REBUILD THE DREAM

BY VAN JONES
23 JUNE 2011 THE TOWN HALL NEW YORK CITY

Good evening everyone! Thank you Shepard Fairey for kicking us off. A great visual artist and a great DJ. I want to thank you all for joining me tonight at Town Hall. Over the last few weeks, weve been putting out the message, and weve been hearing back, that our message has been resonating with folks all across the country. Our message is pretty simple: We are being lied to. We cannot solve big problems in this country, while were being misled about the facts. Over and over again: we keep hearing that America is broke. But that is a lie. We keep hearing that asking the super-rich to pay taxes would be a job-killer and hurt the economy. Another lie. And we keep hearing that somehow the most patriotic thing we can do right now is hate on Americas government, try to wreck it, starve it and dismantle it. Well, thats a really big lie. Tonight we are going to set the record straight and have a good time doing it, with the Roots!

I better let them kick it off! So get on your feet for The Roots! First of all, if you dont know me let me introduce myself. I am Van Jones. Some of you may know me from the work Ive done. Working to get kids out of jail and into jobs in Oakland, CA. Working for green jobs that heal the environment and the economy at the same time. Or you may recognize me from Fox TV broadcasting a whole bunch of nonsense about me a while back. I think the folks at Fox TV are gonna be surprised and saddened to learn that I was not born into a militant Black Panther family. In fact, my dad was a cop in the military. I grew up in a red-white-and-blue household on the edge of a small town in rural West Tennessee, a bright red state. Public schools, church on Sunday, Bible study in the summertime. My dad had joined the military to serve his country and so that he could put himself through college, which he did. Then he put his little brother through college. Then he put a cousin through college. Then he put me and my sister through college. My father was the original bootstrapper. He lived the American Dream.

He sent me off to Yale Law School, proud of this country and our familys achievement. I arrived at Yale, I guess, expecting perfection. But instead I discovered poverty and injustice, all around that campus and beyond it. I felt tricked. I told my father, This does not look like liberty and justice for all, to me. So like a lot of young people, I rebelled. I turned against my dad and everything he taught me and I wound up on the left side of Pluto, politically, for a while. But working in tough neighborhoods, I went to many more funerals for young people than graduations. I learned that angry rhetoric doesnt make a difference in kids lives. Education and opportunity does. I learned that nothing stops a bullet like a job. And eventually I realized that my fathers tough-minded American idealism was right. And my more wild-eyed notions just didnt hold water in the real world. As a father of two now myself, I can say that I have come full circle. I miss my dad. He used to say, Son, nobody can give you anything that will stop you from being poor. They can give you money. And that will stop you from being broke for about a week. But if you are still poor in your mind, you will be broke again next week. Every poor child has to climb that ladder out of poverty themselves, based on their own efforts.

Thats what I did. And that is every individuals responsibility. But he didnt stop there. He also said, Society has a responsibility, too. Society has to make sure that there is a ladder there for that child to climb! Thats what we believe in. Thats the basis of the best of the American dream, a ladder that every child can climb. Thats where we are falling short as a country today. Why are we letting the ladder of opportunity just fall on over in our country, with barely a peep of protest from any of us? I honestly dont know. But thats about to change. And in any situation change starts by telling the truth. Which brings us to three Big Lies. Lie #1: America is broke. You keep hearing this, right? We are broke. Broke. It sounds kind of strange. I mean, look around. Corporations are pulling down record prots. American companies are making cool new gadgets that are selling like hotcakes. Wall Street is white hot again. You look at other countries, doing the best they can. We sure dont seem broke, compared to them. But you hear it again and again. So you start to think, maybe youre crazy. Maybe they are right. Maybe we are broke. But this is dangerous. Once we start accepting this lie that were broke, it gets a lot easier to accept some pretty terrible conclusions.

