truck as they drove down the steep terraced terrain attempting to destroy the enemy attack and locate the trapped u.s. team. disregarding intense enemy fire, now concentrated on their loan vehicle, corporal meyer kill the enemy fighters with mounted machine guns, some near point blank range, as he and his driver made three trips into the ambushed area. during the first two trips, he and his driver evacuate two dozen afghan soldiers, many of them wounded. when one machine gun became inoperable, he directed to return to the rally point and switched to another gun truck for a third trip into the ambushed area, or is accurate fired directly supported the remaining u.s. personnel and afghan soldiers fighting their way out of the ambush. despite the trap door into his arm, he made two more trips in a third country, accompanied by four afghan vehicles to recover more wooded afghan soldiers and search for the wooded americans.

he located the bodies of this team members. his daring initiative and old fighting spirit through the six hour battle significant a disrupted the enemies of the tax and inspired the members of the command forced to fight on. his unwavering courage and steadfast devotion to his u.s. and afghan comrades in the face of almost certain death reflect a great credit upon himself and uphold the highest tradition of the marine corps and the united states naval service. [applause]

>> let us close in prayer. god, made this armani serve as a reminder of the responsibility that comes with -- made this ceremony served as a reminder of the responsibility that comes with grace and freedom. as we return, we pray that you would enable us that when called upon that we will recall the resolute fearlessness of

sergeant dakota meyer and all of those who wear the stars of valor, and live up to our responsibilities. it is in your holy name we pray. amen. >> thank you for joining us today. we are grateful for all of our men and women in uniform, and i hope that all of you have not only been inspired by the ceremony but also will enjoy the hospitality of the white house. i hear the food is pretty good. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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♪ >> on wednesday evening, president obama gave the keynote address at the congressional hispanic caucus dinner in washington, d.c. the president is introduced by the caucus chairman, charles gonzales. this is 30 minutes. ♪

[cheers and applause] >> hello, everybody! buenos noches! thank you so much. please, have a seat. i want to thank congressman gonzales, senator menendez for your outstanding leadership. i want to thank the hispanic

caucus institute for inviting us here this evening. it is wonderful to be back with all of you to help kick off heritage month. i want to acknowledge a few people who are here with us tonight. we are honored to be joined by princess christina of spain. [applause] we are honored to be joined by our first latina supreme court justice, sonya sotomayor. [applause] i want to recognize the house minority leader nancy pelosi. [applause] our great friend and champion, as well as welcome ken salazar for their awards tonight and

outstanding work. i also want to give a special shout-out to my friend, ray. the program director here. not many people can give the president of united states stitches in his lip and get away with it. ray is in unique company. i sent him a photograph of the moment, as he was throwing his elbow at me, and he said, he is the only person ever did that to and the secret service did not arrest, and i hear that he is tough off the basketball court, too. i want to thank all of the members of the hispanic caucus, and i apologize for them, because they spent last week

listening to me talked, so you probably thought you could escape by coming to this dinner, but i am here because we are a critical time for our country. the fight we are having right now, the fight to put more americans back to work, to make our country stronger and the long run, to prove we can get something done here in washington, this fight could not be more important for the people in this room, the latino community, and the millions of americans who need us. i don't have to tell you, these are tough times. you know how hard the recession has hit families, especially latino families, and you know the sacrifices folks are making every single day just to pay the mortgage or fill up their car, keep the lights on, keep kids in school. these are the families in los angeles, san antonio, and miami, but they are also in decatur and des moines.

as i said last year, the problems and latino communities are problems for the entire american community. our future is tied. it to how well latin community does. the reverse is also true, what our country is hurting, everybody feels the pain. right now, most americans -- black, white, latino, asian american -- they aren't working hard to meet their responsibilities. all they want -- they are working hard to meet their responsibilities. all they want in return is for those to pay off. they want us to do our part to make their lives easier, to create opportunities. that is why last week i asked congress a simple question. in the face of a national emergency, can we finally put a

stop to the political circus actually do something to help the economy? [applause] can we restore some of the fairness and security that has defined this nation since our founders? i believe we can and must. that is why on monday i sent the american jobs act to congress and ask them to pass it right away. [applause] the proposals in this legislation have in the past been supported by democrats and republicans. and all that will be paid for. and the idea is simple -- to put more people back to work and put more money into the pockets for those who are working. it will create more jobs for construction workers and teachers and veterans and the long-term unemployed.

will help restore confidence in our country so businesses will hire. passing the jobs bill will put people to work repairing our decaying roads and bridges and modernize 35,000 schools by fixing roofs and insulating windows and installing science labs and high-speed internet and getting our kids out of trailers, especially in the latino communities where our children, the population is growing the fastest. at a time when countries like china are building a high-speed rail lines, we have over a million unemployed construction workers, many of them latino, who could be doing the same thing right here in the united states. that is not right. it is time for us to fix it. that is why congress should pass this bill right away. [applause]

passing this jobs bill will put thousands of teachers from every state back to work helping our kids compete with their peers around the world. at a time when teachers are being hired in countries like south korea, we cannot be laying them off in san diego or philadelphia, not when our children's future is at stake. let's put teachers back in the classroom where they belong. [applause] passing the jobs bill will cut taxes for small businesses, including 250,000 latino businesses and will give companies a tax credit if they hire american veterans. if you risk your life serving the country, you should not have to worry about finding a job when you get home. this is our chance to make it right. [applause] passing the jobs bills will give hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people a summer job next year. that is why congress to pass

the bill right now. passing the jobs bill will give companies up to $4,000 tax credit if they hire someone who has been looking for a job for over six months. it will take the people to collect unemployment insurance and give them temporary work as a way to build up their skills. this plan will extend unemployment insurance for a nother year and that benefits over 1 million latinos and their families. it would be a huge blow to our economy if these families stopped spending money. let's keep that from happening. [applause] passing this jobs bill will give the typical working family a $1,500 tax cut next year. money that would have been taken out of your paycheck will now go into your pocket.

