Transcript
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: The truth is, most Americans aren't asking for a lot. They don't need overseas tax shelters, they don't need a long list of loopholes. All they want is a fair shake, and they could stand a break because most Americans have simple dreams: a job, a place to raise their families, a secure retirement, a chance to create opportunities for their kids that might extend a little further than their own. After all, the wealth of the nation is rooted in the work of our people.
In his first State of the Union message to Congress, Abraham Lincoln laid out a core principle; capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. It is a simple proposition that the wealth we earn comes from the work that we do. It is a proposition that has lived day in and day out in the homes of millions of working Americans, the steady pursuit of simple dreams. The American economy is the tally of all those dreams.
Now at a time of rising costs and rising uncertainty, it is time for policies from Washington to put a little wind at the backs of the American people. Now is the time for us to come together as a nation behind a new compact for the 21st century, one that gives the American people a lift so that they can lift up this country anew.
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