Were broke, so maybe we cant afford Medicare. Were broke, so maybe we cant afford teachers to teach our children. Were broke, so maybe we need to lay off police ofcers, and reghters, and nurses, and close hospitals, and take away heating assistance in the winter. Maybe we cant afford to x roads, let the bridges fall down. Maybe we cant afford health care for poor people or the disabled. After all, were broke, right? Right? Wrong. Im here tonight to tell you, you had it right the rst time. You are not crazy. And you are not alone. We are being lied to. We are not broke. America is not broke. Say it with me, America is not broke. We are still the richest country in the world. Were the richest country in the history of the world. Our workers are some of the most productive in the world. Our military might is unrivaled. Everybodys so worried about China? Well, our economy is almost as big as two Chinas and were bigger than almost all of Europe combined. So if were still the richest country in the world why are so many Americans suffering right now? Losing their homes? Out of work? Its because someone has been telling us we, the people the most dangerous lie you can tell any country in the middle of a nancial crisis.

Americas Dominance of Global Wealth Is Slipping. 14 Sept. 2010.

The NY Times.
http:// economix.blogs.nytimes.com /tag/allianz/

China (CIA fact book: 10.99 trillion GDP PPP).

https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/ch.html

China (World Bank: 9.1 trillion GDP PPP) http://

data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ NY.GNP.MKTP.PP.CD

EU GDP ($14.82 trillion). https://

www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/ee.html

EU GDP (World Bank $16.4 trillion). http://

data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ NY.GNP.MKTP.PP.CD

EU GDP PPP (World Bank $15.6 trillion).

http://data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ NY.GNP.MKTP.PP.CD

USA GDP (CIA: $14.66 trillion): https://

www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/us.htmlUSA

USA GDP PPP (CIA: $14.1 trillion): http://

data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ NY.GNP.MKTP.PP.CD

You know, repeating the falsehood that America is broke is like telling people stuck in a burning building that all the exits are locked when they arent. Just repeating the statement, over and over again, makes people feel helpless. It freezes them in place and keeps them standing in harms way, when there is a way out. We do not have to suffer like this, America. Because were not broke. We were robbed. And somebody has our money. And I mean: who has the money that used to be in our pockets, in our schools, in our retirement accounts? Let me ask you this: Who got a big bonus last year? Who got a new private jet? Where is all of that money going? Wall Street, well they were handed $144 billion in compensation last yearthats a record high by the way. And then two wars for the past decade on a credit card. By the end of this year, well have spent almost 1.3 trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh and those tax cuts for the richest Americans, thats a big chunk. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is handing those folks $42 billion each scal year.
Infographic: Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts 22 Feb 2011. Center For American Progress. http://
www.americanprogress.org/ issues/2011/02/ tax_breaks_infographic.html

Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion. The Wall Street Journal. 11 Oct. 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB1000142405274870451 8104575546542463746562 .html

The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11 Congressional Research Service. 29 Mar. 2011. http://
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/ natsec/RL33110.pdf

And then weve got those offshore tax havens. For the past ten years corporations have been paying about 10% less in taxes than they used to. And many of those companiesGE is not aloneend up paying no taxes at all. Thats tens of billions of dollars of unpaid taxes, folks. Hmmmmm. Thats a lot of our money. And at the same time, let me ask you this: Who got a pink slip? Who got an eviction notice? If we are broke, how come only some of us are suffering, while others enjoy wealth beyond the wildest dreams of any previous generation. The pharaohs must be turning over the graves saying How did we miss this? Something really strange is going on here. I mean: look at some of these numbers. 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people. Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

The Decline in U.S. Corporate Taxes and the Rise in Offshore Tax Haven Abuses Center for Corporate
Policy http:// www.corporatepolicy.org/ topics/Taxhavens.htm

Controlling the wealth of America top 1 percent control 83 percent of U.S. stocks.
FinanceMyMoney.com
http://nancemymoney.com/ who-controls-wealth-inamerica-top-1-percentown-83-percent-of-stockshousing-debt-eatingpersonal-income/

Are the Rich Getting Richer? The Data Say Yes. DailyFinance.com 21 Feb. 2010. http://
www.dailynance.com/ 2010/02/21/are-the-richgetting-richer-the-data-saysyes/

And so not coincidentally, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are now living below the poverty line. The highest rate in 20 years. No. It is not that Americas pie is getting smaller. The amount of money generated by this country every year is huge. The pie is getting bigger bigger almost every year. Its just that your slice, the middle class and working class slice, of Americas pie thats whats getting smaller. And thats the problem. And that is of course even worse if you're a woman, making 77 cents to the dollar of what men make, or a woman of color making 61 to 52 cents to that same dollar. Its worse for people of color, across the whole spectrum. Here is the truth: it is not our nation that is broke or broken. There was once a social contract between corporate America and the rest of America, and that contract is what is now broken. In other words: those Americans whove fallen out of the middle class down into foreclosure down into joblessness down into despair they didnt trip and fall. They were pushed.

