against extending unemployment when need coaster of the senate was to say that we need to help those people that are unemployed. it has been 99 weeks of unemployment. is that not enough help? he aed common-sense questions. that was not an easy stance to take on that particular issue. i am here to tell you that we will not have a conservative majority in the house and the senate, i had to tell you, after the election. we will have new lawyers to fight the fight. even in 1994 when i was working with that group of wonderful people, very committed patriots, we knew we did not have a conservative majority. we had the republican majority. that is different. the people from maine and rhode island cannot get elected, they think, on the platform that people can -- i was going to say

colorado, but you have your challenges here -- nebraska. thtruth is we will have disappointments. we will have challenges. it is not one to be perfect any time soon. but we have to sp what is going on. will you not help me? [applause] thank you. >> >> yesterday, president obama spoke at an afl-cio event about jobs and the november elections. his remarks are next on c-span. coming up next hour, we will discuss implementation of the new health care bill and the role of the federal reserve. later in the day, religious leaders from the christian, jewish, and moslem faith will hold a news conference to talk about religious tolerance. live coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. eastern.

today, i look at u.s. policy toward iraq and we will hear from the national security adviser. live coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern. later in the day, a conversation on israel's modernization -- india's modernization and what it means for their neighbors. that starts at 3:30 eastern. follow the people and events that make history on line at the cspan video library. the transfer of a canal, the impeachment of president, the events of 9/11. watch what happened as it happened all free anytime, this is washington your way. next, a speech from president obama in milwaukee, wisconsin. he spoke at the annual community festival. the event is organized by the milwaukee area labor council of

the afl-cio. the president's remarks are about 40 minutes. >> hello, willkie. hello, of milwaukee. thank you. it is good to be back in milwaukee. it is good to be back. i am almost come. [applause]

i just hop onto 94 and i am home. [applause] i will take it all the way to the south side. it is good to to be here on such a beautiful day. happy labor day, everybody. [applause] i want to say thank-you to the milwaukee area labor council and all of my brothers and sisters in the afl-cio for inviting me to spend this day with you. [applause] a day that belongs to the working men and women of america. i want to acknowledge your

outstanding national president, a man who knows that a strong economy needs a strong labor movement, rich sumka. [applause] thank-you to the president of the wisconsin afl-cio, dave newbie. -lso the secretar treasurer. [applause] happy birthday, sheila. i am proud to be here with our secretary of labor, a daughter of union members, hilda solis and our secretary of transportation, great love

hooded is in the house. --ray lahood is in the house. given up for people who are at the forefront of every fight for wisconsin's working men and women, senator herb cole, congresswoman glenda moore. your outstanding major i believe soon-to-be outstanding the governor is in the house. [applause] i know you're other great senator russ feingold was here earlier standing with you and your families just like he always had. he is in his home town to participate in the labor day parade. it is good to be back. of course, this is not my first

time at labor fest. some of you remember i stood right here with you two years ago. i was still a candidate for this office. during that campaign we talked about how four years the values of hard work and responsibility that had built this country had been given short shrift and how it was slowly hollowing out are middle-class. everybody who has a chair, go ahead and sit down. relax, i will talk for a while. [applause] we've got a lot of hard-working people here. you deserve to sit down for a

day. you have been on your feet all your working hard. two years ago, we talked about some on wall street who were taking reckless risks, cutting corners, and turning huge profits while working americans were fighting harder and harder just to stay afloat. we talked about how the deck was stacked in favor of special interests and against the interests of working americans. and what we knew even then was that these years would be some of the most difficult in our history and then two weeks later, two weeks after spoke to you, the bottom fell out of the economy. middle-class families suddenly found themselves swept up in the worst recession of our lifetime. the problems facing working families, they are nothing new.

they are more serious than ever. that makes our cause more urgent than ever. for generations, it was the great american working-class, the great american middle class that made our economy the end of the world. it has to be that way again. [applause] milwaukee and folks like you built this city. it was folks like you that built this state. it was folks like you that forged that middle-class across the nation. it was working men and women who made the 20th century the american century. it was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, social

security, medicare, retirement plans, the cornerstone of the middle-class security all bear the union label. [applause] it was that the greatest generation that built america into the greatest force of prosperity and opportunity and freedom that the world has ever known. americans like my grandfather who went off to war just boys and return home as maen and then they traded in one uniform for another. americans like my grandmother who rolled up her sleeves and work in a factory on the home front and when the war was over, they studied under the gi built and bought a home under the fha

and raised families supported by good jobs that pay good wages with good benefits. it was through my grandparents' experience that i was brought up to believe that anything is possible in america. [applause] in milwaukee, they also knew the feeling when opportunity is pulled out from under you. they grew up during the depression. they tell me about seeing their fathers or their uncle's losing jobs, how it was not just loss of a paycheck that hurt so bad. it was the blow to their dignity. , their sense of self-worth. i bet the same people who have been changed after a long bout of unemployment, it can wear you down even if you have a strong spirit. if you are out of work for a

