oils down to two points. number one, america's economy is not just boater than it was eight years agent it is the strongest most durable economy in the world. that's point number one. point number two, we can make it even stronger and expand opportunity for even more people. but to do that, we have to be honest about what our real challenges are and we've got to make some smart decisions going forward. is a good place to have a conversation because this s one of the first places that i visited as president.

i've been in office just three we wereen i came here. just a few months in what turned to be what was the worst economic crisis in our life times. our businesses were loses 800,000 jobs a month and our auto industry was about to go and our families were losing their savings and their health insurance and as kelly were in danger of losing their homes and was hit harder that most. here would peak at 19.6%. five people here were out of work. was going then that i to have your back and we were going to work hard to bring this economy back. what's happened since then? has loyment in elkhart 4%.en to around

at the peak of the crisis nearly one in ten homeowners in the of indiana were either behind on their mortgages or in for closer. today it's 1-30. back then only 75% of your kids from high school and tomorrow 90% of them will. auto industry just had its year ever and the capital of the world is going to ship 40,000 rv's which is an record. so that's progress and it's hanks to you, to the hard work you put in and the sacrifices you made for your families and you looked out for each

other. but we also wouldn't have come elkhart would not have ome this far if we hadn't made of smart decisions. my administration, cooperative congress, decision we made together early on in my administration, we decided to industry, to restructure and we helped refinance homes. decided to invest in job training so folks who lost jobs could retool. we decided to invest in things tech manufacturing and infrastructure d to entrepreneurs wouldn't bring back the jobs we lost but create better jobs and folks back to work and rebuilding america.

and we can see the results not elkhart but across the nation. economic every measure, america is better off came here at the beginning of my presence. truth. the that's true. that's true of the true. that's true. over the past six years our businesses have created more new jobs, that's the longest stretch of sector job private first in our history and sustained growth and cut before nt in half years

economists thought we could and from foreign country by more than half and doubled the clean energy. time evermore than 90% of the country has health insurance. was in fact, a poll that out of last week, two three of americans the their financial situation is in pretty of the but we know a lot of people are stressed about future.conomic the pundants they say one of the the lican party has picked candidate it has -- no, no booing. we're voting. not booing.

ut if you watch the talking heads on tv they'll see the eason folks are angry is because nobody's paid enough attention to the plight of working americans in communities that's what they say. first to i'm the admit my presidency hasn't fixed everything. setbacks and false starts and frankly been stuck that congress recently opposed to pretty much everything we try to do. but i also know that i've spent every single day of my what i canfocused on and grow the middle class increase jobs and boost wages give every opportunity that michelle and i did. that.w like elkhart ties haven't been forgotten in my

the results nd prove that our focus has paid off. it.art proves where we haven't finish the job, have good reason to feel anxious is addressing some in thelonger term trends economy that started long before that make working families feel less secure. that have been happening for decades now and more to e got to do reverse. let me be clear about what those are. despite the drop in unemployment, wages are still growing too slowly. makes it harder to pay or college or save for retirement. n equality is still too high and the gap between rich and it's is bigger now than

been since any time in the 1920s global rise of competition and automation of ore and more jobs, the race of technology, all these trends ave left many workers behind and they've let a few at the top extraordinary wealth and influence like never before and hat kind of changes our politics. so all these trends make it easy somehow e to feel that the system is rigged and that the american dream is to reach for ard ordinary folks. nd there are plenty of poll significances that are praying for headlines and votes. anothera politician for six months or so, but i'm not running again.

yes. besides, while i may have won barelyte of indiana just 2008, i know i lost the vote elkhart. inefinitely got whooped here 2012. know i don't poll all that well in this county. looking for ere votes. deeply e because i care as a citizen about making sure build on all the work that communities like yours have done to bring america back last 7.5 years. nd i came here precisely because this county votes republic. that's one of the reasons i came here. because if the economy is

really what's driving this then it's going to be to rs like you that have decide between two visions etween what's going to strengthen the middle class. you're going to have to make decision. so, let me be as straight as i of be about the choice economic policies that you are going to face. the 'm going to start with story that not every republican but most republican candidates p and down the ticket are telling me and it goes something like this -- and i think this is you don't and if then you can look it up. o their basic story is, america's working class, families middle class, like yours have been victimized bloated federal government run by a bunch of elitists like me and

the government is giving your earned tax dollars and giving them to cheats and federal heats and this government is letting immigrants foreigners steal whatever jobs obamacare hasn't killed yet. no, no, i'm being serious here. that's the story that's been told. and i haven't turned on fox news talkstened to conservative adio yet today but i turned i'm on enough to tell you ottage rating the rating the story. they've defined their economic are a about what they against and that's mainly