Children's quality of life declining, says report. CNN 8 Jun.

2010. http://www.cnn.com/
2010/HEALTH/06/08/ children.wellbeing/ index.html?hpt=T3

It's the Inequality, Stupid. Mother Jones. March/April 2011 Issue.

http://motherjones.com/ politics/2011/02/incomeinequality-in-america-chartgraph

Average Federal Tax Rates for All Households, by Comprehensive Household Income Quintile, 1979-2007/
Congressional Budget Ofce. http://
www.cbo.gov/publications/ collections/tax/2010/ all_tables.pdf

On average, women make 77 cents to the dollar of what men make. Source:
http://www.aauw.org/learn/ research/current.cfm

The wage gap is most severe for women of color. Ie. Black women make 61 cents to for every dollar made by a white male, while Latino women make 52 cents to the dollar. Source: http://
wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/ publications/les/ Pay_Equity_Policy_Brief.pdf

They were pushed by high-priced lobbyists who rigged the game against them. Against all of us, really. They have put the integrity of the US economy at risk. Because they broke the deal that made America work. You see, there used to be an iron link between pay and productivity in our country. We all grew together, more or less. Companies earned more; paychecks went up. Prots and paychecks got bigger together. Protable companies and increasingly afuent citizens paid fair taxes to invest in good infrastructure and improving human capital. It wasnt perfect, but it worked. But then, right about here, in the early 1980s, the link is broken. And it just gets worse, and worse, and worse. Americas companies are getting more productive and making more prots. But middle class and working families are working harder but falling behind. Youre still not convinced? How about this. Look at this. If you adjust the numbers for ination, in 1979, the richest 1 percent of Americans made an average of $550,000 a year. A middle class family made about $54,000. In 2007, the richest 1 percent earned an average of almost $1.9 million each year whoa! But that middle class family made around $65,000. Are you catching this ratio?
See Growth of Average Hourly Compensation and Productivity, 1947-2008 chart from Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future (Vintage) by Robert B. Reich

Average Federal Tax Rates for All Households, by Comprehensive Household Income Quintile, 1979-2007.
Congressional Budget Ofce. http://
www.cbo.gov/publications/ collections/tax/2010/ all_tables.pdf

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The income of the rich has grown by almost 250% while the middle class is barely making 20% more than they did three decades ago. But we keep hearing from certain people: Well, if youre falling behind, youre just not working hard enough. You must be lazy. Why dont you try harder? So we did. Just to keep up, we put in more hours. One paycheck was no longer enough, so both parents started working, we got second jobs, third jobs. Then we said, screw it, we maxed out our credit cards, I know you did; I did too! We used our houses as ATMS. Because we were trying to make up for this growing shortfall between what we were contributing to the economy as middle class and working class folks and what the average employer was giving back to this country in the form of wages. Then, the crash came. And today, our country is almost unrecognizable. There are some people, good people, you know them, who, no matter how hard they work, no matter how much they follow the rules, they cannot succeed anymore in America. And then there are other people, other folks, who, no matter how lazy they are, and no matter how rules they break, are never allowed to fail. In fact, the media says they are too BIG to fail.

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Well, as far as Im concerned there is only one thing on Earth that is too big to fail; the United States of America is too big to fail. We the people are too big to fail. Our families, our communities, our dreams are too big to fail. America is too big to fail. Thats why we are here tonight. To make sure that we dont. Lie #2: Asking the super-rich to pay taxes hurts Americas economy. Now. Pardon me. You would think that, since so many corporations refuse to share their earnings through wages, they might be at least be patriotic enough to pay back America in the form of taxes. But no. They scream and howl. They say that asking the super-rich to pay taxes hurts Americas economy. It would be a job killer! I am really getting sick of this one. Alright folks. Basic civics. Here we go: Corporate taxes are not charity, and they are not theft. Corporate taxes are a return on our investment, as Americans. Never forget: Every American enterprise is blessed to have the best anchor investor in the world the American people.