long time, it can wear you down. my grandparents taught me early on that a job is about more than just a paycheck. the paycheck is important but a job is about waking up every day with a sense of purpose and going to bed at night feeling like you have handled your responsibilities. [applause] it is about meeting your responsibilities to yourself and family and community. i carry that lesson with make all those years ago when i got my start fighting for men and women on the south side chicago editor local steel plant shutdown. i carry that lesson with mr. my time as a state senator, a u.s. senator. i carry that lesson with me today. [applause] folks here in this audience

folks right here in milwaukee and all acro america who are i know there are folks in this audience and across america who are going through these kind of struggles. 8 million americans lost their jobs and this recession. even though we have had eight straight months of private sector job growth, the new jobs have not been coming fast enough. here is the honest truth, the plain truth -- there is no silver bullet, there is no quick fix to these problems. i knew when i was running for office and i certainly knew by the time i was sworn in, i knew it would take time to reverse the damage of a decade-worth of policies that sought to few people being able to climb into the middle class, too many people falling behind. [applause]

we all knew this. we all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this whole created by this economic crisis. on this labor day, there are two things i want you to know. number one, i am going to keep fighting every single day, every single hour, every single minute to turn this economy are around and put people back to work and renew the american dream not just for your family, not just for all our families, but for future generations. that i can guarantee you. [applause]

#2, i believe this with every fiber of my being -- america cannot have a strong growing economy without a strong growing middle-class and the chance for everybody no matter how humble their beginnings to join that middle-class. [applause] and middle-class built on the idea that if you work hard, if you live up to your responsibilities, you can get ahead. you can enjoy some basic guarantees in life. a good job that pays a good wage, health care that will be there when you get sick. , a secure retirement even if you're not rich, and education that will give your children a better life than we had, these are simple ideas. these are american ideas.

these are union ideas. that is what we are fighting for. [applause] i was thinking about this last week. this was on the day i announced the end of our combat mission in iraq. [applause] i spent some time as i often do with our soldiers and veterans. this new generation of troops coming home from iraq, that have earned their place alongside the greatest generation. they have the skills, they have the training, they have the driver to move america's economy forward much more.

-- once more. we have been investing in new care and opportunities and a commitment to our veterans because we have to serve them the way they served us. [applause] but, milwaukee, they are coming home to was in an economy in recession and deeper than anything we have seen since the 1930's. how do we create the same kind of middle-class opportunities for this generation. generationdparents' camel to pare it had we build our economy on that same strong stable foundation for growt? h h? some people hope it will trickle down to working people who are running faster and faster just

to keep up. you will never see it. [applause] if that is what you are waiting for, you should stop waiting. it has never happened in our history. that is not how america was built for it was not built with a bunch of folks at the top doing well and everybody else scrambling parent we did not become the most popular country and -- powerful country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness. we did not come this far by letting the special interests run wild. we did not do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on wall street. we built this country by making things. , by producing goods we could sell parrot we did with sweat and effort and innovation. we did it on the assembly line and that the construction site. we did it by investing in the people who built this country

from the ground up, the workers, middle-class families, small-business owners, we are working folks and educated folks and we can compete with everybody else. that is how we built america. [applause] that is what we will do again. that has been at the heart of what we have been doing over these past 20 months, building our economy on a new foundation so that our middle-class does not just survive the crisis, i wanted to cry. i want to be stronger than before. over the last two years, that has meant taking and powerful interests. they have the dominating the agenda in washington for a very long time and they are not always happy with me. they talk about me like a dog. [applause]

that is not in my prepared remarks but it is true. [applause] that is why we passed financial reform, to provide new accountability and oversight of wall street. , stopping credit card companies from gouging you with high fees and rate hikes. they are not happy with it but it was the right thing to do. [applause] that is why we eliminated tens of billions of dollars in wasteful taxpayer subsidies, handouts to the big banks that were providing student loans. we took that money and we are going to make sure that your kids and grandkids can get

student loans and grants at a cheap rate and afford a college education. they're not happy with it, but it was the right thing to do. [applause] yes, we are using those settings to put a college education within reach for working families. that is why we passed health insurance reform, to make coverage affordable. [applause] reform that and the indignity of insurance companies jacking up there -- your prevent that well. --at will. if your child is sick, indeed an affordable insurance plan and we need to make sure they can't drop it. that is why we are making it easier for workers to save for retirement with new ways of saving your tax refunds, a

simpler system for enrolling in plants like 401k and fighting for social security for the future. if everybody is still talking about privatizing social security, they need to be clear that it will not happen on my watch. not when i am president of the [applause] united states] that is why -- we have given tax cuts except we give them to folks who need them are i. we've given them to small business owners. we give them to clean energy companies. we cut taxes for 95% of working americans like i promised you during the campaign. you all got a tax cut. [applause]

