And Kenyatta, thanks for
that introduction and all you did for Barack and me –
getting us elected and helping us govern.
You remind me of something
my Dad used to say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a
paycheck. It’s about dignity. It’s about your place in the
community. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye
and say that everything will be ok — and mean it.”
That’s a lesson I grew up
with surrounded by hard-working families in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware. Just like here in
Toledo.
But times are hard.
Unemployment is way up due to the pandemic.
The economic outlook remains
uncertain across Ohio and the country, folks are worried
about making their next rent or mortgage payment, whether or
not they can purchase their prescription or put food on the
table.
Worried about school and
their kids.
They see the people at the
very top doing better than ever, while they’re left to
wonder: “who’s looking out for me?”
That’s Donald Trump’s
presidency.
215,000 dead because of
COVID-19.
Experts say we’ll lose
nearly another 200,000 lives in the next few months.
All because this President
is only worried about the stock market, because he refuses
to follow science.
It’s estimated that if we
just wore masks nationally we’d save almost 100,000 lives
over the next few months.
In his own words, this
President knew back in January when he was briefed in detail
by the intelligence community that this was an extremely
dangerous and communicable disease.
He went on a taped interview
with Bob Woodward, the journalist, telling him he knew how
dangerous this disease was.
But he did nothing.
Ask yourselves, why didn’t
he tell the country?
He said nothing.
He told Bob Woodward that he
didn’t want to panic the American public.
We don’t panic. But he did.
His reckless personal
conduct since his diagnosis, is unconscionable.
And the longer Donald Trump
is president, the more reckless he gets.
Dr. Fauci referred to the
President’s announcement to the Supreme Court in the Rose
Garden as a super spreader
event.
And how is he responding?
He’s running a national ad,
quoting Dr. Fauci out of context.
He had said way back in
March referring to public health officials, “I can’t imagine
that anybody could be doing more.”
Yet Trump and his campaign
deliberately lied–making it sound like Fauci was talking
about him.
Fauci went public after the
ad came out, saying, “I did not give permission to use that
quote.”
He wasn’t referring to the
President.
And even after Fauci said
that he did not say that, Trump and the campaign said they
would continue to use the ad, knowing it was a lie.
As a consequence to this
overwhelming lying, misleading, and irresponsible action on
the part of
Donald Trump, how many empty
chairs are there around the dinner table because of his
negligence?
I view this campaign between
Scranton and Park Avenue.
Between Toledo and Park
Avenue.
All Trump can see from Park
Avenue is Wall Street.
That’s why the only metric
of American prosperity that he values is the Dow Jones.
Like a lot of you, I spent a
lot of my life with guys like Donald Trump looking down on
me, guys who thought they were better than me because they
had a lot of money.
Guys who inherited
everything they ever got and still managed to squander it.
I have to admit, I’ve still
got a little chip on my shoulder about it.
I read some stories that
said if I got elected, I’d be the first guy in a long time
to be elected President without an Ivy League degree, like
somehow a state school guy couldn’t do the job.
Folks, I know what it takes
to be president.
My Mom taught me what you
were probably taught too. She’d say, “Joey, no one is better
than you. And everyone is your equal.”
I don’t measure people by
the size of their bank account. I don’t respect people based
on whether they own a mansion, and I don’t judge their worth
based on what country club they belong to.
You and I measure people by
the strength of their character, honesty, recognizing some
things are bigger than their own self interest.
For us, it’s about family.
Decency. Honor. Opportunity.
Those are the values I
learned growing up in Scranton.
And my guess is those are
the values you learned too.
The people I grew up with in
Scranton didn’t have money in stocks.
In our house, growing up,
every penny my dad made went to pay our bills and take care
of our family, and we looked out for our neighbors.
That’s why I have a
different measure by which I judge the health of the
American economy.
I see the hard working women
and men who are just trying to earn an honest living and
take care of their families.
We’re not asking for
anything — just a shot.
And you know, given a shot,
the American people have never ever let their country down.
Just think back to 2008:
Barack and I were elected and inherited the worst recession
short of the Great Depression.
He put me in charge of the
Recovery Act. $800 billion needed to get out to save our
economy.
We did it with less than two
tenths percent of waste or fraud, and we were able to see to
it that Ohio and the other states received substantial
assistance to address the economic pain, recover, and
rebuild.
To make sure we kept
teachers, firefighters, cops, public nurses, on the job. So
they didn’t have to be fired because of the lack of money.
We started the longest
sustained recovery in American history.
But you know what Mitch
McConnell said recently about helping the states? He said
“let them go bankrupt.”
We’ve heard that before,
right? Republicans said the same thing about the auto
industry.
The auto industry that
supported 1 in 8 Ohioans was on the brink. It was more than
ten years ago, but you remember it like it was yesterday.
But Barack and I bet on you,
the American worker, and it paid off.
I argued the American auto
worker was the finest auto worker in the world.
They didn’t make the
mistake. Management did.
And so over the objection of
many, we stepped in and rescued the automobile industry.
General Motors and Chrysler. Saving one million jobs.
And then what happened when
Donald Trump came to office?