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American companies dont have to pay for the roads they use to ship their products out. Our tax money pays for those roads. America pays for those roads, so the businesses dont have to. Thats a big expense that they dont carry on their books. Thats an investment from us. They dont have to pay to set up their own court system, to enforce all those contracts, all that ne print. They dont have to create their own 911 emergency service. They dont pay to purify their own water or air. They dont have to teach anyone to tie their shoes, or to do algebra. Our tax money pays for public school teachers to do that work. America as a whole pays. We shoulder those big burdens so that Americas businesses dont have to. Which means what our businesses do pay out in taxes, they more than get back in services, support and stability all keys to making a prot. A smart computer geek can use the Internet to get rich, and we applaud them; but he or she didnt have to put on a hardhat and go out there and build the internet himself. Our tax dollars did that. So we, the American taxpayers, have put a ton of resources on the table, creating a stable and highly productive environment for businesspeople. And when they do poorly, they should not be expected to pay us back a lot in the form of taxes.

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But when they do well, they should. When you do well in America, you should do well by America. Its only fair. Its a fair return on investment, after all, the American Dream is possible only when employers pay decent wages and fair taxes. But the problem is too many of our giant corporations dont want to do either. Now, I am not talking about our small business, or local businesses, or green businesses or even some of good, larger, patriotic businesses that are still hiring American workers, playing by the rules and investing here. We love them. We applaud them. I am talking about those so-called American corporations that are really multi-national, global corporations. And they are starting to act like foreign corporations doing business in a Third World country. They want to take, take, take and give nothing back. They want to be American corporations when it is convenient for them when they want to use our roads, use our courts, call upon our military to defend their oil interests or their intellectual property in Asia then they are American corporations. But when its time to pay their taxes and give something back, they want to create jobs elsewhere, open up plants elsewhere and hide their earnings in tax shelters overseas.

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Does this sound familiar to anybody? Gimmee, gimmee but get nothing back? Corporate America today would be the worst boyfriend ever. See, I have no problem with rich people. I want to be rich, myself, someday. Who in America doesnt? Theres nothing wrong with that. But just because wed all like to be rich some day, we cant just let the super-rich do whatever they want, like loot our nations treasury and refuse to pay us a penny back. Everybody gets something. Everybody gives back. Thats playing the game fairly. Those who do well in America, should do well by America. Thats what made America great, in the rst place. It was good enough for our grandparents. It should be good enough for CEOs today. You know: some self-made millionaires and billionaires agree with us. Take a look at this. Those are some smart people. Good patriots.

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Lets hear it for the Agenda Project, for helping us pull that together. It is sad that we have to learn these lessons all over again. You know, our great-grandparents already learned this before us, the hard way. That is why they had such a wise view such a sober view of our corporations. See, our grandparents respected business people. But they didnt worship them. They didnt worship markets. They didnt believe that markets could magically do things that even Adam Smith never said they could do, or thought they could do. Because they lived through the Great Depression. They knew what it was like to have the bottom completely drop out from underneath them. So in rebuilding America, the rst thing they did was create the ideal conditions for a thriving middle class. There were three pillars.

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Pillar 1: Good government, to help middle class people buy things together that we couldnt buy individually like quality education for our kids, clean air and a safety net, some insurance against tough times. Pillar 2: Good employers who, whether they wanted to or not, paid decent wages and fair taxes. Pillar 3: Good citizens and community members, actively involved in making our country stronger and more fair. Civil rights. Womens rights. Equal rights. And dont forget the unions. In 1945 more than a third of all American workers were union workers. Today? Just 13 percent. Look, whether you personally wanna be in a union or not our grandparents respected unions, even when they didnt join them. They knew that giving a voice to working folks was key to having an economy that could maximize prot without minimizing people. In the words of AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, one of our most important leaders: "The American Dream is not that a few of us will get to be rich, but that all of us will have a fair portion of the good things in life.