against me and their basic anti-government, anti-immigrant be and face it ge and let's anti-change. a lot of people believe it. they're saying is true, happy days would be here today. true, t they're saying is then just being against whatever done might make sense. but what they're saying isn't if we're going to fix what's really wrong with the economy we got to understand that. o, let me just do some quick myth busting. i'll start with the biggest myth the federal government keeps growing and growing and growing and wasting and giving your tax

dollars to people who don't deserve it. here's the truth. you can look it up. they can nalists here checking.ct we spend less on domestic outside of social ecurity, medicare and medicaid we spend less than when ronald reagan was president. president reagan or george w. bush held this job, our got bigger. when bill clinton and i have job, deficits have smaller.

oreover, there are fewer families on welfare in the 1990s and funding has been frozen for a bunch of not iveaways and aside from our obligation to care for the elderly, the vast majority of help from the are familiesnment, striving to get back on their eet and striving to get in the middle class and sometimes, yes, their kids need temporary help food stamps when mom and dad are between jobs. didn't , these kids crisis.he financial these kids aren't what holding the middle class. nd by the way, neither is obamacare. let's look at the numbers. again, i just want to -- i'm giving facts here. i will

have some opinions later, but giving facts.just i signed the affordable care act law over six years ago. since then our businesses have every single month. 20 id this while covering million americans who didn't have health insurance, ending against ation preexisting conditions for everybody including those who insurance and dramatically slowing the rate in which were going up.s obamacare de before employer based premiums grew by 8% a year. paying that u were much more for health insurance. last year they grew by 4%, half as fast as they were growing. doesn't mean you were happy about the 4%.

ut today the average familiar wil $2,800 lth insurance is if than it would have been preyums we going like they were. found healthcare cost $75 or less. tax he millions they get credits to help them pay for it and the average price increase been $4 a month. it hasn't been a double digit hike. bucks a month. o bust this myth of crazy liberal government spending. spending is not what class.ezing the middle

myth number two, is the notion hat my administration has killed jobs through overregulation. you know, back in the sixties or government was adding ll kinds of regulations, rules for protecting workers and the environment. and these regulations to improve public health and safety they economic growth that took place in the sixties nd seventies and not doing it now. 've issued fewer regulations than my predecessor and than any president since ulysses s. grant. long time ago. the regulations that we have issued, rules to protect the air to keep , rules families from getting cheated buying a house or investing savings, they have benefited and helped families. they've helped the middle class.

they haven't hurt them. here's myth number three, other countries are killing us on trade. ow, it is true that a lot of supporters of trade deals in the past sometimes oversold all good that it was going to be for the economy. the truth is the benefits of are usually widely spread, one of the reasons you can buy flat screen t.v. for a ouple hundred bucks and basic necessities, the cost have gone down. like arts in the economy the tech sector have done well in trade and some secs have bee foreign competition. also true is sometimes the pain of a plant closing here in america is magnified when you know others are cheating. unfairly subsidizing their businesses to undercut our

business. of the worst violators he they don't have trade deals all. us at so here's what we have done. ver the past seven years we have brought more trade cases against other countries for everybody else. everybody case that has been decided america has won. that's when we have done. making sure that we got a level playing field. but the truth is, trade has helped our country a lot more us. it's hurt exports help lead us out of the recision. companies that export pay than folks er wages who don't. anybody who says somehow ourselves from off from trade is going to bring jobs ack aren't telling the truth n fact most of the manufacturing jobs that we lost over the past weren't the result

of trade deals, they were the esult of technology and automation that lets businesses make more stuff with fewer f you go into an auto plant these days, you used to thousand workers and now they need a thousand workers to produce the same number of cars, just because there are robots and machines that have work.ced a lot of the that's true in office. about bank teller the last time you dealt with one of those ecause now we have atm machines. we can't put technology back in than cutting e ourselves from the chains. rv's manufactured here, some of the parts came from sell them and then we back. how many tariffs we were going slap on other country's goods and trade wars we were going to put in place, that's not going middle class families

ere. in fact, independent economists say a trade war would trigger another recession and jobs.illions of when you hear someone cutting off trade and say that's standing up for american workers, that's just not true. ere's the fourth myth that immigrants are taking all of our jobs. let's look at -- the numbers. right now the number of people rying to cross our border illegally is near its lowest years.in 40 it's near its lowest level in 40 years. it's lower than when before i and lower than during ronald reagan's time. that new immigrants sometimes compete for services and construction jobs. but they also start about 30% of all new businesses in america.

