surya5289/ob-tts-6h · Datasets at Hugging Face

audio audioduration (s) 5.52 10	transcript stringlengths 9 809
	Good morning. I thought it might make sense to take some questions this week as my first term comes to an end.
	It's been a busy and productive four years, and I expect the same for the next four years. I intend to carry out the agenda that I campaigned on.
	an agenda for new jobs, new opportunity, and new security for the middle class. Right now our economy is growing and our businesses are creating new jobs.
	So we are poised for a good year if we make smart decisions and sound investments.
	and politics don't get in the way of America's progress. As I said on the campaign, one component to growing our economy.
	economy and broadening opportunity for the middle class is shrinking our deficits in a balanced and responsible way. And for nearly two years now,
	I've been fighting for such a plan, one that would reduce our deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade.
	which would stabilize our debt and our deficit in a sustainable way for the next decade. That would be enough not only to stop the growth of our debt relative to the size of our economy, but to also to stop the growth of our economy.
	but it would make it manageable so it doesn't crowd out the investments we need to make in people and...
	education and job training and science and medical research, all the things that help us grow. Step by step, we've made progress towards that goal. Over the past two years, I've made progress.
	I've signed into law about $1.4 trillion in spending cuts. Two weeks ago, I signed into law more than $600 billion in new revenue.
	by making sure the wealthiest Americans begin to pay their fair share. When you add the money that will save in interest payments on the debt...
	Altogether, that adds up to a total of about $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next two years.
	the past two years, not counting the $400 billion already saved from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So we've made progress.
	we are moving towards our ultimate goal of getting to a $4 trillion reduction. And there will be more deficit reduction when Congress decides to close the gap.
	decides what to do about the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that have been pushed off until next month. The fact is, though,
	we can't finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone. The cuts we've already made to priorities other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
	less as a share of our economy than it has been true for a generation. And that's not a recipe for growth.
	So we've got to do more both to stabilize our finances over the medium and long term, but also spur more growth in the short term.
	I've said I'm open to making modest adjustments to programs like Medicare to protect them for future generations. And I've also said that we need more revenue through tax reform.
	If we combine a balanced package of savings from spending on health care and revenues from closing loopholes...
	We can solve the deficit issue without sacrificing our investments in things like education that are going to help us grow.
	Turns out the American people agree with me. They listened to an entire year's debate over this issue, and they made a clear decision about the approach they prefer.
	They don't think it's fair, for example, to ask a senior to pay more for his or her health care or a scientist to shut down life-saving research so that a multi-million dollar budget is not a problem.
	millionaire investor can pay less in tax rates than a secretary. They don't think it's smart to protect endless corporate loopholes.
	loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, rather than rebuild our roads and our schools, invest in our workers' skills, or help manufacturers bring jobs back to America.
	So they want us to get our books in order in a balanced way, where everybody pulls their weight, everyone does their part. That's what I want as well. That's what I've proposed.
	And we can get it done, but we're going to have to make sure that people are looking at this in a responsible way rather than just through the lens of politics.
	Now, the other congressionally imposed deadline coming up is the so-called debt ceiling, something most Americans hadn't even heard of before two years ago. So I want to be clear about this.
	The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending.
	It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to. These are bills that have already been racked up, and we need to pay them.
	America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up.
	If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America's bills on time, Social Security checks and veterans' benefits will be delayed.
	We might not be able to pay our troops, or honor our contracts with small business owners, food inspectors, air traffic controllers.
	Specialists who track down loose nuclear materials wouldn't get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is, in fact, a safe bet.
	Markets could go haywire. Interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money. Every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan.
	every small business owner who wants to grow and hire. Be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession.
	and ironically would probably increase our deficit. So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible.
	It's absurd. As the Speaker said two years ago, it would be, and I'm quoting Speaker Boehner now, a financial disaster not only for us, but for the worldwide economy.
	So we've got to pay our bills. And Republicans in Congress have two choices here. They can act responsibly and pay America's bills.
	Or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy.
	The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip. And they'd better choose quickly, because time is running short.
	The last time Republicans in Congress even flirted with this idea, our Triple-A credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history. Our business has created the fewest jobs of any month.
	nearly the past three years, and ironically, the whole fiasco actually added to the deficit. So it shouldn't be surprising, given all this talk,
	that the American people think Washington is hurting rather than helping the country at the moment. They see their representatives consumed with partisan brinksmanship over paying our bills.
	while they overwhelmingly want us to focus on growing the economy and creating more jobs. Let's finish this debate.
	Let's give our businesses and the world the certainty that our economy and our reputation are still second to none. We pay our bills. We handle our business.
