build enterprises that employ us and make us better off as a nation. i believe in the founding principles of the nation. when the founders wrote the declaration of independence. they said the creator endowed us with sern certain inailienable rights. the creator, not the government. government does not tell us how to live our life. government does not tell us what kind of health care we can have. government does not tell us where we can live. instead individuals can pursue their own dreams. .

ago were thinking about where they might send their kid to college.

now they are wondering if they can put a meal on the table at the end of the week. there are people who were planning their retirement and now they're wondering if they can get another minimum-wage job to keep things together. there are people who use to plan about whether they could take their kids to the movie at the end of the week and now they wonder will they be able to have enough income to make it to the end of the week. these are tough times for americans. it's a tragedy. it is a real tragedy in the wealthiest nation in the world. i am going to go to work to help the american people because i know that dream is still out there. the things we remember from the past is not something gone. what has happened these last three years is a detour, it is not america's destiny. america is the greatest nation on the history of the earth and we will call on the spirit to get government small and behind us. [applause]

i love this country. i know we're going through tough times and we're going through tough times because of the failure of one man. that is why he has got to go. [applause] i love the songs of the country. the song "america the beautiful." o beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. i used to joke with my friends in iowa corn counted as an amber waves of grain. i love the verse that says "a beautiful for heroes approved for more themselves their country love and mercy more than life." do we have any veterans in this room? national guard members? thank you. [applause] let me know the president just announced a plan to dramatically cut back on the

military budget. the deal that was the president and congress cut back even further. i don't believe that's the right course for america. we have to have a military so strong and superior that no one in the world would never think of testing it. i will rebuild our american military strength. [applause] there is one more verse that i might mention. "oh beautiful for patriot's dream that sees beyond the years." the idea was the patriot's dream, the founders dream of this country was not something temporary, but something enduring.

i am convinced the principle of opportunity and freedom and protection of life were not temporary, but are permanent and if america is going through tough times, we should not stray from those principles but return to them. i will get america strong again by restoring those principles. [applause] while we may have a president in looking at our history and principles who is inclined to apologize for america, i will never apologize for this nation, which is the greatest nation on earth. thank you. thank you. thank you. ♪

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♪ >> president obama wasn't chicago yesterday for several fund-raising. this is one half hour. >> hello, chicago. thank you. thank you so much. hello. it is good to be home.

it is good to be home. no place like it. it is great to see so many old friends. i do not mean in years, although some of you are getting older. i will be honest with you, i would not mind hopping over to the united center. i think the bulls are playing tonight. they're off to a fine start. you might have heard the dallas mavericks' came to the white house to celebrate their championship. i told them to enjoy it because the chicago bulls will be here next year. that is what i said. i want to thank jessica for sharing her extraordinary story. jessica is so representative of all of the folks who did so much for years ago and is doing so much now.

give her a big applause. we are appreciative of her. [applause] we had them at the state dinner. the korean president and his whole family, they were moving around. do you remember that? they loved it. music is the universal language. her team is incredibly talented. i want to thank my dear friend, he and i went to law school together. he decided to make something of his life. you see him on tv all of the time. [applause] one of the finest public servants and one of the finest senators in the land, dick

durbin is here. thank you, dick. [applause] danny davis and jan stokowski. [applause] i also want to say a special word about a friend of ours, a man who has done an extraordinary work for me and perform extraordinary service for our country over the past year. that is bill daley. [applause] first of all, we got off of the plan and we said, is it really 45 degrees in january? we were a little confused and thought we landed in the wrong place. when bill first told me it was time for him to return to our hometown, i asked him to take a couple of days to reconsider.

it is tough to reconsider the greatest city in the world. as much as i will miss him in the white house, he will be an extraordinary asset to our campaign. he will tell us when in 2012. i also want to say how much i appreciate you. i love you. i love you, too. [applause] i love you back, man. you know, i am here not just because i need your help. i am also here because the country need your help. there was a reason why so many people like jessica worked their hearts out in our 2008 campaign. it was not because you thought

it would be easy. when you support a guy named barack hussain obama for president of the united states you have to assume that the -- the odds might not be in your favor. you did not need a poll to tell you it was not a sure thing. you understood the campaign was not about me. it was about our common vision for america. it was not a narrow vision and america where everybody is left to fend for themselves. the most powerful are able to play by their own rules. it was a pig and a passionate and gold america where everybody has a chance to get a head. -- it was a big and a passionate america where everybody has a chance to get ahead. we are greater together than we are on our own. a vision where everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does

their fair share. there is a sense of fair play were the rules apply to everybody. that is the vision we share. that is the change we believe in. we knew it would not come easily or quickly. i am here to tell you that three years later because of what you did in 2008 we have begun to see what change looks like. sometimes because things are moving so fast and the mood -- the medium is from thing to thing to think, we sometimes do not take a step back and say what happened because of the work you did in 2008? change was the first bill by signed into law. [applause]

change is the decision we make that was unpopular at the time to go and and help the auto industry to retool and prevent its collapse. even when you had a lot of folks say we should let detroit go bankrupt. as a consequence we saved 1 million jobs and businesses are picking up again and fuel- efficient cars are rolling off the assembly line. the auto makers are back and that folks are working. that is because of you. [applause] change is the decision we make to stop waiting for congress to do something about our oil addiction and raise fuel efficiency of cars. by the next decade we will be driving cars that get 55 miles to a gallon. that is one change is.