and instead of giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas, we are cutting taxes to companies that are putting our people to work. united states of america. [applause] we want to invest in growth industries like clean energy and manufacturing. we've got leaders. wisconsin they have been fighting to bring those jobs to milwaukee and bring those jobs to wisconsin. i don't want to see solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars made in china. [applause] i want them made right here in the united states of america. [applause]

i don't want to buy stuff from someplace else. i want to grow our exports so that we are selling to someplace else. it should say made in the u.s. saa. [applause] there are no better workers than american workers. [applause] i will put my money on you any day of the week. when that naysayers say that you cannot say the auto industry, led hundreds of thousands of jobs vanish, we said we will stand by those workers. if the management can make tough choices, if everybody is willing to come together, i am confident that the american auto industry can compete once again.

today, that industry is on the way back. they said no and we said yes to the american worker. they're coming back. [applause] let me tell you -- another think we did is to make long overdue investments in upgrading our outdated, and are inefficient national infrastructure. we are talking roads, bridges, dams, levees, we are also talking about a smart electric grid beckon bring clean energy to new areas for we are talking about broadbent internet so that everybody is plugged in. we are talking about a high- speed rail lines. they can compete in the 21st century economy.

i want to get down from milwaukee to chicago quick. i want to avoid the traffic jam. [applause] we are talking investments that are creating hundreds of thousands of private-sector jobs right now. because of these investments and the tens of thousands of projects that have spurred across the country, the battered construction sector actually grew last month for the first time in a very long time. [applause] the folks in the trades know what i am talking about -- nearly one in by construction workers are unemployed, one in five. no one has been hit harder than construction workers. many of those folks have lost their jobs in manufacturing and when it's the construction and went on unemployment again.

it does no good when so many hard-working americans have been idle for months or years. at a time when there is so much of america that needs rebuilding. that is why milwaukee today, i am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing america's roads and rails and runways for the long term. i want america to have the best infrastructure in the world. we used to have the best infrastructure in the world. we can have it again. we can't -- we will make it happen [applause] over the next six years, we are going to rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads. that is enough to circle the world six times. that is a lot of road. we will lay and maintain 4,000

miles of our railways, enough to stretch coast-to-coast. we will restart 150 miles of runways and we will advance the next generation of air traffic control system to reduce travel time. i think everybody can agree. does anybody want more delays at airports? i don't think so. we all want to get to where we need to go. i have got air force one now. it is nice. i still remember what it is like -- what it was like. [laughter] this is a plan that will be fully paid for.. it will not add to the deficit over time. we will work with congress to see to that. we want to set up an infrastructure bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on the

smartest investment. we will continue our strategy to build a national high-speed rail network that reduces congestion and travel time and reduces harmful emissions. we want to cut waste and bureaucracy and consolidate more than 150 programs that duplicate each other. we want to change the way washington spends your tax dollars. we want to reform a haphazard way of doing business. we want to focus on less wasteful approach is then we have now. we want competition and innovation that gives us the best bang for the buck. the bottom line is this milwaukee, this will not only create jobs immediately, it will also make our economy hum over the long haul. it is a plan that history tells us can and should attract bipartisan support it is a plan

that says even in the aftermath of the worst recession in our lifetime, america can still shape our own destiny. we can still move this country forward. we can still leave our children better and leave them something that lasts. [applause] these are the things we have been working for. these are some of the victories you guys have helped us achieve. we're not finished. we have a lot more progress to make i am confident we will. there are some folks in washington who see things differently. you know what i am talking about. when it comes to just about everything we have done to strengthen our were middle-class and rebuild our economy, almost every republican in congress says no.

even on things we usually agree on, they say no. if i said at the sky was blue, they say no. if i said fish live in the city [laughter] they with -- if i said fish live in the sea, they say no. they just think it is better to score political points before an election. than to solve problems. they said no to help for small businesses even when the small businesses said they needed. that is to be their key constituency and they said no. they said no to a middle-class tax cuts sprea. they said no to clean energy jobs. they said no to making college more affordable. they said no to reforming wall street.

they are saying right now, no to cutting more taxes for small business owners and helping them get financing. somebody out here was yelling yes, we can. that was our slogan. their slogan is no, we can't very [laughter] [applause] no ,no, no. [chanting - yes, we can] i personally think that yes we can is more inspiring than know, we can't. to steal a line from our friend ted kennedy, what is it about working men and women that they find so offensive [laughter]

where we passed a bill earlier this summer to help states to save jobs, the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and nurses and police officers and firefighters that were about to be laid off, they said no. [applause] and the republican who thinks he will take over as speaker [laughter] i am just saying that his opinion, he is entitled to his opinion. when he was asked about this, he dismissed those jobs as government jobs that were not worth saving. that is what he said. government jobs. think about this. these are the people who teach our children. these are the people who keep our streets safe.

