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Obama: "By almost every measure we are better off" now than when I took office
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Original Message
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Obama: "By almost every measure we are better off" now than when I took office
Published on Jul 9, 2014
The other thing I want to make sure people understand is, is that we are making progress, as bad as the news looks, if all you were doing was watching cable TV all day long. Yes, the crisis that hit towards the end of my first campaign hit us all really badly; 2007, 2008, that was rough. But today, our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months. (Applause.) Construction and housing are rebounding. Our auto industry is booming. Manufacturing is adding jobs for the first time since the '90s. The unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest point since September of 2008 -- the fastest one-year drop in nearly 30 years. (Applause.)
And, look, most of this is attributable to you, the American people -- starting businesses, and paying down debt, and tightening belts, and doing all kinds of stuff just to make sure that you kept on and were able to look after your families. But the decisions we made early on not only stopped the slide, but also built a new foundation for our economy, and they're paying off now.
We're more energy independent. We've tripled the electricity we generate from the wind, ten times from the sun, creating jobs across the country -- (applause) -- while producing more oil at home than we buy abroad for the first time in nearly 20 years. Our energy sector is booming. (Applause.) And, by the way, we're doing that while reducing our carbon emissions more than any other country over the last five years. So we're making progress on climate change as well. (Applause.)
In education -- our high school graduation rate is at a record high. (Applause.) The Latino dropout rate has dropped in half. More young people are graduating from college than ever before. (Applause.) We've made our tax code fairer. We cut our deficits by more than half. We've given millions more Americans the security of health care that means you won't go broke just because you get sick. (Applause.)
So thanks to the hard work of you -- and some actually pretty smart policies by us -- (laughter) -- we have come farther and recovered faster than almost any other advanced nation on Earth. More companies are choosing to bring back jobs from overseas. Thanks to our leadership in technology and innovation, for the first time in more than a decade, business leaders around the world have declared China is not number one when it comes to the place to invest, the United States is. And our lead is growing. (Applause.)
So despite what you may hear, there is no doubt we are making progress. By almost every measure, we are better off than when I took office -- by almost every measure. (Applause.) But here's the thing -- and this is why I've got to get out more and have lunch with -- and pizza with my friends -- because the fact is, we know we've still got a long way to go.
[link to youtu.be]
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