it will save us billions of barrels of oil. it was a consumers billions of dollars from their pocketbooks. it means we have a better chance we leave the planet a little bit cleaner and better off for our kids. the fight to stop handing out $65 billion in taxpayer subsidies to banks that issue stood at lunch and give that money directly to students so that millions of more young people are able to get the kind of education that they need in this 21st century economy. that is what changes. [applause] change is finally after a century of talking about passing health care reform, to ensure that in the united states of america nobody goes bankrupt because they get sick. 2.5 million in people already have health insurance because they can stay on their parents'

plan. nobody is dropped from their insurance company when they needed it most. that is what change is. changes for the first time in our history, you do not have to hide who you love in order to serve the country love. don't ask don't tell is over. change is keeping one of the first promises i made in 2008, that is ending the war in iraq and bring our troops home so we can focus our attention on rebuilding america. [applause] focus our attention on rebuilding america but also on our efforts on the terrorist who actually attacked us on september 11. thanks to the brave men and women in uniform al qaeda is weaker than it has ever been and osama bin laden will never walk this earth again.

[applause] these changes were not easy. some were risky. almost all of them came in the face of fierce opposition, powerful lobbyists and special interests who spent millions trying to maintain the status quo. not all of these steps we took were politically popular at the time. certainly not politically popular with the crowd in washington. you know what kept me going is you. i remember all the work you put in. i remember your hopes and your dreams. i knew that on every one of these fights to guys were out there making your voices heard and knocking on doors, making the phone calls, keeping up the fight for change long after the election was over. that should make you proud. it should make you hopeful. it should not make too

complacent. everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election. the very core of what this country stands for is on the line. the basic promise that no matter who you are where you come from there is a place that you can make it if you try, that is at stake in this election. the crisis that struck in the months before i took office put more americans out of work than at any time since the great depression. it was also a combination of a decade of neglect. it was a decade were the middle class fall further behind. more jobs in manufacturing left our shores and our prosperity was built on risky financial deals, homes that we cannot afford it. we wrapped up greater debt. even as incomes fell and which is flat land, the cost of everything from college and

health care went through the roof. those problems built up over a decade. they did not happen overnight. we knew we could not solve them overnight. it will take more than a few years to meet the challenges that have been decades in the making. the american people understand that. what they do not understand is leaders to refuse to take action. they are sick and tired of watching people who are supposed to represent them put their party ahead of the country. put the next election ahead of the next generation. that is what they do not understand [applause] president kennedy used to say after he took office, was surprised and the boast about washington is it was just as bad as he said it was. [laughter] i can relate to that.

when you have the top republican saying his number one priority is not solving the health-care problems, is not creating jobs, is not making sure that we are competitive in the 21st century but it is to beat me, you know things are not on the level. that is how you end up with republicans in congress voting against all kinds of proposals -- even proposals that have supported in the past. tax cuts for workers, tax cuts for small businesses, rebuilding words and bridges, paying cops and teachers. suddenly, they are opposed. they will fight to protect tax cuts before the most fortunate of americans but they will play political games with tax cuts for the middle class. i guess they thought it was a smart political strategy, but is not a strategy to create jobs. it is not a strategy to help people trying to get into the middle class to get there. it is not a strategy to help america succeed.

we have a clear choice this year. the question is not whether people are still hurting, the economy is still recovering. of course folks are still hurting. we have a long way to go. the question is, what direction will this country move towards. republicans in congress, presidential candidates who are running, they have a very specific idea of where they want to take this country. they have said it. they said they want to reduce the deficit by gutting our investments and education and gutting our investments in research and technology. letting our infrastructure further deteriorates. my attitude is, i have already signed one trillion dollars worth of spending cuts. i proposed even more. it is time when we are talking about reducing the deficit to ask people like me to pay our fair share in taxes.

we can do that. we can have a system in which folks who have been incredibly blessed by this nation do a little bit more so that the next generation is able to get on the ladder of success. the republicans in congress and on the campaign trail, they want to make medicare a form of private insurance where seniors have to shop with a voucher and it may not cover all of their costs. i think we can lower the cost of medicare and still guarantee the dignified retirement that our seniors have turned. he had earned it. [applause] when i hear some of them talk about, this is an entitlement. these folks have arctic. it paid into it. -- these folks have earned it. they think the best way to compete for new businesses is

to follow other countries for a race to the bottom. since china pays really low wages, let's roll back the minimum wage here and bust unions. some of these other countries can't live as much as they want, let's get rid of protection that makes sure our water is safe. i do not think we should have any more regulations than what is necessary for our health and safety. we have made reforms that will make sure that businesses and save billions of dollars. we want government that is that smart and the efficient and a lean. we have issued fewer regulations than the bush administration. they have been better regulations. i do not believe in a race to the bottom. i think we should be in a race to the top. we should be competing to make sure we have the best schools.