	And then we can move on, because America has a lot to do. We've got to create more jobs. We've got to boost the wages of those who have work. We've got to reach for energy independence.
	We've got to reform our immigration system. We've got to give our children the best education possible. And we've got to do everything we can to protect them from the horrors of gun violence.
	And let me say I'm grateful to Vice President Biden for his work on this issue of gun violence, and for his proposals, which
	I'm going to be reviewing today and I will address in the next few days, and I intend to vigorously pursue. So with that, I'm going to take some questions.
	And I'm going to start with Julie Pace of AP, and I want to congratulate Julie for this job. Well, as I said,
	The Vice President and a number of members of my Cabinet went through a very thorough process over the last month, meeting with a lot of...
	stakeholders in this, including the NRA, listened to proposals, orders, and they've presented me now with
	a list of sensible, common-sense steps that can be taken to make sure that the kinds of violence we saw in Newtown doesn't happen again.
	I'm going to be meeting with the Vice President today. I expect to have a fuller presentation later in the week.
	to give people some specifics about what I think we need to do. My starting point is not to worry about the politics.
	My starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works. What should we be doing to make sure that our children are safe?
	that we're reducing the incidence of gun violence. And I think we can do that in a sensible way that comports with the Second Amendment.
	And then members of Congress, I think, are going to have to have a debate and examine their own conscience. Because if, in fact, and I believe this is true,
	everybody across party lines was as deeply moved and saddened as I was by what happened in Newtown.
	We're going to have to vote based on what we think is best. We're going to have to come up with answers that set politics aside.
	And that's what I expect Congress to do. But what you can count on is, is that the things that I've said in the past...
	the belief that we have to have stronger background checks, that we can do a much better job in terms of keeping these magazine clips with high capacity.
	capacity, out of the hands of folks who shouldn't have them, an assault weapons ban that is meaningful, that those are things I continue to believe.
	make sense.
	with the American people and with members of Congress about what I think will work, what I think is something that will make a difference.
	And to repeat what I've said earlier, if there is a step we can take that will save even one child from what happened in Newtown...
	We should take that step. The Press. Can you have the U.S. doctor without an assault on the family? The President. I'll present the details later in the week. Todd, NBC.
	Well, Chuck, the issue here is whether or not America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation.
	And so there's a very simple solution to this. Congress authorizes us to pay our bills.
	Now, if the House and the Senate want to give me the authority so that they don't have to take these tough votes...
	If they want to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, I'm happy to take it. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Leader in the Senate.
	had a proposal like that last year, and I'm happy to accept it. If they want to keep this responsibility, then they need to go ahead and get it done.
	And there are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs.
	This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me.
	You need to fund our Defense Department at such and such a level. You need to send out Social Security checks.
	You need to make sure that you are paying to care for our veterans. They lay all this out for me, and because they have the spending power.
	So I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills. They also have to authorize a raising of the
	debt ceiling in order to make sure that those bills are paid. And so what Congress can't do is tell me to spend x and then say
	but we're not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills. And I just want to repeat, because I think sometimes the American people
	understandably aren't following all the debates here in Washington. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend more. All it does is say
	that America will pay its bills. And we are not a deadbeat nation. And the consequences of us not paying our bills
	as I outlined in my opening statement, would be disastrous. So I understand the impulse to try to get around this in a simple way, but there's one way to get around this.
	There's one way to deal with it, and that is for Congress to authorize me to pay for those.
	items of spending that they have already authorized. And the notion that
	Republicans in the House or maybe some Republicans in the Senate would suggest that in order for us to
	get our way on our spending priorities that we would risk the full faith and credit of the United States, that I think is
	not what the founders intended. That's not how I think most Americans think our democracy should work. They've got a point of view. Democrats in Congress have a point of view.
	They need to sit down and work out a compromise. Well, look, Chuck, there's a pretty straightforward way of doing this.
	And that is to set the debt ceiling aside, we pay our bills, and then we have a vigorous debate about how we're going to do further deficit.
	as a reduction in a balanced way. Keep in mind that what we've heard from some Republicans
	in both the House and the Senate is that they will only increase the debt ceiling by the amount of spending cuts that they're able to push through.
	say it takes another trillion or trillion-two to get us through one more year.
	they'd have to identify $2.5 trillion in cuts just to get the debt ceiling extended to next year. $2.5 trillion. That's what we're talking about.
	And they can't even, Congress has not been able to identify 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts that they're happy with. Because these same Republicans say they don't want to cut defense.
	They claim that they don't want to gut Medicare or harm the vulnerable, but the truth of the matter is they don't want to cut Medicare or harm the vulnerable.
	The problem of the matter is, is that you can't meet their own criteria without drastically cutting Medicare.
	for having an impact on Medicaid or affecting our defense spending. So the math just doesn't add up. Now, here's what would work.
	What would work would be for us to say we've already done close to $2 trillion in deficit reduction and if you add the interest that we won't...

