President Obama: 2012 is ‘Make-or-Break Moment for the Middle Class’
Speaking today to a convention of news editors, President Obama laid out in the clearest possible terms the two competing visions for America’s future and the choice the country faces over the next few months:
I believe this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and I can’t remember a time when the choice between competing visions of our future has been so unambiguously clear.
The president, in stark and unambiguous terms, attacked the extreme Republican budget passed by the House of Representatives last week:
This Congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan Horse. Disguised as deficit reduction plan, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly-veiled Social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who’s willing to work for it — a place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class. And by gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that’s built to last — education and training; research and development; our infrastructure — it is a prescription for decline.
The president also took the opportunity to drive home one of the central elements of the GOP’s disastrous budget plan — that it “ends Medicare as we know it”:
Instead of being enrolled in Medicare when they turn 65, seniors to retire a decade from now would get a voucher…The net result is our country will end up spending more on health care and the only reason the government will save any money is at — is because we have shifted it to seniors. They will bear more of the costs themselves. It is a bad idea. It will ultimately end Medicare as we know it.
The president added that the Republican budget — and the conservative vision for the future — is now “so far to the right it makes the Contract with America look like the New Deal.”
The president’s entire speech is a must read (which you can do here) or watch (which you can do here).
IN TWO SENTENCES: The conservative vision for the future leaves everyone on their own and doubles down on the failed conservative policies that caused the economy to collapse, income inequality to reach record levels, and jobs and middle class incomes to decline. The progressive vision for the future is one where we’re all in it together, where we invest in a strong middle class, and where the economy works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
A District Court judge has ordered the military to release information on sexual violence.
There is no voter fraud in South Carolina. So why is their Attorney General insisting there could be?
Implementing Obamacare would put a serious dent in the debt. Repealing it would make it explode.
Some colleges are withholding transcripts from students who are in loan default.
Denver illustrates why privatizing infrastructure doesn’t work.
Why does Hollywood treat teenagers like they’re stupid?
Mitt Romney ripped the Chevy Volt just as General Motors announced surging sales of energy-efficient vehicles.
The New York Times uncovers even more hypocrisy in Romney’s attacks on President Obama over high gas prices — namely that Romney once sung the virtues of rising prices.
ThinkProgress launched a new Election 2012 blog today. Be on the lookout for even more hard-hitting news and analysis as the election heats up.