we should be competing to make sure we have the most highly trained workers. we should make sure that a college education is within reach for everybody. we should be in a race to make sure that our businesses have the best access to the fastest internet. the fastest railroads, the best airports, i want a race where we continue to have the best scientists and researchers making the next breakthroughs in medicine and clean energy. i want to make sure that happens right here in america. that is a race we can win. we should be in a race to make sure that the next great manufacturing takes place right here in chicago, in detroit, in pittsburgh, and cleveland, in charlotte, in national. -- nashville. i do not what this nation to be known for what we consume, i

want us to be known for building and selling products all around the world. i had a meeting with ceos from some very big companies like intel, some of them small manufacturers. they are starting to bring jobs back to the united states. they have started to figure out that some of these countries may have lower wages. when you factor in all of the costs and quality and the productivity of american workers, that it actually makes sense to build a plant here. they are moving plants back from china and plants back from mexico because they know business is to succeed here will succeed anywhere. what they also said was we can only come here if we know that we have the best workers. that means the education system has to work.

we cannot come here if we do not think that the internet and our roads and transportation infrastructure is the best in the world. the competition for new jobs and for businesses and middle- class security, that is the reason i know we can win. america is not going to win if we given to those who think that we can only respond to our challenges with the same tired old tune. and out more tax cuts tooth -- to folks who do not need them and were not asking for them. hope prosperity trickles down on everybody else's heads. it does not work. it did not work when it was tried in the decade before the great depression. it was not what led to the incredible postwar boom in the 1950's and 1960's. it did not work when we tried it under the previous president. it will not work now. we cannot go back to this brand

of"you are on your own"economics. we believe everybody has a stake in each other. if we can attract a teacher by giving her the pay and training and support that she needs, she will go out and educate the next steve jobs. suddenly a whole new industry will blossom. we believe if you provide a faster internet to some little town out and rural america, that now has the whole world marketplace. if we build a new bridge that saves a shipping company time and money, that workers and customers all over the country will do better. if we invest in basic science and research that the next new thing will be invented. instead of listening to janelle

on the ipod, who does what the next big thing is. because we have invested in the innovation that mixes the greatest nation on earth. this has never been a democratic or republican idea. this is not a partisan idea. it was a republican president from illinois named abraham lincoln who launched the transcontinental railroad and the national academy of sciences and the first land grant colleges. teddy roosevelt called for a progressive income tax. he was a republican. dwight eisenhower built the interstate highway system and invested in boosting our science and math and engineering education here in this country. it was with the help of republicans that fdr helped millions of people. returning veterans like my grandfather had a chance to go to college on the gi bill. that same purpose still exists

today. it may not exist in washington, but out in america when you talk to people on main street and in town halls they will tell you they still believe in those values. our political parties may be divided, but most americans understand we rise and fall together as one nation. that is what is at stake right now. that is what this election is about. so chicago, yes it has been three tough years. there are times when the changes we wanted did not come as fast as we want.

after all of the noise and washington, i know it is tempting to believe that maybe change is not possible. remember what we said during the last campaign. yes, we can. a real change and big changes not easy. i warn you it would take time. i said it was going to take more than a year and maybe more than one term. it might take more than one president. it takes ordinary citizen to keep fighting and keep pushing, keep inching this country closer and closer to our ideals. that is how the greatest generation overcame a decade of depression and ended up building the largest middle-class in the history of the world. that is how young people be back billy clubs and fire hoses and ensured their kids to grow

up in a country where you could be anything including the president of the united states. [applause] change is hard, but it is possible. i have seen that. we have lived it. if you want to end of the cynicism and stop the game playing that passes for politics these days and you want to send a message about what is possible, you cannot back down. not now. we will not give all, not now. you have to send a message we will keep pushing and fighting for the change that we believe in. i said before, i am not a perfect man. i am not a perfect president. i promise you this, and i have kept this promise, i will always tell you what i believe. i will always tell you where i stand. i will pick up every single day

thinking about how i can make this country better. i will spend every ounce of energy i have fighting for you. [applause] so if you still have that energy, if you are still fired up, if you are not wary, if you are ready to put on your walking shoes and get to work and knock on some doors and but some phone calls and talk to your friends and neighbors and push through all of the obstacles and keep reaching for that mission that you hold in your hearts, i promise that change will come. if you are willing to work even harder in this election that you did in the last election, i promise you that change will come. if you stick with me we will finish what was started in 2008.

we will remind what this -- we will reminded this country and the world why we are the greatest nation on earth. god bless you, chicago. i love you. god bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] ♪

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♪ been >> president of the u.s. chamber of commerce speaks. you can see that live on c-span2 at 9:00 eastern. your phone calls live on "washington journal." the center of american progress host the economic adviser, alan krueger. poverty to prosperity. in about 45 minutes we will discuss the 2012 campaign with ari melber, a correspondent, and david chavern, vice president