Remember what Trump said in
2017 in Lordstown — “Don’t move, don’t sell your house.”
But Lordstown shut down on
Trump’s watch.
After the debate in
Cleveland, I met with an elementary school teacher from
Lordstown.
Her husband was one of the
workers who lost his job. He had to accept a transfer to a
plant 8-hours away to maintain his healthcare and pension.
He now drives 16 hours every
weekend to see her and their two kids.
But Donald Trump’s betrayal
doesn’t stop there.
He betrayed union workers at
Goodyear when he called for a boycott of their tires based
on a
personal grudge.
He passed a tax bill for the
super wealthy and corporations that actually provided
incentives for companies to move jobs and production
overseas.
Folks, manufacturing is the
backbone of our economy.
But we were in a
manufacturing recession because of Donald Trump, even before
COVID hit.
We’re down 647,000
manufacturing jobs nationwide since the crisis started.
There are still 10,900 lost
auto manufacturing jobs in Ohio that have not come back.
The Trump presidency will be
the first presidency in modern American history to leave
office with fewer jobs than when it began.
And Donald Trump’s only plan
is more tax cuts for the super wealthy.
$30 Billion just for the
gains the hundred richest billionaires have made this year
alone.
In the middle of this
pandemic, why do the Republicans have the time to hold a
hearing on the Supreme Court instead of providing the
significant economic need to localities?
I’ll tell you why. It’s all
about wiping the Affordable Care Act off the books. Because
their nominee has said in the past — that the law should be
struck down.
His relentless effort to
eliminate the Affordable Care Act which provided health
coverage for 20 million people — and protections for over
100 million people with preexisting conditions.
And he has even pledged to
“terminate” the tax that is dedicated to financing Social
Security. You know what that’ll do?
The Social Security Actuary
says it could lead to Social Security going bankrupt by the
middle of 2023.
And not once has President
Trump called a high level meeting with Democrats and
Republicans to the White House to deliver a new COVID relief
package for working families and small business owners.
He spent too much time in
the bunker of his golf course than in the Oval Office.
He’s turned his back on you.
I will never do that.
That’s why my Build Back
Better plan — is built around a simple concept: It’s time we
reward hard work in America, not wealth.
An independent analysis put
out by Moody’s, a well-respected Wall Street firm, projects
that my plan will create 18.6 million jobs — 7 million more
jobs than the President’s economic plan and $1 trillion more
in economic growth than the President’s plan.
Here’s how my plan works.
I’m not going to raise taxes
on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year — you won’t
pay a penny more.
In fact, tens of millions of
middle-class families will get tax cuts when you need it
most: when you are raising your children, trying to get
affordable health care, buying your first home, or saving
for retirement.
But I’ll ask big
corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share.
The money we raise will
allow us to invest in working people and growing the middle
class and make sure everyone is included in the deal.
My plan will create millions
of good-paying union jobs in manufacturing building the
products and technologies we will need now and in the
future.
It starts with a pretty
basic idea: when we spend taxpayer money, we should use it
to buy American products and support American jobs.
During my first term alone,
we’ll invest $400 billion to purchase American-made products
and materials we need to modernize our infrastructure,
replenish our critical stockpiles, and enhance our national
security.
We’ll invest $2 trillion to
build more resilient infrastructure:
Roads, bridges, ports. 1.5
million new affordable housing units. High-speech broadband,
for every American household — more important than ever.
$100 billion to rebuild crumbling schools. Retrofit 4
million buildings, weatherize 2 million homes.
All done by certified union
labor.
We’re going to end the Trump
incentives for sending jobs overseas.
Any company that offshores
jobs will pay a 10 percent penalty.
But any company that brings
jobs back, or reopens a closed factory — like a
manufacturing plant — will get a 10 percent credit off that
investment.
We’ll have a trade strategy
that fights for every American worker and every American job
and actually gets results.
Not Trump’s chaotic trade
threats, erratic tweets, and bluster that’s only stiffed
American workers and consumers. He’s let you down. I will
stand up to China’s trade abuses. I will invest in you.
Because I know no one can
outcompete the American worker when you’re given a fair
shot.
And one more thing.
The United States government
owns and maintains an enormous fleet of vehicles.
We’re going to convert those
government fleets to electric vehicles — made and sourced
right here in the United States of America.
With the government
providing the demand and supports to re-tool factories that
are struggling to compete, the U.S. auto industry will step
up.
It’ll expand capacity so
that the United States — not China — leads the world in
clean vehicle production.
And we’re going to make it
easier for American consumers to switch to fuel efficient
vehicles.
By building a network of
500,000 charging stations across the country, and by
offering consumer rebates to swap older, fuel inefficient
vehicles for new, clean, American-made models.
Together, this will mean one
million good new jobs in the American auto industry.
It’s an example of how we
can do anything. We are America. Nothing can stop us.
We just have to come
together. That’s why I’m running as a proud Democrat — but I
will govern as an American president.
We can be better than what
we’ve seen. We can be what we are at our best — the United
States of America.
So vote. Visit IWillote.com/OH.
God bless you. May God
protect our troops. |