Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / Sept. 15 of faith and race and region and party, then we Audience members. Yes! will not only make life better for steelworkers The President. Are you ready to go? like Steve in Indiana, not only make life better Audience members. Yes! for members of the AFL–CIO, but will make The President. Let’s go get this done. Thank possible the dreams of middle class families and you, everybody. God bless you. make real the promise of the United States of America for everybody. That’s what we’re fight- NOTE: The President spoke at 1:23 p.m. at Da- ing for. That’s what this White House is com- vid L. Lawrence Convention Center. In his re- mitted to. That’s what the AFL–CIO is commit- marks, he referred to Richard L. Trumka, sec- ted to. And arm in arm, we are going to get this retary-treasurer, and Arlene Holt Baker, execu- done. tive vice president, AFL–CIO; Elizabeth Bunn, I got a question for you: Are you fired up? secretary-treasurer, United Auto Workers; and Audience members. Yes! Treasury Department Senior Adviser for Auto The President. Are you ready to go? Issues Ron Bloom, in his capacity as Senior Audience members. Yes! Counselor to the President for Manufacturing The President. Are you fired up? Policy.

Remarks at a Fundraiser for Senator Arlen Specter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 15, 2009

The President. Hello, Philadelphia! It is good man who has voted to raise the minimum wage to be back in Philly with a man who’s always put 20 times, because he understands if you work in his State before politics, before party, your Sen- this society, you shouldn’t be in poverty. This is ator, Arlen Specter. a man who’s fought for workplace safety and We’ve got a number of other luminaries here mine safety, who stood up for the American today, starting with the great Governor and steelworker and American manufacturer, who sports fan—[laughter]—here in Pennsylvania, has voted to extend unemployment benefits Ed Rendell is in the house; the outstanding time and time again. young mayor of the city of Philadelphia, Mi- I’ll never forget that in the height of this re- chael Nutter, is here. Not here, but I want to cession, when we had just been sworn in—you give him a shout-out anyway because we’re in remember? There’s some selective memory go- his district, Congressman Bob Brady, doing ing on out there. [Laughter] But you remember great work for us. Senator Bob Casey is on the what it was like. We thought we might be tip- way and will be here soon, and we love Bob ping into a great depression, losing 700 Casey. T.J. Rooney, chairman of the Democrat- [700,000]* jobs per month; financial system on ic State party, is here. And I want to acknowl- the verge of collapse. We had to act boldly; we edge a special friend, somebody who is a great had to act swiftly. And Arlen Specter cast the supporter of mine and is the chairman of this deciding vote in favor of a Recovery Act that has event, David Cohen is in the house. Please give helped pull us back from the brink, a Recovery him a round of applause. Act that’s already making a difference in the Now, I want to say a few things about Arlen lives of millions of Pennsylvanians. Specter. Arlen’s not someone who came to Since the Recovery Act was signed, nearly 5 Washington to fight for a particular ideology. million Pennsylvanians are seeing a tax cut in He came to fight for the working men and their paycheck. Think about that, 5 million peo- women of Pennsylvania. And he has a long and ple getting tax cuts, as I promised during the successful record of doing just that. This is a campaign. We provided relief to 2.5 million

* White House correction.