everybody thinks that immigrants they're getting all this stuff from the government. immigrants pay a lot more in they receive in services. immigrantsportantly, are not the main reason wages haven't gone up for middle class families. those decisions are made in the of companies where top ceo's are getting paid more 300 times the income of the average worker. deporting 11 million immigrants not only is that a would cost taxpayers billions of dollars nd tear families apart and logistically would be improbable. it if it were possible wouldn't do anything to

middle class. the mixing -- so, now what would our is if we fix immigration system the way i propose so everybody plays by we have strong border security. but we also were making sure had been here ten years, 20 years and they're out of the shadows and paying taxes nd going through a background check. that would grow our economy deficit d shrink or further. we need a congress that's willing to make it happen. need a congress that's willing to make it happen. here's my main point. the primary story that been telling ve about the economy is not facts.ted by the it's just not. repeat it a lot pu it's not supported by the facts. they say it anyway.

now, why is that? it's because it has worked to get them votes. at least at the congressional level. telling hard working middle class families the reason hey're getting squeezed is because of some moochers at the bottom of the ladder or mmigrants or employment employees or feminists or ecause poor folks who aren't willing to work, they've been ble to promote policies and protect public interests and those at the top of the economic spectrum. that's the truth. mind me being t blunt about this but i've been listening to this stuff for a while now. i'm concerned when i watch

the direction of our politics. have been hearing this story for decades. queens out welfare talking about takers and talking about the 47%. the story that is broadcast news day on some cable stations and right wing radio cars and bars and homes across america and right here in elkhart. hearing that story all it.time you start believing no wonder people start to think big government is the problem. support for lic unions is so low. thatnder that people think the deficit has gone under my presidency when it's actually down. surveyer that they did a

lot of white americans think we verse discrimination is as big a problem as discrimination against minorities even though black unemployment is twice as high as white employment and the typical hispanic woman makes man and every white women happenndful of white running fortune 500 companies. that's the story been told. say, elkhart, we got o challenge the assumption story. this economic it has ended is, up dividing america who actually had common economic interests and should be working together or a better deal from the people who serve them. and it's made people cynical about government and it's kept families from pushing our political system to actually address our economic challenges realistic way.

races and all backgrounds deserve higher wages. and ies of all races backgrounds deserve quality health care and decent saving.nt every child deserves an lets them do better than from the from which they're born. look, in today's economy, we can't put up walls around america. e're not going to round up 11 million people and put technology back in the box. around t going to rip hard earned rights of women and

americans with disabilities so they're more fairly and able to participate in the workplace. these are permanent fixtures in ur economy and rolling them back will not help folks in elkhart or anyplace else. to transform our politics so that they're working families and are actually grown in the then we have to stop pitting working americans against each other and come and choose a vision of america where everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share and everybody the same set of rules. and that's the vision that made progress possible over the last seven years. that's what's going to lead us forward now. now this isn't a state of the union address. last one, but my in the time remaining i do want

to offer some suggestions that i think would actually help give everybody who worked hard a fair shot at opportunity and security today's economy. yeah, and you heard some of these things before, but it's repeating because they're true. umber one, let's get wages rising faster. now, here's the good news. are actually growing at a rate of about 3% so far this year. that's the good news. working americans are finally getting aittle bigger piece of pie. but we've got to accelerate that. for example, my administration took new action million of workers to collect thovertime pay they have earned. to help.ing but we should also raise the minimum wage high enough so that somebody's working full-time

they're not living in poverty. have tates, some cities done it. but we need national law. sure women get equal pay for equal work. something that we should on. agree shouldn't be an issue. too.blicans got daughters they shouldn't want them to get paid less for doing the job. if you care about working families getting a bigger a clear then that's choice for you right there. to give workers a bigger voice in the economy. the wages reasons have not grown faster over the

decades is of because some politicians, some usinesses, some laws have undermined the ability of workers to bargain for a better deal. and that needs to change. talk about folks talking about the good old days. let me tell you something, in days, 50 years ago, 1-4 american workers belonged to a union. one in four. the reason all those manufacturing jobs everybody the reason back, they paid well was because folks were unionized in most plants. and they not only negotiated for good wages but also good benefits. theyhey had a pension plan

could count on. ed -- it used to be unions and were in now it's one in ten. union members shank and inequality grew and work said a smaller share of the economic pie. so, i just want everybody to remember this. a lot of those good jobs people missed a lot of those good manufacturing jobs that everybody is always talking about, those were union jobs. and it's great to get all riled wages and lousy workers' standards in other let's get riled too.bout that stuff here america should not be changing harder for make it workers to organize. we should be changing our laws and encourage er new forms of worker organization

