why? as i told you, because, because, also one other thing. years ago congress set up a thing called the pension benefit guarantee corporation. and thank god it did. let me tell you how that works. we've experienced companies going on just because they couldn't make it any more, big companies. people lost their pensions. people said, you can't do that. people working 30, 40, 50 years wiped out. so we set up this -- congress set up this corporation, independent corporation. here's what it does. all companies pay pennies on the hundred dollars into that pension, into that fund, that independent fund, so when one company goes under, that independent federal agency is able to help make up for the loss. and they say, okay, you lost your old pension. this outfit will come in and make up for that lost pension.

whole or in part. so it costs every company in the country when you let a company loaded with debt walk out with money and they lose their pensions. because everybody, every good, decent company, pays into this fund. so i love these guys when they say, government had nothing to do with anything. guys, there's a price. there's a price, a hidden price. you know that old thing, there's a hidden price in a lot of things. there's a hidden price. they made $12 million. but taxpayers and other healthy companies paid for the loss of all those jobs and the loss of those companies. and folks, look. we just look at this in different ways. as i said before, let me give you an example of how we looked at those circumstances where companies are really in trouble. a whole company is impacted by

it. tens of thousands of jobs implicated. and indirectly, in the case of the automobile industry, 1 million jobs. by the way, ford motor company quote didn't get bailed out? he said, and i believe he said publicly, if we hadn't rescued general motors and chrysler, ford would have gone under, been badly hurt. why? the supply chain would have dried up. so folks, we not only saved -- [ applause ] we not only saved the jobs on the line, but here's the deal. you know what we inherited. you remember. chrysler and gm are on the verge of not bankruptcy, on the verge of liquidation. 1 million good jobs at stake. good-paying jobs. the industry had already lost 400,000 jobs in the months before we took office. and it wasn't just the jobs on the line. it was the dealerships. it was the parts factories.

it was jobs along the supply chain. and that doesn't even count the lost jobs at the diner across the street that closes down when the assembly line closes down. the barbershop, the movie theater, the stores that get boarded up in small towns like yours and the one i lived in. all over the heartland. all over the heartland, communities are drying up. so the president stepped up. in spite of an awful lot of skepticism. even some of our own allies. even some of the folks in our own party weren't sure quote it was worth rescuing the industry, this iconic industry that millibuilt the middle class, helped build the middle class. governor romney also stepped up. he made it clear what he would do if he were president. he wrote an op ed in the "new york times" unlt the title "let detroit go bankrupt." here's what he said. if general motors and chrysler get the bailout their cheap

executives have asked for yesterday you can kiss the automobile industry good-bye. it won't happen overnight, he said, but "its demise will be virtually guaranteed." the underlying premise romney argues is, the government didn't have to do, private equity would come in, they'd lend the money to restructure, they'd lend them to do that, quote the market would help them, would quote help lift them out. well, ladies and gentlemen, i don't know any serious person at the time who thought that was going to happen. as the old expression goes, did you see wall street beating a path to the door of general motors or to chrysler? did you see governor romney's own company, bain capital, saying, we want to invest? let us get in on this deal? fortunately, barack, the president, did not take governor romney's advice. [ applause ]

[ cheers and applause ] fortunately, the president bet on american ingenuity and american productivity. recent report by the boston consulting group points out american workers are three times more productive than chinese workers and the most productive workers in the world. that's a fact. that's a fact. so the president made a bet on management willing to reorganize, because he had fate in what the workers would do if there was reorganization. the president was clear-minded about this. he didn't -- he doesn't fuzz things up. he knew, in order to turn the industry around, a lot of people were going to have to take some tough medicine. so he let those decisions be made by general motors management and chrysler.

so what happened? workers, management, bondholders, everybody got hit. he said, if you set it up right, we'll step in and help. and we did. and by the way, in the process, in the process my state used to be the second-highest per capita auto worker state america. we have no automobile industry left. we have no industry left. the cries chrysler plant, at one point over 5,000 people, general motors close to 6,000, all gone. the guys i grew up with, all gone. but guess what. i don't know anybody who has any serious doubts about the fact these companies wouldn't be around today if it weren't for the president's leadership. everybody -- [ applause ] in the president's sense of a distressed company, he says everybody's in on the deal. gm and chrysler had to make some tough decisions. they shed some dealerships. they closed plants. two in my own state.

