Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / June 6 spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as What makes this so remarkable is that it proba- our reforms take hold. bly wouldn’t have happened just a few short I’ve also made it very clear to Congress that years ago. But today, at this historic juncture, we must develop a plan that doesn’t add to our even old adversaries are united around the budget deficit. My budget included a historic same goal: quality, affordable health care for all downpayment on reform, and we’ll work with Americans. Congress to fully cover the costs through rigor- Now, I know that when you bring together ous spending reductions and appropriate addi- disparate groups with differing views, there will tional revenues. We’ll eliminate waste, fraud, be lively debate, and that’s a debate I welcome. and abuse in our health care system, but we’ll But what we can’t accept is reform that just in- also take on key causes of rising costs, saving vests more money in the status quo, reform that billions while providing better care to the throws good money after bad habits. American people. Instead we must attack the root causes of Now, all across America, our families are skyrocketing health care costs. Some of these making hard choices when it comes to health costs are the result of unwarranted profiteering care. Now, it’s time for Washington to make the that has no place in our health care system, and in too many communities, folks are paying high- right ones. It’s time to deliver. And I am abso- er costs without receiving better care in return. lutely convinced that if we keep working to- And yet we know, for example, that there are gether and living up to our mutual responsibili- places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the ties, if we place the American people’s interests Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and other institutions above the special interests, we will seize this that offer some of the highest quality of care in historic opportunity to finally fix what ails our the Nation at some of the lowest costs in the broken health care system and strengthen our Nation. We should learn from their successes economy and our country now and for decades and promote the best practices, not the most to come. expensive ones. That’s how we’ll achieve reform that fixes what doesn’t work and builds on what NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi- does. mately 1 p.m., e.d.t., on June 2 in the Roosevelt This week, I conveyed to Congress my belief Room at the White House for broadcast on that any health care reform must be built June 6. The transcript was made available by around fundamental reforms that lower costs, the Office of the Press Secretary on June 5 but improve quality and coverage, and also protect was embargoed for release until 6 a.m., e.d.t., consumer choice. And that means if you like the on June 6. Due to the 6-hour time difference, plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the the address was released after the President’s doctor you have, you can keep your doctor too. remarks in Caen, France.

Remarks on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France June 6, 2009

Good afternoon. Thank you, President Sar- guished career as a United States Senator and a kozy, Prime Minister Brown, Prime Minister national leader, Bob Dole. Harper, and Prince Charles for being here to- I’m not the first American President to come day. Thank you to our Secretary of Veterans Af- and mark this anniversary, and I likely will not fairs, General Eric Shinseki, for making the trip be the last. This is an event that has long out here to join us. Thanks also to Susan Eisen- brought to this coast both heads of state and hower, whose grandfather began this mission 65 grateful citizens, veterans and their loved ones, years ago with a simple charge: “Ok, let’s go,” the liberated and their liberators. It’s been and to a World War II veteran who returned written about and spoken of and depicted in home from this war to serve a proud and distin- countless books and films and speeches. And

