Watch: Obama Mocks GOP Worldview With Some Good Old-Fashioned Honest Talk
President Barack Obama, fresh on the heels of yesterday’s historic 7.1 million enrollees win for Obamacare, took to what felt like the campaign trail today to push for a hike to the minimum wage. Speaking to a packed audience of mostly students at the University of Michigan, the President talked for over 40 minutes about his health care plan, wages, and towards the end summed up what he described as the “world view” of the Republican Party.
Giving the Republicans “credit,” the President said, “they do have one original idea, which is to repeal Obamacare — because they haven’t tried that 50 times. Fifty times they’ve tried to do that. So that means they would take away health coverage not only for more than 7 million Americans who’ve done the responsible thing, signed up, bought health care for themselves and their families, but for the 3 million young adults who’ve been able to stay on their parents’ plan under this law. What I just told you about being able to stay on your parent’s plan — the Republicans don’t like that.”
“And their budget guts the rules we put in place to protect middle-class families from another financial crisis like the one that we’ve endured. So if this all sounds familiar, it should be familiar because it was their economic plan in the 2012 campaign, it was their economic plan in 2010. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day — except it’s not funny. If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman’s, they’d have to call it the Stinkburger, or the Meanwich.
“Look, here’s the truth. They’re not necessarily cold-hearted, they just sincerely believe that if we give more tax breaks to a fortunate few and we invest less in the middle class, and we reduce or eliminate the safety net for the poor and the sick, and we cut food stamps, and we cut Medicaid, and we let banks and polluters and credit card companies and insurers do only what’s best for their bottom line without the responsibility to the rest of us, then somehow the economy will boom, and jobs and prosperity will trickle down to everybody.
“And when I say it that way, I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating — except I’m not. This is their theory. They’re pretty unabashed about it. And it’s not a new theory. They’ve held it for decades, through good times and bad. They were making the same argument against FDR when he was setting up Social Security.
“And, look, it does create opportunity for a handful of people who are already doing really, really well. But we believe in opportunity for everybody. More good jobs for everybody. More workers to fill those jobs. A world-class education for everybody. Hard work that pays off with wages you can live on and savings you can retire on and health care you can count on. That’s what “opportunity for all†means. That’s what it means.”
Watch:
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Here’s the entire video, which is actually excellent:
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Transcript via the White House
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