Good morning. I thought it might make sense to take some questions this week as my first term comes to an end.

It's been a busy and productive four years, and I expect the same for the next four years. I intend to carry out the agenda that I campaigned on.

an agenda for new jobs, new opportunity, and new security for the middle class. Right now our economy is growing and our businesses are creating new jobs.

So we are poised for a good year if we make smart decisions and sound investments.

and politics don't get in the way of America's progress. As I said on the campaign, one component to growing our economy.

economy and broadening opportunity for the middle class is shrinking our deficits in a balanced and responsible way. And for nearly two years now,

I've been fighting for such a plan, one that would reduce our deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade.

which would stabilize our debt and our deficit in a sustainable way for the next decade. That would be enough not only to stop the growth of our debt relative to the size of our economy, but to also to stop the growth of our economy.

but it would make it manageable so it doesn't crowd out the investments we need to make in people and...

education and job training and science and medical research, all the things that help us grow. Step by step, we've made progress towards that goal. Over the past two years, I've made progress.

I've signed into law about $1.4 trillion in spending cuts. Two weeks ago, I signed into law more than $600 billion in new revenue.

by making sure the wealthiest Americans begin to pay their fair share. When you add the money that will save in interest payments on the debt...

Altogether, that adds up to a total of about $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next two years.

the past two years, not counting the $400 billion already saved from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So we've made progress.

we are moving towards our ultimate goal of getting to a $4 trillion reduction. And there will be more deficit reduction when Congress decides to close the gap.

decides what to do about the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that have been pushed off until next month. The fact is, though,

we can't finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone. The cuts we've already made to priorities other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and defense.

less as a share of our economy than it has been true for a generation. And that's not a recipe for growth.

So we've got to do more both to stabilize our finances over the medium and long term, but also spur more growth in the short term.

I've said I'm open to making modest adjustments to programs like Medicare to protect them for future generations. And I've also said that we need more revenue through tax reform.

If we combine a balanced package of savings from spending on health care and revenues from closing loopholes...

We can solve the deficit issue without sacrificing our investments in things like education that are going to help us grow.

Turns out the American people agree with me. They listened to an entire year's debate over this issue, and they made a clear decision about the approach they prefer.

They don't think it's fair, for example, to ask a senior to pay more for his or her health care or a scientist to shut down life-saving research so that a multi-million dollar budget is not a problem.

millionaire investor can pay less in tax rates than a secretary. They don't think it's smart to protect endless corporate loopholes.

loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, rather than rebuild our roads and our schools, invest in our workers' skills, or help manufacturers bring jobs back to America.

So they want us to get our books in order in a balanced way, where everybody pulls their weight, everyone does their part. That's what I want as well. That's what I've proposed.

And we can get it done, but we're going to have to make sure that people are looking at this in a responsible way rather than just through the lens of politics.

Now, the other congressionally imposed deadline coming up is the so-called debt ceiling, something most Americans hadn't even heard of before two years ago. So I want to be clear about this.

The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending.

It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to. These are bills that have already been racked up, and we need to pay them.

America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up.

If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America's bills on time, Social Security checks and veterans' benefits will be delayed.

We might not be able to pay our troops, or honor our contracts with small business owners, food inspectors, air traffic controllers.

Specialists who track down loose nuclear materials wouldn't get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is, in fact, a safe bet.

Markets could go haywire. Interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money. Every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan.

every small business owner who wants to grow and hire. Be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession.

and ironically would probably increase our deficit. So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible.

It's absurd. As the Speaker said two years ago, it would be, and I'm quoting Speaker Boehner now, a financial disaster not only for us, but for the worldwide economy.

So we've got to pay our bills. And Republicans in Congress have two choices here. They can act responsibly and pay America's bills.

Or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy.

The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip. And they'd better choose quickly, because time is running short.

The last time Republicans in Congress even flirted with this idea, our Triple-A credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history. Our business has created the fewest jobs of any month.

nearly the past three years, and ironically, the whole fiasco actually added to the deficit. So it shouldn't be surprising, given all this talk,

that the American people think Washington is hurting rather than helping the country at the moment. They see their representatives consumed with partisan brinksmanship over paying our bills.

while they overwhelmingly want us to focus on growing the economy and creating more jobs. Let's finish this debate.

Let's give our businesses and the world the certainty that our economy and our reputation are still second to none. We pay our bills. We handle our business.

And then we can move on, because America has a lot to do. We've got to create more jobs. We've got to boost the wages of those who have work. We've got to reach for energy independence.