Union Members Summary. 21 Jan. 2011.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://
www.bls.gov/news.release/ union2.nr0.htm

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Unions have never stopped ghting for the American Dream. And they are the key to a thriving middle class, period. Somehow we have forgotten that. But our grandparents never did. So while they were building these pillars: they put protections in place, guard rails, so those bankers couldnt run their own train off the rails again and run over Americas working families in the process. They put rules in place and guardians at the door to keep the big bankers from turning Wall Street into a casino and gambling with Americas future, ever again. First among these protections was the Glass-Steagal Act. Glass-Steagal made sure that Wall Street investment banks were separate from banks we deposit our hardearned money in so they couldnt gamble with OUR money. Smart rules. Our grandparents wrote their wisdom into our law books so we would never have to suffer what they went through. Whyd they do it? They loved their children.

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They loved their grandchildren. They loved us, is why they did it. But over time, we let them down. We let high-priced lobbyists working with both political parties sneak into the temple our forebearers built. And page by page, we let them tear the wisdom, and the genius and the good sense of our grandparents and great-grandparents from our lawbooks. And whyd they do it? For some principle? No. They did it for money. Oh, were just gonna deregulate this here, make a little mo money privatize that there, make a little mo money deregulate everything ... dont mind us. Just like the 1920s. Privatize the gain, socialize the pain. No rules for the rich. No rights for the poor.

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Socialism for the super-wealthy; Darwinism for the working people. Same as before. And here we are again. Same disaster. I mean: when will we learn? And now these same genius people tell us there is nothing we can do about it! Anything you suggest that would help America? They howl about the decit. They want us to just shut up and sit down and suffer. Look, were not stupid. If we just went back to Clinton era tax rates and military expenditures, we could pay the decit off in 10 years or so. Why wont either party go ahead and put increased tax revenues on the table? We voted in 2008 for peace and prosperity, not war and austerity. This is dangerous.
Do-Nothing Congress as a Cure. 12 Apr. 2011.
The NY Times. http://
www.nytimes.com/ 2011/04/13/business/ economy/

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It is wrong to cast this as a ght just between rich and poor. Or even between Wall Street versus Main Street. Its a bigger ght than that. This is about a very small number of very greedy people versus the United States of America, and the American way, and the American dream, and everything we hold dear. No. We say, no. Our nation is at risk. America itself is at risk. And it is time for us to stand together and ght. Which brings me to the third, big lie. Lie #3: Hating on Americas government and wrecking Americas infrastructure is patriotic. The worst part of all of this, for me, is the way that the people championing the dismantling of the American Dream paint their efforts all red, white and blue. They want to paint their wrecking ball red, white and blue and expect us to stand here saluting while they destroy the country. No way. Cheerleading for rich people to take from our country and give nothing back is supposed to be the height of patriotism? They claim to be the super-patriots, who love America more than anyone in this room, more than me, and more than you.

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But do they? The only people who talk worse about America than some of these people are our sworn enemies. These so-called super-patriots actively hate Americas government. I hate to say it, but its true. They cant think of a single nice thing to say about Americas government. Of course, they always cleverly hide that fact. They say it, Oh, we hate the government, or the federal government. But Excuse me, sir. My dad served in the military. Last time I checked, the federal government was also known as Americas government. So how do you get to be a patriot, trashing Americas government all the time? Look at their great leader, Grover Norquist who was quoted proudly saying that he wants to shrink Americas government to the point that it can be drowned in a bathtub. Drowned. In a bathtub. Americas government? Excuse me? Who talks like that? That is not a very patriotic statement, sir.
Grover Norquist: 'Field Marshal' of the Bush Plan 14 May. 2001. The Nation.
http:// www.thenation.com/ article/grover-norquisteld-marshal-bush-plan

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The contempt that they have for Americas government perfectly matches their plans for the American people. Paul Ryans budget would knock out more critical infrastructure than our sworn enemies ever dreamed of knocking out. These massive cuts wouldnt just kill Medicare they would knock out more American rst responders than our sworn enemies ever thought of. Real patriotism is defending our nation and its infrastructure against all enemies, foreign and domestic. How does knocking out tens of thousands of America's rst responders as your budget plan make you a patriot?! That's some cheap patriotism if you ask me! The time has come for a deeper patriotism. Lets set aside this cheaper patriotism. We need a deeper patriotism. Listening to all these statistics Ive been throwing out, its easy to forget that there are real people behind each and every one of these numbers. And I think our leaders in Washington do forget sometimes. But were not going to forget. And its up to us to remind them. To remind them of stories like these: [short lm]
President Obama Skewers Paul Ryan's Budget Plan.. New York Magazine. http://
videos.nymag.com/video/ President-Obama-SkewersPaulRy;Politics#c=3M88N20Z8F QGQKX9&t=President %20Obama%20Skewers %20Paul%20Ryan's %20Budget%20Plan

