'We've made a lot of progress, but have got more work to do'

Let me just begin by saying to Jay and Bey, thank you so much for your friendship. We are so grateful. Michelle and Malia and Sasha are mad at me because they are not here. (laughter) That doesn’t usually happen. Usually they’re like, we’re glad you’re going — we don’t need to go. But, every time they get a chance to see these two they are thrilled, partly because they are just both so generous, particularly to my kids. And Malia and Sasha just love both of them.

Beyoncé couldn’t be a better role model for our daughters because she carries herself with such class and poise — (applause) — and has so much talent. And Jay-Z now knows what my life is like. (laughter) We both have daughters, and our wives are more popular than we are. (laughter and applause) So, we’ve got a little bond there. (laughter) It’s hard, but it’s okay. It’s okay. (laughter)

Forty-nine days until this election. I think everybody recognises that America has all the ingredients we need for success. We’ve got the best workers in the world. We’ve got the best businesses in the world. We’ve got the most entrepreneurial culture in the world. We’ve got the best universities and scientists and researchers. We’ve got this incredible diversity of talent and innovation and ingenuity, which makes us the envy of the world. People come here from every corner of the globe because of that central idea at the heart of America, which says no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your last name is, no matter who you love, here in America you can make it if you work hard, if you try. (applause) All right, that’s what inspires so many people, not just in this country but around the world.

But, what we also recognise is that that basic bargain has been eroding over the course of a decade. There are a lot of people who have been out there working really hard, and yet their paychecks haven’t kept up with the costs of everything from gas to groceries to sending a kid to college. There are a lot of folks out there who take responsibility for their lives and their families and their communities and their neighbourhoods, and yet it seems as if security is always a little bit out of reach.

We’ve seen an economy over the last decade where jobs were being shipped overseas; an economy that was loaded up with debt; an economy where there was a lot of irresponsibility on the part of folks who should have known better. And, it all culminated in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

And, it was in that context that I was sworn into office almost four years ago, at a time when the banking system was melting down, at a time when — the month I was sworn in, we lost 800,000 jobs, the worst crisis since the Great Depression. And, we have worked tirelessly over the last four years to start turning that around, and we have made progress.

So the last 30 months, we’ve seen the private sector create jobs every single month — 4.5 million jobs altogether. We’ve seen manufacturing start coming back. (applause) An auto industry that was on the brink of liquidation has come roaring back, so that now GM is once again on the top of the world and Chrysler is selling more cars than they’ve seen in a very, very long time. (applause) We’ve been able to make sure that small businesses survived and got help through the small business administration.

But, what we tried to do was not just get back to where we were before the crisis. We tried to start addressing some of those issues that had been lingering for too long. That’s what health care — in a country like ours, we shouldn’t have millions of people who are at risk of going bankrupt just because somebody in their family got sick. And, that’s why, we passed a health care reform law that will provide millions of families the kind of security they need and also make sure that we’re starting to bring down health care costs, so that we can afford it.

That’s the reason why we made sure that we changed our student loan system and our Pell Grant system, so that young people have a chance to go to college even if they weren’t born rich, that we understand if we make an investment in young people and they succeed, then all of us are going to be better off. (applause)

It’s the reason why we’ve invested in alternative energy, to make sure that instead of just relying on foreign oil, we’re starting to build windmills and solar panels and putting people back to work here all across the country — and in the process also helping our national security and doing something about climate change.

It’s the reason why we ended a policy like “don’t ask, don’t tell” that somehow prevented outstanding people in our services to serve the country they love just because of who they love. It’s the reason that we ended the war in Iraq and we’re bringing the war in Afghanistan to a close. (applause)

So, we’ve made a lot of progress, but we’ve got so much more work to do. And the other side, they’ve got a different vision. You saw it at their convention. And, their basic theory is that if you give tax cuts to folks at the very top, people like us who have been incredibly blessed and fortunate and, frankly, don’t need a tax cut, that somehow the country is going to be better off.

We remember some of our parents or grandparents who came here as immigrants and got a little bit of help along the way to go to that school or be able to start that first business. We understand that — as Michelle said as well as anybody could — those of us who have been blessed with success and been able to walk through those doors of opportunity, we don’t slam the door behind us. We prop it open. We make it easier for those who follow to succeed as well.

And by doing that, our success is that much better. It’s that much more stable and more secure, because when the whole country does well, everybody does well. When the middle class does well, and when teachers and firefighters and construction workers and receptionists and waiters and the folks who are cleaning up these big office buildings in Manhattan, if they’re getting a decent wage and they’re able to provide their kids a good education, the whole economy booms. That’s been our history. That’s who we are. And that’s what’s at stake in this election.

Excerpts from a speech by US President Barack Obama at the 40/40 Club, New York, at a fund-raising event hosted by hip-hop music’s power couple, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, on September 18