them more of a voice and more of a say in the economy. to be clear this are a lot of terrific business leaders figured out that doing right for the workers isn't just ou good for the workers but bottom line because that means they've got more customers and kphaoupb advertise are doing better. plenty of business owners right here in elkhart that spirit right through the recession. we should lift up good corporate citizens like that so more businesses across america follow lead. but that's priority number one, getting wages to grow faster. two, we need to better prepare or children and for the high tech jobs of tomorrow. e actually know what works here. we actually know what works here but just don't to. early childhood

we should orks and inve ways across the country especially because take up a huge share of the family budget. we know that we have to make affordable and job available.ore and one way to do that is to two years of community ollege for free for every responsible student. there are mayors and governors who are already doing good work across party s lines and they've shown the way and now we need congress to do same. number 3, 1 of the reasons wages

grew so quickly in the fifties and sixties and seventies is because we had a government that put people to work building highways and building bridges and building airports and frontiers in space and science and investing in development and it lead to countless new invasions and educated new generation of workers with public colleges low and the g.as i.bill. i have to say too often republicans in congress are investments like these for no other reason than this that f small government they keep repeating. but you know what, it's been a economy.he it made us recover slower than we should have. jobs.been a drag on it's been a drag on wages and penny wise and pound foolish because if the economy growing slower you put in economy dollars and the is getting stronger and deficits can go down. e should be making smart

investments that help us. economy we got to working asier for americans to save for retirement. let's be honest, most americans the same benefits package as their members of congress. i'm just saying. they got a pretty good deal. obamacare rt of what is all about. right? gap it did was fill in the so that if you lost your job or you went back to school or decided to start a new business, you could go and compare and buy affordable coverage and get a it and despite the predictions, it's working. by the way it would work better more governors and legislatures willing to do what to his credit and expand medicaid. 300,000 ed more than hoosiers. fewer folks in

congress to decide with special nterests and give us the funding we need to fight public zika and llenges like the opioid epidemic. that nnelly is working on diligently. hose are things we could get done. done. make sure when you do save getting advice that's not just in wall street's best interest.ut your best most americans don't have retirement savings. money at have enough the end of the month because they're barely paying the bill. fewer and fewer people have pension that's they can count on is why social security is

more important than ever. strengthening social security. and not only do we need to long term health it's time we made social security more generous and its benefits so that today's retirees and future get the dignified earned.ent that they paying for it by asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little bit more. afford it. i can afford it. fifth way to make the new oak economy work is make sure trade works for us and not against us. again, walling ourselves off from other countries is not it.g to do here's when will make a other nce, making sure countries raise their labor tandards to level that we set and that's what we did with this

rade deal we call transpacific partnership. we negotiated with 11 other countries. nasa, this dppike which means s it that they won't undercut us as easily. china to set ant the rules for the 21st century they're trying, then they make sure we set the rules. china, then o help you shouldn't pay us this trade deal that we negotiated. want to help america, you need to pass it. ecause it's going to cut taxes that other countries put on our products and raise other ours and standards to that's how we help middle class families and secure better wages compete on ars and onel playing field and we're a level playing field america time.every time, every

i'll make one last suggestion the hat is making sure economy works for everybody by and not weakening the rules that wall street put making them pay their fair share of taxes. crisis we financial pass the toughest wall street reforms in history. passed the toughest wall street reforms in history. the bank bailout hat everybody was mad about, they had to pay back with interest and then we passed laws sure that didn't happen again. the biggest banks had to carry as much capital than they did before the crisis. to guard tools against another two big to fail situation and put in place the consumer watchdog that has

secured more than $10 million and guess what? this thing,e passed lotbig banks working with a of members of congress on the other side of the aisle, they roll eamed up to try to back these rules every single year. every year they've been trying them back. and the republican nominee for president has already said he all these rules that we passed. that is crazy. sometimes -- an, i'll be honest with you, just don't get it. how it is that somebody could that we weaken

regulations on wall street. have we really forgotten what happened eight years ago? it hasn't got hurt.ou and the notion that you would who would now y doing hem to go back to the same stuff that almost broke economy's back makes no sense. don't care whether you're a republican or a democrat or an would you do at? wall street t on would only make another crisis more likely. card companies

write their own rules is only families urt working and sure as heck won't make the class secure. how can you say you're for the middle class and then tear down rules and we've also been cracking down on tax loopholes their hey change addresses and they say they're so they as company don't have to pay taxes in america. we've cracked down on tax cheats who are trying to hide their offshore accounts. you don't get to avoid paying taxes, why should they? but i got to say, the folks on the other side of the aisle have opposed our efforts to close these loopholes. do they explain it? when big cooperations and wealthy individuals don't pay share of taxes and by

the way a lot of people do. not painting a broad brush here. but a lot of folks who don't. when they don't pay their fair of taxes it means either it means ing more or we don't have enough revenue to things like rebuilding he roads or funding universities which means tuition has gone up. we should have closed these loop long time ago and lord knows i have tried every year in my budget. used some of the savings that we get from them fair share to give tax breaks that would actually elp working families pay for child-care or help you send your kids to college or would help for retirement. if we want a strong middle class taxes should reflect that.

