Obama Reminds a Huge Crowd in Hollywood Florida What Real Change Looks Like

The Obama campaign estimates that the President spoke to 23,000 supporters in Hollywood, Florida today about the change we need, saying, “(W)e’ve also got to ask the wealthiest Americans to go back to the tax rates they paid when Bill Clinton was president.”

Watch the President’s speech at McArthur High School Football Field here:

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TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS

Change is turning the page on a decade of war so we can do some nation-building here at home. As long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will pursue our enemies with the strongest military the world has ever known. But it’s time to use the savings from ending the wars to pay down our debt and rebuild America – rebuilding roads and bridges and making sure our schools are state of the art. And hiring our veterans when they come home because if you fought for this country, you shouldn’t have to fight for a job when you come home. That’s my plan to keep America strong. That’s what’s at stake in this election.

Change is a future where we reduce our deficit in a way that’s balanced and responsible. I’ve cut a trillion dollars’ worth of spending. I intend to do more but if we’re serious about reducing the deficit, we’ve also got to ask the wealthiest Americans to go back to the tax rates they paid when Bill Clinton was president. Because budgets are about choices. We can’t do everything and we gotta make sure that what we do we pay for. And I’m not going to turn Medicare into a voucher just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut. I’m not going to ask young people to pay more for college, just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut.

So Florida, we know what change is. We know what the future requires and we know it’s not going to be easy.

END TRANSCRIPT

The change the President is talking about is change for the people, versus change back to the Bush policies for the rich owners of corporations, which is Romney’s version of “change”.

Change is often just a campaign slogan a challenger uses to fight an incumbent, but under Obama we saw discernible change from ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to attempts to make our tax code more fair to winding down the war in Afghanistan and ending the war in Iraq (Bush was already planning on the drawdown in Iraq, but Afghanistan under a Republican would be fair game for never-ending war). Obama gave us the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court. He invested in clean energy and overhauled the credit card industry. He created The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and worked tirelessly for our veterans. Obama put 4.6 billion into the VA to pay for more mental health professionals. He provided travel expenses to families meeting fallen warriors at Dover AFB.

Obama passed healthcare reform and put an end to pre-existing conditions being a death sentence for those without insurance. He forced insurance companies to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care. He invested 18 billion in scientific research and development and updated our infrastructure. He signed an executive order to close Gitmo (that was roundly obstructed by Congress, which refused to fund the closure and transfer of prisoners). Obama increased funding to our national parks by 10%. Obama gave us voluntary disclosure of visitors to the White House for the first time in history. There’s a lot more that he’s accomplished, but the point of including some of it here is to demonstrate the kind of change it is.

Change for the people — that’s the kind of change Obama is explaining. It’s what he represents, especially in this race as he stands in stark contrast with the poster boy for the top 1%.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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