these are the people who put their lives on the line, who rushed into a burning building. government jobs? i don't know about you but i think those jobs are worth saving parian [applause] i think those jobs are worth saving. [applause] by the way, this bill we passed to save all those jobs, we make sure that bill would not add to the deficit. in a how we paid for it? by closing one of these ridiculous tax loopholes that rewarded corporations for shipping jobs and profits overseas. [applause] this was one of those loopholes

that allow companies to write off taxes they paid to foreign governments even though there were not paying taxes here in the united states. middle-class families were putting tax breaks for companies creating jobs somewhere else. even mandate of america's biggest corporations agreed that this loophole did not make sense. they agreed to a need to be closed. they agreed it was not fair. the manager thinks he will be speaker, he wants to reopen this loophole pare. the bottom line is this -- these guys don't want to give up on the economic philosophy that they have been peddling for most of the last decade. you know that philosophy. you cut taxes for millionaires

and billionaires, you cut all the rules and regulations for special interests, and then you just cut working folks loose. you cut them loose to fend for themselves. they called the ownerships aside. what it really boils down to is if you could not find a job, you could not afford college, you were born poor, your insurance company dropped you even though your kid was sick, you were on your own you know what? that philosophy did not work out so well middle-class families all across america. it did not work out so well for our country. all it did was racked up record deficits and result in the worst economic crisis since the great depression. we have tried what they are peddling. we did it for 10 years. we ended up with the worst economy since the 1930's and a record deficit to boot.

[applause] does not like we have not tried what they are trying to sell us. i am bringing this up because i do not want to relive the past. [applause] it would be one thing if republicans in washington had new ideas. if they said they screwed up and they learn from their mistakes and they will do things differently this time. that is not what they are doing. when the leader of their campaign committee was asked on national television what republicans would do if they took over congress, he said we will do exactly the same thing we did the last time. that is what he said. that is on tape. [applause] basically, this is what the

election comes down to. they are betting between now and november you will come down with amnesia. [laughter] they figure you will forget what their agenda did to the. contra -- with their agenda did to this country. these are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middleclass. they drove our economy into a ditch. we got in there and put on our boats and we pushed and we shoved and we were sweating. these guys were standing and watching us and sipping on a rpee.ui [laughter] when we finally gotcar up and it has a few dents and dings, they point their finger and say look with these guys did to your

car. after we got it out of the ditch and they have the nerve to ask for the keys back a [laughter] i don't want to give them the keys back. they don't know how to drive. [applause] i want everybody to think about this. when you want to go forward in your car, a you put it in:"d". they will pop it in reverse. they have special interests riding shotgun and they get the gas and we would be right back in the ditch. [laughter] milwaukee, we are not going backwards. that is the choice we face this fall.

do we want to go back or do we want to go for? i say we want to move forward. america always moves forward. we keep moving forward every day. [applause] let me say this, milwaukee -- i know these are difficult times. i know folks are worried. i know there is still a lot of hurt out there. i hear it when i travel around the country. i see it in the letters i read every night from folks who are looking for a job, lost their home, it breaks my heart. those are folks that i got into politics for. you are the reason i am here. [applause]

and when times are tough, i know it can be easy to get into cynicism. it can be easy to get into fear and doubt. it is easy sometimes for folks to stir things up and turn people on each other. it is easy to settle for something less, to set our sights a little bit lower. i want everybody to remember that is not who we are. that is not the country i know. we do not give up. we do not quit. we face down war. we face down depression. we face down great challenges. we have lived the way for the rest of the world. whenever times have seemed at their worst, americans have the.

at their best. that is when we roll up our sleeves. that is when we remember we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people. that is the spirit that started the labor movement, the idea that all law and we may be weak, divided we may fall, but we are united, we are strong. that is why we call them unions. that is why we call this the united states of america. i will make this case across the country from now until november and i am asking for your help. if you want to join me and the rest of your representatives, we can make this economy work for all americans again and restore the american dream and give it to our children and our grandchildren. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. [applause] ♪

>> the c-span networks, provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history. all available on television, radio, on line, and social media networking sites. find our content any time through the video library. and we take c-span on the road with our digital bus local content vehicle. it is washington your way, the c-span networks, now available and more than 100 million homes. >> "washington journal" is next. we will look at the day's news and take calls. later today, religious leaders from the christian, jewish, and muslim faith will discuss the country's reaction to the islamic cultural center near ground zero.

after that, vice president biden's national security adviser talks about u.s. iraq policy. and a discussion on india's military expansion. coming up this hour, a discussion on changes in the nation's health-care system. michael lillis is our guest. and then george melloan will talk about the economy, consumer confidence in r