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Act 4: The Lie We Tell Ourselves. Pretty amazing huh? These folks have been through some hard times. But they are not giving up. Theyre ready to ght for the American Dream. So are we. You know, we have talked about the three big lies we hear from DC and Wall Street and Big Media. But I want to knock down one more lie. Lie #4, one of the biggest lies of all: the lie we tell ourselves. The lie that we are helpless. The lie that we cant do anything. The lie that unless President Obama does everything we want him to do, when we want him to do it, in the order we want him to do it, and says exactly what we want him to say, every single day on television then all is lost ... we suck ... we have blown it. And now we cant do anything ourselves, inside or outside of DC, to move America forward. That is the most insidious lie.

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That is the lie that has taken us from hope to heartbreak: the lie that somehow the movement for hope and change in America in America! is dead. Or ever could be. Yes, there have been disappointments and setbacks. But as noisy as our opponents have been, they represent a pretty small slice of America. They are tiny compared to the massive forces on our side. The media were impressed when the Tea Party brought 150 thousand people to protest in DC in 2009. We had 150 thousand people in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin alone. And good people are standing up now from Wall Street, to Montana, and Ohio. This is all across the country. Why? Because the number of people who need change and who are seeking change is bigger than ever. Remember: Our slogan was never, Yes, HE can. It was always, Yes, we can. And we still can.

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So heres what were going to do, with your help: Were going to rebuild the dream. Tonight, we are launching a nationwide movement, with MoveOn.org, The Center for Community Change, The Campaign for Americas Future, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and many other patriotic organizations, to nd the best ideas in America to recapture, re-imagine and rebuild the American Dream. And once weve got those solutions then were going to get them taken seriously. Folks have already given us a few amazing suggestions. Don't tell us we're broke. For instance: How about a gambling tax on Wall Street? How about we get just one tenth of a penny on every one of those lightning trades, where the Wall Street guys set their computers to do 1,000 trades a second. People say Oh we cant tax them, we might discourage them! How do you discourage an algorithm? The New York Times says we could get billions from a tax on Wall Street speculation alone. Dont tell us were broke. How about we roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? Right there wed save $80 billion over just the next two years!

The Growing Push to Impose a Transaction Tax. 17 Jun. 2010. The

NY Times. http://
dealbook.nytimes.com/ 2010/06/17/the-growingpush-to-impose-atransaction-tax/

Three Good Reasons to Let the High-End Bush Tax Cuts Disappear This Year. 29 Jul. 2010.
Center For American Progress. http://
www.americanprogress.org/ issues/2010/07/ let_cuts_expire.html

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Dont tell us were broke. Last night we heard we're bringing some of our troops home. How about we wind these wars all the way down and bring all of our brave troops home, and use that $3 billion a week to rebuild the infrastructure of our own country? Dont tell us were broke. How about we take some of the billions we give to Halliburton or other semi-shady military contractors and war proteers? We could to pay for every soldier to go college, or create a Veterans Corps to help reconstruct their own country. Why do schools have to lay off teachers, while Halliburton still has billions? Dont tell us were broke. How about we cut the subsidies to big oil companies and use the money to train young people to put up solar panels and retrot buildings, so they can help save the planet? After all it's not just the economy that's melting down, it's the whole planet that's melting down. And we can do something about that. Dont tell us were broke. These are just a few ideas. But we want to know your ideas. This doesnt work without you.
The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11. 29 Mar 2011.
Congressional Research Service.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/ crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf

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So here is the plan: Starting on July 5th we're calling on hundreds of thousands of Americans to submit your best ideas on how we can rebuild the dream. Then, on July 16th and 17th, in every congressional district across the country people are going to gather in homes, community centers, coffee shops, wherever we can meet up--and we're gonna discuss the ideas, decide which ideas make sense, and what we need to get to work on rst. And from that process, we'll create a Contract for the American Dream. We'll vote on it, we'll ratify it, and we'll put our money and our time and our feet on the street behind it. There are so many good ideas out there to make America better. Its up to us to nd them, and then ght for them. Ok, so in a few minutes, were gonna bring The Roots back out for a concert. I cant wait and I know you cant wait and I wanna thank you all for being here tonight with me to talk about the American Dream. Its so important that youre here and everybody who is watching online, thank you. Because the time has come to rebuild the American Dream.