793 June 6 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 long after our time on this Earth has passed, arises from the clarity of purpose with which one word will still bring forth the pride and this war was waged. awe of men and women who will never meet We live in a world of competing beliefs and the heroes who sit before us: D-Day. claims about what is true. It’s a world of varied Why is this? Of all the battles in all the wars religions and cultures and forms of govern- across the span of human history, why does ment. In such a world, it’s all too rare for a this day hold such a revered place in our mem- struggle to emerge that speaks to something ory? What is it about the struggle that took universal about humanity. The Second World place on the sands a few short steps from here War did that. No man who shed blood or lost a that brings us back to remember year after brother would say that war is good, but all year after year? Part of it, I think, is the size of know that this war was essential. For what we the odds that weighed against success. For faced in Nazi totalitarianism was not just a bat- three centuries, no invader had ever been able tle of competing interests; it was a competing to cross the English Channel into Normandy, vision of humanity. Nazi ideology sought to and it had never been more difficult than in subjugate and humiliate and exterminate. It 1944. perpetrated murder on a massive scale, fueled That was the year that Hitler ordered his by a hatred of those who were deemed differ- top field marshal to fortify the Atlantic Wall ent and therefore inferior. It was evil. against a seaborne invasion. From the tip of The nations that joined together to defeat Norway to southern France, the Nazis lined Hitler’s Reich were not perfect. They had steep cliffs with machine guns and artillery. made their share of mistakes, had not always Low-lying areas were flooded to block pas- agreed with one another on every issue. But sage. Sharpened poles awaited paratroopers. whatever God we prayed to, whatever our dif- Mines were laid on the beaches and beneath ferences, we knew that the evil we faced had the water. And by the time of the invasion, half to be stopped. Citizens of all faiths and of no a million Germans waited for the Allies along faith came to believe that we could not remain the coast between Holland and northern as bystanders to the savage perpetration of France. death and destruction. And so we joined and At dawn on June 6th, the Allies came. The sent our sons to fight and often die so that men best chance for victory had been for the Brit- and women they never met might know what ish Royal air corps to take out the guns on the it is to be free. cliffs while airborne divisions parachuted be- In America, it was an endeavor that inspired hind enemy lines. But all did not go according a nation to action. A President who asked his to plan. Paratroopers landed miles from their country to pray on D-Day also asked its citi- mark, while the fog and clouds prevented Al- zens to serve and sacrifice to make the inva- lied planes from destroying the guns on the sion possible. On farms and in factories, mil- cliffs. So when the ships landed here at Oma- lions of men and women worked three shifts a ha, an unimaginable hell rained down on the day, month after month, year after year. men inside. Many never made it out of the Trucks and tanks came from plants in Michi- boats. gan and Indiana, New York and Illinois. And yet, despite all of this, one by one, the Bombers and fighter planes rolled off assem- Allied forces made their way to shore, here bly lines in Ohio and Kansas, where my grand- and at Utah and Juno, Gold and Sword. They mother did her part as an inspector. Shipyards were American, British, and Canadian. Soon, on both coasts produced the largest fleet in the paratroopers found each other and fought history, including the landing craft from New their way back. The Rangers scaled the cliffs. Orleans that eventually made it here to Oma- And by the end of the day, against all odds, the ha. ground on which we stand was free once more. But despite all the years of planning and The sheer improbability of this victory is part preparation, despite the inspiration of our of what makes D-Day so memorable. It also leaders, the skill of our generals, the strength

794 Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / June 6 of our firepower, and the unyielding support borne, who parachuted into a dark marsh, far from our home front, the outcome of the entire from his objective and his men. Lost and alone, struggle would ultimately rest on the success of he still managed to fight his way through the one day in June. gunfire and help liberate the town in which he Lyndon Johnson once said that there are cer- landed, a town where a street now bears his tain moments when “history and fate meet at a name. single time in a single place to shape a turning It’s a story written by men like Anthony Rug- point in man’s unending search for freedom.” giero, an Army Ranger who saw half the men on And D-Day was such a moment. One newspa- his landing craft drown when it was hit by shell- per noted that “we have come to the hour for fire just a thousand yards off this beach. He which we were born.” Had the Allies failed spent 3 hours in freezing water and was 1 of on- here, Hitler’s occupation of this continent ly 90 Rangers to survive out of the 225 who might have continued indefinitely. Instead, vic- were sent to scale the cliffs. tory here secured a foothold in France. It And it’s a story written by so many who are opened a path to Berlin. It made possible the no longer with us, like Carlton Barrett. Private achievements that followed the liberation of Barrett was only supposed to serve as a guide Europe: the Marshall plan, the NATO alliance, for the 1st Infantry Division, but he instead be- the shared prosperity and security that flowed came one of its heroes. After wading ashore in from each. neck-deep water, he returned to the water It was unknowable then, but so much of the again and again and again to save his wounded progress that would define the 20th century, on and drowning comrades. And under the heavi- both sides of the Atlantic, came down to a battle est possible enemy fire, he carried them to safe- for a slice of beach only 6 miles long and 2 miles ty. He carried them in his own arms. wide. More particularly, it came down to the This is the story of the Allied victory. It’s the men who landed here, those who now rest in legend of units like Easy Company and the All- this place for eternity and those who are with us American 82d. It’s the tale of the British peo- here today. ple, whose courage during the Blitz forced Hit- Perhaps more than any other reason, you, the ler to call off the invasion of England; the Cana- veterans of that landing, are why we still re- dians, who came even though they were never member what happened on D-Day. You’re why attacked; the Russians, who sustained some of we keep coming back. For you remind us that the war’s heaviest casualties on the Eastern in the end, human destiny is not determined by front; and all those French men and women forces beyond our control. You remind us that who would rather have died resisting tyranny our future is not shaped by mere chance or cir- than lived within its grasp. cumstance. Our history has always been the It is the memories that have been passed on sum total of the choices made and the actions to so many of us about the service or sacrifice of taken by each individual man and woman. It has a friend or relative. For me, it is my grandfa- always been up to us. ther, Stanley Dunham, who arrived on this You could have done what Hitler believed beach 6 weeks after D-Day and marched across you would do when you arrived here. In the Europe in Patton’s army. And it is my great un- face of a merciless assault from these cliffs, you cle who was part of the first American division could have idled the boats offshore. Amid a bar- to reach and liberate a Nazi concentration rage of tracer bullets that lit the night sky, you camp. His name is Charles Payne, and I’m so could have stayed in those planes. You could proud that he’s with us here today. have hid in the hedgerows or waited behind the I know this trip doesn’t get any easier as the seawall. You could have done only what was years pass, but for those of you who make it, necessary to ensure your own survival. there’s nothing that could keep you away. One But that’s not what you did. That’s not the such veteran, a man named Jim Norene, was a story you told on D-Day. Your story was written member of the 502d Parachute Infantry by men like Zane Schlemmer of the 82d Air- Division of the 101st Airborne. Last night, after