auto workers lost their jobs, a heck of a lot of them. bondholders, bondholders, the so-called big guys, they lost money too. but everybody was in on the deal. everybody played by the same rules. rich guys didn't get treated more or differently than the poor guys. everybody. and in the process, as uncomfortable as it was, we stanched the bleeding. instead of shedding 400,000 jobs and losing another 1 million, we've added, since they've come out of reorganization, 200,000 new jobs and counting. and counting. chrysler -- [ applause ] chrysler is the fastest-growing automobilemaker in the nation and is adding dealerships as we speak. not closing dealerships. we talk about restructuring, the

president and i, giving everyone, everyone a fighting chance. giving everyone a fair deal. getting everyone on the same page. when governor romney talks about restructuring -- and we know this isn't painless. we're not out there saying we can rescue the economy, there's no pain. we inherited a god-awful situation. the worst recession in the history of america short of a depression. nobody's sugarcoating this. but look. there's a fundamental difference. when romney talks about restructuring the economy, it's fundamentally about making money for investors. even if workers in the middle class get wiped out. sometimes it works out that they don't get wiped out but that just is coincidental when that happens. because first and foremost, it's about making investors money. a return on their investment.

and usually a very large return on their investment. so there are two different philosophies that i see. governor romney seems to want it both ways now. kind of amazing. he's now saying -- he was in cleveland, ohio, a couple of weeks ago. hear what he said? i want to quote him. if i didn't quote him, i know you're cynical but you'd think i was making this up, okay? so i'm going to quote him. he said, quote, i'll take a lot of credit for the fact that the industry's come back. whoa. and by the way, i'll take a lot of credit for a man having landed on the moon. because look. the president and i are completely confident, completely confident, letting you judge who

brought the automobile industry back. how the president views restoring the economy and the example of the automobile industry. and how romney views restoring the economy and the example of how he worked as an investor are two cautionary tales. let you judge which economic philosophy's going to bring back the valley. which economic philosophy is going to bring back america. which economic philosophy is going to rebuild the middle class. and i might add, when the middle class does well, the poor have a chance and the rich do very, very well. as they should. no problem. no problem. look. i said it yesterday and i'll say it more calmly today.

i don't think these guys understand us. and i'm including us, because we come from the same kind of background. by the way, we weren't poor. i wasn't joe biden, hard-scrap bell kid coming out of the lines of scranton with a lunch bucket in my hand. i'm just a normal middle class kid with a father with a high school education and worked like hell. the thing that i resent, i have to tell you, is a lot of romney supporters say, we're engaging in class envy. wealth envy. like my mom and dad didn't dream that one of their kids could be a millionaire? like my mama didn't dream that one of their kids could be president? like my mom and dad didn't dream that one of their kids could invent the new new thing? what do they think we think? what do they think we think in our houses?

what do they think makes us tick? do you know anybody you grew up with, do you know anybody, friends of yours now in your neighborhood, that doesn't dream the biggest dreams in the world for their kids? do you know anybody who says, you know, i'll just be satisfied if my kid just gets the same house i had. i'll be satisfied if my kid -- we're like everybody else, man. we're like the rich guys. we dream. we have aspirations that go well beyond. the minimum we have a right to expect. the right to expect we can live in a safe neighborhood. that we can own a home and not rent the home. the right to expect we can send our kid to a good school where they can learn enough they can qualify to go to college, if they qualify we can help send

them to college. and if our parents are in trouble, we can maybe help our parents and hope that someday we won't have to ask our kids to help us. that's not our ceiling, that's our floor. that's not the end of our aspirations, that's what we demand. so i get tired of being called a middle class joe, like that somehow i'm just good old joe and i don't dream. come on, man. look. you're the ones that built this country. this valley built this country. folks like my folks and your folks built this country. and you're going to be the ones that keep building it. you're going to be the ones that make it strong. it's your community. a community and a time built one at a time, family at a time. because we know we give you a fighting chance. as i said before, you've never, never let the country down.

you've never let your families down. you've never let your community down. and we're going to insist that everyone get a fair shot and a fair shake and everyone's going to play by the same rules because that's the way this country is built and that's how we're going to build it again. god bless you all. and may god protect our troops. thank you. thank you.

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