Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery

It’s great to be here in Annandale, and I’m looking forward to answering questions from the folks here with us today as well as the Americans who’ve submitted questions online.

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But before I begin, I just want to say a few words about where we are as a nation and where we need to go.

We are living through extraordinary times. This generation of Americans – our generation – has been called to confront challenges of a magnitude unmatched in recent history – challenges that few generations of Americans have ever been asked to confront. In addition to the immediate threats we face – two wars and a deep recession – our economy has also been weakened by the failure to solve problems that have plagued us for decades: the crushing cost of health care, the state of our schools, and our dependence on foreign oil.

Now, I know there are some who say that in tackling all these problems, my administration is taking on too much at once – that we’re moving too fast, too soon.

Well I say that America has waited long enough. It’s not too soon to fix our schools when we’re already behind other nations in graduation rates and achievement. It’s not too soon to wean ourselves off dirty sources of energy when we’ve been talking about our oil dependence since Richard Nixon was president. It’s not too soon to reform our health care system when we’ve been talking about fixing it since Teddy Roosevelt was president.

We are at a defining moment for this nation. If we act now, we can rebuild an economy that is strong, and competitive, and prosperous once more. We can lead this century as we lead the last. But if we don’t act – if we let this moment pass – we could see this economy sputter along for years, if not decades. We could see our children inherit a world that is poorer and more dangerous than the one we found. I know that people say the cost of fixing our problems is great, but I can assure you – we have reached a point where the cost of doing nothing is far greater.


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