Here's our liveblog of highlights from President Obama's economic speech at Georgetown University, which is now ended.
Update at 12:30 p.m. ET: Obama says there is fundamental weakness in the political system as well as the economic system. "There's been a tendency to score political points instead of rolling up sleeves to solve real problems. There is also an impatience that characterizes this town -- an attention span that has only grown shorter with the twenty-four hour news cycle, and insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers," he says.
He says people respond to "the tempest of the moment" instead of confronting challenges in a sustained and focused way. He adds: "This can't be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high."
Obama says he knows how hard it is for lawmakers from both parties to grapple with so many problems at once -- "more than most Congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime. But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility."
Update at 12:10 p.m. ET: Obama pledges "an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts."
He also pledges to trim the national deficit and debt but says "let's not kid ourselves and suggest that we can do it by trimming a few earmarks or cutting the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts." He adds: "If we want to get serious about fiscal discipline -- and I do -- then we are going to not only have to trim waste out of our discretionary budget, a process we have already begun -- but we will also have to get serious about entitlement reform."
Health care reform is entitlement reform, Obama says, "and that's one of the reasons why I firmly believe we need to get health care reform done this year."
Update at 11:50 a.m. ET: Obama says markets and economies ebb and flow, but "this recession was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street."
He says he "absolutely" agrees that the long-term budget deficit must be brought under control but economists across the spectrum say that right now, with families and companies curbing their spending, "the government has to step in and temporarily boost spending in order to stimulate demand."
Update at 11:43 a.m. ET: President Obama has begun giving his remarks on the economy at Georgetown University. Click here to read the entire speech, as prepared for delivery.
The White House has released advance excerpts of President Obama's speech on the economy. It's called "A New Foundation" and Obama says it's meant to explain his economic strategy "as clearly as I can."
In the prepared excerpts, Obama says steps taken so far are starting to show signs of progress but there is a hard road ahead. He cites a parable from the Sermon on the Mount about a man who built his house on a pile of sand and another who built his house on a rock.
The first man's house "was destroyed as soon as the storm hit," Obama says in the excerpts, and adds: "We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock."
He describes that rock as a foundation built on five economic pillars: "new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations."
Read the complete excerpts here.
(Posted by Jill Lawrence)
Excerpts from "A New Foundation"
Today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. I want to talk about what we've done, why we've done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we've made, and be honest about the pitfalls that may lie ahead. And most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America's future -- a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation, and fleeing profit, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century That is the America I see. That is the future I know we can have.
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