We've got to reform our immigration system. We've got to give our children the best education possible. And we've got to do everything we can to protect them from the horrors of gun violence.

And let me say I'm grateful to Vice President Biden for his work on this issue of gun violence, and for his proposals, which

I'm going to be reviewing today and I will address in the next few days, and I intend to vigorously pursue. So with that, I'm going to take some questions.

And I'm going to start with Julie Pace of AP, and I want to congratulate Julie for this job. Well, as I said,

The Vice President and a number of members of my Cabinet went through a very thorough process over the last month, meeting with a lot of...

stakeholders in this, including the NRA, listened to proposals, orders, and they've presented me now with

a list of sensible, common-sense steps that can be taken to make sure that the kinds of violence we saw in Newtown doesn't happen again.

I'm going to be meeting with the Vice President today. I expect to have a fuller presentation later in the week.

to give people some specifics about what I think we need to do. My starting point is not to worry about the politics.

My starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works. What should we be doing to make sure that our children are safe?

that we're reducing the incidence of gun violence. And I think we can do that in a sensible way that comports with the Second Amendment.

And then members of Congress, I think, are going to have to have a debate and examine their own conscience. Because if, in fact, and I believe this is true,

everybody across party lines was as deeply moved and saddened as I was by what happened in Newtown.

We're going to have to vote based on what we think is best. We're going to have to come up with answers that set politics aside.

And that's what I expect Congress to do. But what you can count on is, is that the things that I've said in the past...

the belief that we have to have stronger background checks, that we can do a much better job in terms of keeping these magazine clips with high capacity.

capacity, out of the hands of folks who shouldn't have them, an assault weapons ban that is meaningful, that those are things I continue to believe.

make sense.

with the American people and with members of Congress about what I think will work, what I think is something that will make a difference.

And to repeat what I've said earlier, if there is a step we can take that will save even one child from what happened in Newtown...

We should take that step. The Press. Can you have the U.S. doctor without an assault on the family? The President. I'll present the details later in the week. Todd, NBC.

Well, Chuck, the issue here is whether or not America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation.

And so there's a very simple solution to this. Congress authorizes us to pay our bills.

Now, if the House and the Senate want to give me the authority so that they don't have to take these tough votes...

If they want to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, I'm happy to take it. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Leader in the Senate.

had a proposal like that last year, and I'm happy to accept it. If they want to keep this responsibility, then they need to go ahead and get it done.

And there are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs.

This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me.

You need to fund our Defense Department at such and such a level. You need to send out Social Security checks.

You need to make sure that you are paying to care for our veterans. They lay all this out for me, and because they have the spending power.

So I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills. They also have to authorize a raising of the

debt ceiling in order to make sure that those bills are paid. And so what Congress can't do is tell me to spend x and then say

but we're not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills. And I just want to repeat, because I think sometimes the American people

understandably aren't following all the debates here in Washington. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend more. All it does is say

that America will pay its bills. And we are not a deadbeat nation. And the consequences of us not paying our bills

as I outlined in my opening statement, would be disastrous. So I understand the impulse to try to get around this in a simple way, but there's one way to get around this.

There's one way to deal with it, and that is for Congress to authorize me to pay for those.

items of spending that they have already authorized. And the notion that

Republicans in the House or maybe some Republicans in the Senate would suggest that in order for us to

get our way on our spending priorities that we would risk the full faith and credit of the United States, that I think is

not what the founders intended. That's not how I think most Americans think our democracy should work. They've got a point of view. Democrats in Congress have a point of view.

They need to sit down and work out a compromise. Well, look, Chuck, there's a pretty straightforward way of doing this.

And that is to set the debt ceiling aside, we pay our bills, and then we have a vigorous debate about how we're going to do further deficit.

as a reduction in a balanced way. Keep in mind that what we've heard from some Republicans

in both the House and the Senate is that they will only increase the debt ceiling by the amount of spending cuts that they're able to push through.

say it takes another trillion or trillion-two to get us through one more year.

they'd have to identify $2.5 trillion in cuts just to get the debt ceiling extended to next year. $2.5 trillion. That's what we're talking about.

And they can't even, Congress has not been able to identify 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts that they're happy with. Because these same Republicans say they don't want to cut defense.

They claim that they don't want to gut Medicare or harm the vulnerable, but the truth of the matter is they don't want to cut Medicare or harm the vulnerable.

The problem of the matter is, is that you can't meet their own criteria without drastically cutting Medicare.

for having an impact on Medicaid or affecting our defense spending. So the math just doesn't add up. Now, here's what would work.

What would work would be for us to say we've already done close to $2 trillion in deficit reduction and if you add the interest that we won't...