1399 Sept. 15 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 seniors and veterans and other struggling families, on businesses, and on taxpayers that Americans. This puts money in their pock- we can no longer sustain. ets. That means they’re spending it in small We know what will happen if we don’t do businesses and circulating it within the econo- anything, if we fail again. If we do nothing, my. premiums will continue to rise faster than your We’ve extended unemployment benefits for wages. If we do nothing, more businesses will over 800,000 Pennsylvanians who’ve borne the close down; fewer will open in the first place. brunt of this recession. We’ve approved over If you have health insurance, you are going to 700 loans to small businesses throughout see more and more of those costs taken out of Pennsylvania. your paycheck. And eventually, some of your You talk to your Governor, Ed Rendell, employers are going to decide, we just can’t af- about the kinds of drastic cuts and layoffs that ford to bear the burden. would have had to occur had it not been for If we do nothing, we will eventually spend the Recovery Act; tens of thousands of State more on Medicare and Medicaid than every workers potentially laid off. other Government program combined. We At the time, this was not an easy vote for Ar- would end up having to use all the money that len to take. You can imagine the pressure he we currently spend on student loans or nation- was under from the other side. But Arlen al parks or Department of Homeland Securi- knew that it was more important to answer to ty—all of that would be consumed by Medi- the people who sent him to Washington than care and Medicaid if we don’t make a change to the party he belonged to. And that’s why in the system. That is not an option for the you should send him back to Washington for United States of America. Arlen Specter un- six more years, because you know he’s going to derstands it’s not an option. That’s why he’s fight for you regardless of what the politics are. fighting alongside me to get this thing For the same reason that Arlen has been done. Because as I said last week, I may not be fighting so hard for health insurance reform, the first President to take up the cause of for him, this is not an issue of politics or party, health care reform, but I’m determined to be this is personal. This is a man who has seen the the last. health care system up close, the good and the The plan we’ve put forward will offer secu- bad. This is a man who courageously battled rity to those Americans with health insurance. cancer and is here today because he was able It will offer health insurance that’s affordable to receive some of the best health care avail- to those who don’t have it right now. And it able in the world, and also because he’s a will bring down the cost of health care for fam- tough son of a gun. [Laughter] And he knows ilies and businesses and taxpayers. that. And he believes that every American If you’re among the hundreds of millions of should be able to get that kind of care, no mat- Americans who already have health insurance ter who you are or how much money you through the job or Medicare or Medicaid or have. That’s why he’s spent the summer hold- the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or ing town hall meetings across the State. That’s your employer to change your coverage or why he hasn’t been afraid to take some criti- drop the doctor that you have. But what it will cism and some hard questions and occasionally do is it will make sure that even if you lose some—well—[laughter]—he knows how im- your job, you can still go get health insurance, portant it is to pass health care reform this even if you have a preexisting condition. year. Audience member. Yeah! It has now been nearly a century since Ted- The President. We’ll—this young lady dy Roosevelt first called for health care re- knows all about that. It will make sure that form. It’s been attempted by nearly every your out-of-pocket costs are capped, that you President and every Congress ever since. And are not—meaning, on the other hand, a life- our failure to get it done year after year, de- time cap, where at a certain point an insurance cade after decade, has placed a burden on company just says, “You know what? We can’t

1400 Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / Sept. 15 pay anymore.” It will make insurance work bet- solve problems. He and I, even when we were ter for you. That’s if you have health insurance. on the opposite side of the aisle, understood Now, if you don’t have health insurance, that the American people aren’t looking for slo- you’re going to be able to buy into an exchange gans, they’re not looking for ideology, they’re with millions of other Americans, which means not looking for bickering. They’re looking for you have leverage and you can now get the the solutions that can help build a foundation same kind of better deal that people who work for long-term economic growth and security for for the biggest companies, or work for the Fed- the American middle class. That’s what they’re eral Government, or, by the way, our Members looking for. That’s what we’re fighting for. of Congress are able to get for themselves. But we can’t do it without you. There is a lot That’s a deal that all Americans should be able of noise out there. There’s a lot of misinforma- to enjoy. tion out there, not just on health care. We also Audience member. Particularly Joe Wilson! need to have a clean energy economy that can [Laughter] produce good jobs that can’t be out- The President. Now, everybody knows we sourced. We’ve got to have the school system have to change the system. But people have a that works for every American and every young legitimate question, and that is, how are we go- person here in Philadelphia. ing to pay for all this? Arlen is fiscally conserva- Those are all parts—part of a foundation for tive. He doesn’t want us—see us wasting tax- long-term economic growth. And it’s not going payer dollars. Neither do I. We can’t afford it, to happen unless the American people mobilize especially when we inherited a $1.3 trillion defi- and say to themselves, “Now is the time. We’re cit, in part because the war in Iraq and the war going to stop putting off the tough problems.” in Afghanistan and the prescription drug plan I understand that the American people are and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans were feeling anxious and we’re going through a reces- not paid for. I’m not going to make that same sion right now, and people are wondering, can mistake when it comes to health care. Arlen this be the “American century” the way the 20th Specter will make sure we don’t make that same century was the “American century”? I know mistake. that there are doubts that creep into people’s And that’s why what we’ve said is, let’s use minds. I know that there’s a tendency during the money that’s being wasted in the system tough times for us to turn on each other instead right now—subsidies to insurance companies of come together. But the one thing that Amer- that are already making a profit, tens of billions ican history shows us is that each and every time of dollars in waste and abuse—the majority of that we confront major challenges, each—every this health care plan can be paid for with money time where we come to that fork in the road that’s already in the system but just not used where we can keep on doing the same thing and wisely, not making people healthier. going into slow decline, or we can go through And I want to say to all the senior citizens out some transformation and make some changes there, don’t let these folks scare you about even when they’re hard, we always take the Medicare. Nobody has been more of a champi- harder, better road. on of Medicare than me and the Democratic We do it not only for ourselves; we do it for Party. We are going to keep on doing it. Not a our children, we do it for our grandchildren. dollar is going to come out of the Medicare We know that the central idea in America is, we trust fund. Don’t believe these stories. We want don’t have to stand pat; we are going to make to make Medicare stronger and close that sure that the next generation has it better off doughnut hole in the Medicare system that is than we do. We’re going to build a stronger causing seniors to have to shell out thousands of America, a more prosperous America, a more dollars for their prescription drug costs. secure America. We’re going to get this done. This is going to That’s why Arlen got into politics so many be a priority because one of the things that Ar- years ago. That’s why he was a prosecutor. len Specter came to Washington to do is to That’s why he has excelled in the United States