25 million latino workers will benefit. this is what the american jobs act is all about. tax credits for middle-class families and for small businesses. it is all paid for, all of it. it helps to bring down our debt and deficits over the long term. i will be talking more about how we will pay for this plan on monday, but the bottom line is that it has to be done in a balanced way were everyone shares the sacrifice and no one

is asked to bear the whole burden. we need to make more spending cuts on top of the trillion dollar cuts that we have signed into law. that is going to be talk. -- tough. we need to make modest adjustments to programs like medicare and medicaid. we also need to make some real choices when it comes to our tax code. what kind of country do we want to be? instead of asking middle-class families to bear more of the burden, let's ask big corporations to give up tax loopholes that small businesses do not get. let's make sure our wealthiest citizens are not paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. in this country, everybody should be giving a fair shake.

everybody should be paying their fair share. that is to we are as americans and that is to we have to be now. a jobs bill that puts americans back to work. a balanced approach to pay for it that will lower our deficit and the long run. these are the steps congress to take right now to put our country on a stronger foothold. we also know we have to do more. if we're going to continue to grow our economy in a time when companies can set up shop anywhere in the world, we have to do more. we have to look to will further down the road. that starts with giving our children the best opportunities. if we're going to out build every other country on earth, the most important thing we can do is to make sure that every single young person in this country has an opportunity to thrive. the most important investments we can make are in education. [applause] that is why we launched the race to the top initiative. identify and support students before they drop out, implement

a fact of bilingual education programs, make english language learners a priority. we have strengthened pell grants and we are investing in community college to help teach the skills that companies need and that is part of the reason why the number of young latinos enrolled in college rose by 24% in the last year. they can actually afford to go to school. we have more latinos attending college in ever before. even though we are not there yet, we are going to do everything in our power, i will do everything in my power to make the dream act a reality.

it has been a long and frustrating a road for all that. and last year, we passed the dream act to the house only to see it blocked by senate republicans. for the first time in a decade, the bill does not have a single republican co-sponsor. not one. nothing about the language of the legislation changed, the only thing that changes politics in washington. that is heartbreaking. it is heartbreaking to see innocent young people denied the right to earn an education or server non-military because of their parents' actions and because of the actions of a few

politicians in washington. it is heartbreaking. to see these incredibly bright people barred from contributing to our country. the truth is performing our immigration system is crucial for our economic future. this country was built and sustained by people who risked everything because they believed and the idea of america, the idea that anybody with a dream and a willingness to work can make a life for themselves here. that is part of the american dream. that is the essence of the american dream. [applause] that is why it does not make any sense that we educate more foreign-born workers than any country in the world, but are allocated immigration system often sends them home to grow their company someplace else. it does not make any sense that immigrant workers are forced into the shadows, earning on fair wages. businesses are breaking the rules and getting away with it. those that follow the rules get punished.

we need an immigration policy that works, one that meets the needs of our families and businesses, while honoring our tradition. no matter what you may hear, in this country, there is no us and them. there is only us, one nation under god. immigrants are part of that american family. [applause] as i mentioned a few weeks back, i wish i had a magic wand. until nancy pelosi is speaker again, i would like to work my way around congress. the fact is, even as we work toward the day when i can sign

an immigration bill, we have laws on the books that have to be upheld. as you know as well as anyone else, how we enforce the laws is also important. that is why the department of homeland security is applying common sense standards for enforcement. we live in a democracy and at the end of the day, i cannot do this all by myself under a democratic system. if we're going to do big things, whether it is passing the jobs bill or the dream act or comprehensive immigration reform, we will have to get

congress to act. i know nancy pelosi is ready to act. we have to get more folks in congress to act. it is time to stop playing politics and start listening to the people who sent us to washington in the first place. the rest of america is way ahead of us on this. everybody here tonight, keep the heat on me, keep the heat on nancy pelosi and the rest of the democrats. we feel good about where we iraq. -- at. if we're being honest, we know the real problem isn't the members of congress in this room. the members of congress that the party before country. i have news for them, the american people do not have the luxury of waiting 14 months. [applause] some of them are living paycheck to paycheck, month to month, day to day. others want to go to college right now, they want to defend

their country right now. that is why i am asking everybody in a latino community, lift up your voice, make yourself heard. if you think it is time to pass the jobs bill that will put millions of americans back to work, call on congress to do the right thing. if you think it is time to get businesses to hire, make yourself heard. if your congressman is on the right page, talk to somebody else in congress. if you think it is time to stop the political games and pass the dream act and reform our immigration system, pick up the telephone, did on the computer, tell your representatives in washington that the time for action is now. we cannot wait. not when so much is at stake. these are difficult times. we have been through worse. your parents, your grandparents, your great

grandparents, they struggled in ways we cannot even imagines. to deliver the american dream to you. we have always been a nation full of a vision. a bold and optimistic america that does big things. we do not have a cramped vision, we do not try to exclude. we try to embrace. it is a vision of where we live within our means, but we invest in our future. where everybody makes sacrifices, but nobody has to bear the burden alone. we live up to the idea that no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your surname, whether your ancestors landed at ellis island or came over on a slave ship, we are all connected and we all rise and fall together. that is the america that i believe in. that is the america that you

believe in. that is the america that we can have as long as all of us are working together. thank you, and god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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