iddle class families have paid lower federal income tax rates during my presidency than during time since the 1950's. that's just big spending liberal democrat thafpl's the truth. up.k it but the wealthiest americans are still paying far better rates to.n they used when i ran for office i said we'd reverse the tax cuts that been put in place an the in congress. and we that. when the economy was booming and surplus they all said this is going to be a disaster and e'll go into recession we didn't. but today even though the top 1% ever, the tter than

republican no, ma'am 90 would -- not top 10th of 1% the top% but top ten of 1% cut than 120 million households at the bottom and deficit by e our nearly $10 trillion. i'm not making this up. can look at the math. that will not bring jobs back fighting for the american class and not help us win and that is not going to that.our lives better him. help people like

so you have a choice to make, elkhart. you do, between more or less equality and stacking the deck already olks who are doing great or making sure everybody has a chance to succeed. that's the economic choice you face and that's what at stake in election. two very different visions for this economy. i hope i've broken it down for you. now, let me say this, i that not everybody based on economic interest. we're more than just a matter of dollars and cents. some folks care deeply about our rights.mendment some folks care about marriage equality. care about abortion. some folks will vote based on national security or worried terrorism.

they may think that we haven't of the right thing on any those issues, and that the republicans have a better answer. have that debate. that's fine. worthyre all issues very of debate. but if what you care about in election is your pocketbo you're ok, if what concerned about is who will look working he interest of the middle row class, if that's what you're concerned about, then the deb e -- then if that's what ou're concerned about, the economy, the debate is not even close. one path would lead to lower investments in things like education and weaken the safety net and kick people health insurance and let

globalrite the rules for weaken and let big banks rules from families getting and cut taxes to historic lows. the facts. and i know it sounds like a he's who care for about you and working families but those are the plans. on the website. when i hear about working voting thinking about for those fans then i want have intervention. i want you to take a look at you're talking about here. me you know what, mr. president, you may be right ut i disapprove of what

democrats stand for on gay rights or going after isil then i hear you.ay, the economy is not everything. you know what, you may be right but i just of principalmatter that government should be small the wealthy, they work harder than everybody else and keep whatd be able to they got. all right, you're making a argument, i got you. agenda't think that this is going to help you. you.not designed to help and the evidence over the last not to mention common sense should tell you that their answers to our challenges are no all.ers at

another ly there is path that leads to more jobs and higher wages and better benefits safety net and a fairer tax code and a bigger trade on workers and our terms. and it will make a real the prospects of working families and grow the class. that's the choice you pay. the ideas i've laid out today i want to be clear, they're not solve every problem. they're not going to make verybody financially secure overnight. we'll be facing global competition. trying to make sure that all our kids are prepared for the 20 urs workforce that's a sent year project and not a two year project. make sure that we're paying for social security and medicaid and medicare as our populations get older. there will be a bunch of issues out there. i'm putting a

forward will point us in the right direction. one thing i can promise is that if we turn against each based on divisions of religion, if we fall for okey-doke just funny or the nds provocative, then on the t going to build progress that we have started. if we get cynical and just vote our fears or if we don't vote at all, we won't build on the we started.t we've got to come together and ourur common values

faith and hard work, our faith belief inibility, our opportunity for everybody. wea we've got to assume the best in each other and not the worse and remember that sometimes we all on hard times and part of ur job as a community of americans to help folks up when they fall. whatever our differences we all love this country. our children'sut futures. that's what thanks us great and become progress and better versions of ourselves because we believe in each other. is going to get us through our toughest moments and hat's how we know something etter is around the

better is around the bend. there ill with be setbacks along the way but we know that our journey is not finished. we know that with steady effort nt collective we'll get to a brighter day. that's what you have shown, america. it.s keep on showing thank you very much everybody. god bless you. applause]

obama with a t commencement address at the academy in colorado springs colorado. we're talking about trade issues hat effect the region and the

country. we'll talk to san antonio lynn and ade reporter congressman and bob cash, the tradedirector of the fair coalition. it's quiet now but it will get world trade, 6,000 there and sed a day often referred to as nasa on