this country go down that same road again.”
ROMNEY WANTS A TAX CUT THAT FAVORS THE WEALTHY.
Romney “tried to sell us his $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy. Once again he refused to tell you how he’s going to pay for it. He said he’d let you know after the election. Now, here’s a tip . Usually when a politician tells you he’s going to wait until after the election to explain the plan to you, they don’t have a pleasant surprise in store for you,” he said to laughs.
Just about everybody who’s looked at the $5 trillion tax cut has said it would either blow a hole in the deficit or raise taxes on middle class families, he said. “It can’t be done.”
ROMNEY’S JOBS PLAN DOESN’T ADD UP.
“So let’s recap what we learned last night. His tax plan doesn’t add up. His jobs plan doesn’t create jobs. His deficit reduction plan adds to the deficit. So Iowa, you know, everybody here’s heard of the New Deal. You’ve heard of the Fair Deal. You’ve heard of the square deal. Mitt Romney’s trying to sell you a sketchy deal. We’ve tried that. We’re not going back. We’re moving forward. That’s why I need your vote.”
ROMNEY ON EDUCATION
“Gov. Romney says hiring more teachers won’t grow our economy over four year. But you know what? Yes it will.”
ROMNEY ON WOMEN’S ISSUES
“When Gov. Romney was asked about it, his campaign said we’ll get back to you. That shouldn’t be a complicated question. Equal pay for equal work. I want my daughters paid just like somebody’s else’s sons are paid for the same job.”
Obama also said of Romney’s stance on women’s issues, “Gov. Romney didn’t want to talk last night about how he wants to end funding for Planned Parenthood, how he supports turning over certain decisions about women’s health care to their employers.”
“I don’t think your boss should control the health care that you get. I don’t think insurers should control the health care you get. And I certainly don’t think politicians should control the health care that you get.”
ROMNEY ON TAXES AND SPENDING
“Gov. Romney was asked, is it fair that he pays a lower tax rate than a teacher who makes $50,000 and he said, yeah, I think it’s fair, I think that’s how you grow an economy. He’s wrong.”
“I’m not going to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their kids or sending their kids to college just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut.”
“I’m not going to ask the students here to pay more for college so I have more money in my pocket. I don’t need it. I’m not going to kick children out of Head Start programs or eliminate health care for millions of Americans who are poor or elderly and disabled.”
All Romney has offered to reduce the deficit, Obama said, is eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, getting “rid of Big Bird” and ending production tax credits for wind energy.
“It adds up to less one 100th of 1 percent of the federal budget – now that was an estimate, by the way. I was doing that off the top of my head.”
ROMNEY ON IMMIGRANTS AND GAYS
“We have heard this pitch before. You know where we heard it? In the previous administration. We know it doesn’t work. We know what we’re talking about does create jobs. And now the change is up to you.”
“You can choose to turn back the clock 50 years for women and for immigrants and for gays and for lesbians or you can stand up and say we want to move forward.”
OBAMA TOUTS FIRST-TERM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Ended the war in Iraq
- Killed Osama bin Laden
- Cut taxes for middle class families by $3,600
- Cut taxes for small business owners 18 times
- Passed a law to make sure taxpayer-funded bailouts are over for good
- Passed Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier to bring pay-discrimination lawsuits
- Passed health-care reform
- Repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell”
- Reinvented the dying auto industry
- Cut out middlemen in the student loan industry
- After losing 800,000 jobs a month at start of term, businesses have now added more than 5 million new jobs
- Stock market has nearly doubled
- Foreclosures are at the lowest point in five years
- Home values rising again after market crash
- Increased domestic manufacturing
- Executive order protecting illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