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Senate. That’s why he is—he was a great Sena- Thank you very much, Philadelphia. I love tor when he was a Republican; he’s going to be you, and I love Arlen Specter. I appreciate you a even better Senator now that he’s a Demo- guys. Thank you. crat. And that’s why you are all going to work just as hard as you can to make sure that he NOTE: The President spoke at 4:08 p.m. at the gets reelected and is continuing to help me Pennsylvania Convention Center. In his re- move this country forward. marks, he referred to David L. Cohen, execu- tive vice president, Comcast Corporation.

Remarks at a Reception for Senator Arlen Specter in Philadelphia September 15, 2009

Thank you so much, everybody. Please have a student loan or a home loan, but banks a seat. Thank you. It was, first of all, wonderful weren’t lending money to each other. to meet all of you as we were taking pictures. And at that point, I think there was a sense And I want to say that I am so pleased to be that in the absence of effective Government here not only because of Arlen’s outstanding action, we could end up being in a real disas- track record, but because, like me, he married ter. And so we determined that we had to up in life. [Laughter] We are both lawyers. We move boldly and swiftly to turn this around. both appreciate the Constitution. We’re both And we put together—after consulting with fighters, and sometimes people count us out. the best economists in the country from all So although we come from different parts of walks of life and all parties, we decided that we the country, we have this bond, this thread. needed to put together a recovery package And as Arlen, I think, has mentioned, one of that would have a variety of elements. It would the most important bonds is, we’re basically a provide tax cuts to businesses and individuals. couple of Kansas kids who somehow got dis- It would provide support for States that were placed—[laughter]—him in Philadelphia and seeing their budgets plummet. It would pro- me in Honolulu. vide help to individuals who were being laid I want to make sure that I give a word of off. And it would start building the kind of in- thanks to Bob Casey, who is one of the finest frastructure that would move America into the people I know, has just been a great friend to 21st century. me—and his entire family obviously is just leg- And there’s been a little bit of a selective endary here in Pennsylvania. So please give memory about—a little historical revision- Bob Casey a big round of applause. And I want ism—about the situation that we were in. But to thank David Cohen for being such a great even then, even as scared as people were, supporter of mine, a great supporter of Ar- there were some in Washington who decided len’s. And I suspect that David is in the middle that this is a political opportunity, this is ideo- of just about every civic activity that takes logical, that we should fight this and perpetu- place in Philadelphia, and he does it with just a ate the kind of gridlock that has caused us so lot of class and always a smile on his face. So many problems in the past. thank you, David, for all your help. I’m pleased that I had a partner in Arlen You know, if you’d think back to where we Specter in getting that recovery package done, were 8 months ago, it’s hard to imagine. When because it displayed all the traits that I think I was sworn into office, we were in the midst makes him such an exceptional Senator. Obvi- of the worst recession since the Great Depres- ously, the first, independence; he is somebody sion. And a lot of economists—both left and who has always fought for the people who sent right—thought that we might be plunging into him to Washington and not just party; a terrific a great depression. We were shedding 700,000 intellect, being able to follow all the argu- jobs a month. Credit was almost entirely fro- ments about how to structure a plan that had zen. Not only could you not get a bank loan or the best chance of being effective; toughness,

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