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The American Dream. To some, it sounds hokey; I know. But just to be clear: I am not talking about the American fantasy that everyone is going to be a billionaire, or that buying lots of things will somehow make you happy. No. Thats a fantasy. Im talking about a basic idea that hard work should pay. You should be able to work hard and get somewhere. The American Dream used to mean something in this country. That if you put in a hard days work, you could expect good American wages, benets, a dignied retirement and a better life for your kids. It meant that when products said Made in America, people knew they were getting the highest quality manufactured goods money could buy. And it meant we were a middle class country, with middle class values, of hard work, opportunity and fairness. Everyone wasnt in the middle class, but everyone believed that given a fair shot they could make it there. Our national commitment to this ideal is why people chose to come here from around the world. And even for those of us whose families did not choose to come here, we have chosen to stay because we want to make those dreams possible for our children. Now it wont be easy. But it is possible. Because that is the kind of country we are.

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I know about our nations founding reality; ugly and unequal. And we never deny that pain. But as Americans, we never let the pain have the last word, either. Because in addition to our founding reality, we also have our founding dream. Beautifully and fundamentally about equality. "We hold these truths to be self evident that all are created equal." And the story of America is the story of our struggle year after year, decade after decade, and now century after century, to drag that unequal founding reality, closer and closer, to that beautiful founding dream. There is a movement that likes to talk a lot about the founders, and about liberty. The Tea Party movement. They are our brothers and sisters, too. They just dont know it yet. But never forget: We are ghting for them too. We dont want them to live in neighborhoods where, if they smell smoke there is not re station for 20 miles, because of the cuts theyve been ghting for. We dont want them to live in neighborhoods where, if they get scared they cant get hold of the police, because of these cuts.

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Where they have to wait 10 or 15 minutes for a 9-1-1 call to be answered. Where their grandkids have to go to school with 45 kids in a classroom, six books and no chalk. That is the moral power of our movement. We are not just ghting against our opponents. We are ghting for them, too. And so we appreciate them and their love of liberty. But we also know something else. The Pledge of Allegiance does not stop with the word liberty. As Americans, we like to say the whole pledge: liberty yes! But liberty and justice for all. Justice for all. See, we arent 1/3 Patriots in our movement. We are deep patriots. We are full pledge of allegiance patriots. My problem with the other brand of patriotism is not that it's too patriotic. It's that it's not patriotic enough. It doesnt embrace the full set of American values. Deep patriotism does. Cheap patriotism thinks that America is just our economic performance. Deep patriots say: Dont make America that small. We have achieved more than that in this country.

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We are remarkable because weve also achieved outstanding environmental performance, outstanding labor standards, outstanding consumer protections. America is an outstanding leader across the board; thats why people from around the world have come here. If you want to live in a country where the only thing they care about is economic performance you can nd those countries and move there. But your kids will drink poison water, you will breathe poison air, your kids toys might kill them, you will work for a penny a day and could be red for any reason or no reason at all. Countries like that exist, throughout world. We should help those countries. We should stand with the people of those countries. But we should never let the United States of America become one of those countries. The deep patriots wont let that happen. And thats what I see in this room tonight. Deep patriotism. No, our nation is not broke and our ghting spirits cannot be broken. I am not broken. You are not broken. Do you feel broken? No?

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Well then stand on your feet. Stand with me tonight. As deep patriots, we refuse to stand aside for those who want tear our country down. Lets stand together and work together and look for ways to build our country back up. And America's corporations should be proud to stand with us. They should be eager to reinvest in the nation that has invested so much in them. Let's build a movement where we invite Americans to turn to each other, not on each other. Let's stand together, work together and continue the ght: For liberty and justice for all. Liberty and justice for all. Liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

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