795 June 6 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 visiting this cemetery for one last time, he countrymen had once fought and bled for over passed away in his sleep. Jim was gravely ill two centuries. when he left his home, and he knew that he That is the story of Normandy, but also the might not return. But just as he did 65 years story of America, of the Minutemen who gath- ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in ered on a green in Lexington, of the Union peace with the boys he once bled with, and boys from Maine who repelled a charge at may his family always find solace in the Gettysburg, of the men who gave their last full heroism he showed here. measure of devotion at Inchon and Khe Sanh, of all the young men and women whose valor In the end, Jim Norene came back to Nor- and goodness still carry forward this legacy of mandy for the same reason we all come back. service and sacrifice. It’s a story that has never He came for the reason articulated by Howard come easy, but one that always gives us hope. Huebner, another former paratrooper who is For as we face down the hardships and strug- here with us today. When asked why he made gles of our time and arrive at that hour for the trip, Howard said, “It’s important that we which we were born, we cannot help but draw tell our stories. It doesn’t have to be something strength from those moments in history when big . . . just a little story about what happened the best among us were somehow able to swal- so people don’t forget”—so people don’t for- low their fears and secure a beachhead on an get. unforgiving shore. Friends and veterans, we cannot forget. To those men who achieved that victory 65 What we must not forget is that D-Day was a years ago, we thank you for your service. May time and a place where the bravery and self- God bless you, and may God bless the memory lessness of a few was able to change the course of all those who rest here. of an entire century. At an hour of maximum NOTE: The President spoke at 3:53 p.m. at the danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, Normandy American Cemetery and Memori- men who thought themselves ordinary found al. In his remarks, he referred to President within themselves the ability to do something Nicolas Sarkozy of France; Prime Minister extraordinary. They fought for their moms and Gordon Brown and Prince Charles of the sweethearts back home, for the fellow warriors United Kingdom; Prime Minister Stephen they came to know as brothers. And they Harper of Canada; and Susan Eisenhower, fought out of a simple sense of duty, a duty granddaughter of former President Dwight D. sustained by the same ideals for which their Eisenhower.

Remarks Prior to a Cabinet Meeting June 8, 2009

Well, thank you, Joe, and thanks to all of selves under extraordinary financial straits. you Cabinet, sub-Cabinet agencies that have And it’s a reminder that we’re still in the mid- been involved in this process. Your leadership, dle of a very deep recession that was years in Joe, has been critical on this. I’m grateful to the making, and it’s going to take a consider- you and your team for helping to coordinate able amount of time for us to pull out of. between all the agencies, because there are a Having said that, this was the fewest num- lot of moving parts to this whole process. On Friday, we learned that we had lost an ber of jobs that we have lost in about 8 additional 345,000 jobs in the month of May. months, so it was about half of the number lost Now, that was far less than was expected, but of just a few months ago, and it’s a sign that it’s still too many. That means that there are we’re moving in the right direction. The key is families who are still losing not only their jobs, for us to build on the modest progress that has but maybe losing their homes, finding them- been made in the months to come.

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