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Why Obama Now

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    In this country, broad-based prosperity
    has never trickled down
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    from the success of a wealthy few.
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    It has always come from the success of a
    strong and growing middle class.
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    That's how a generation who went to college
    on the G.I. Bill, including my grandfather,
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    helped build the most prosperous economy
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    the world has ever known.
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    That's why a CEO like Henry Ford
    made it his mission to pay his workers enough
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    so they could buy the cars but they made.
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    And yet for much of the last century,
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    we have been having the same argument
    with folks who keeps peddling some version
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    of trickle-down economics.
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    They keep telling us that if we'd convert
    more of our investments in education
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    and research and health care into tax cuts,
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    especially for the wealthy,
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    our economy will grow stronger.
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    Now the problem for advocates of this theory
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    is that we've tried their approach.
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    At the beginning of the last decade,
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    the wealthiest Americans received a huge tax cut in 2001
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    and another huge tax cut in two 2003.
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    We were promised that these tax cuts
    would lead to faster job growth.
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    They did not.
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    The wealthy got wealthier,
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    but prosperity sure didn't trickle down.
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    Instead, during the last decade we had
    the slowest job growth in half a century.
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    It was a period when
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    insurance companies
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    and mortgage lenders and financial institutions
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    didn't have to abide by strong enough regulations.
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    And what was the result:
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    Profits for many of these companies soared.
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    But so did people's health insurance premiums.
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    Patients were routinely denied care,
    often when they needed it most.
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    Families were enticed and sometimes just
    plain tricked
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    into buying homes they couldn't afford.
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    Huge, reckless bets were made with other
    people's money on the line.
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    And our entire financial system
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    was nearly destroyed.
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    So we tried this theory out.
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    And you would think that after the
    results of this experiment,
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    that the proponents of this theory might show some humility.
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    You'd think they'd say "You know what?
    Maybe some rules and regulations
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    are necessary to protect the economy.
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    Maybe just maybe, at a time of growing debt
    and widening inequality,
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    we should hold off on giving the wealthiest Americans
    another round of big tax cuts.
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    But that's exactly the opposite of what they've done.
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    Instead of moderating their views even slightly,
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    the republicans running congress right now have doubled down.
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    This is what the rolling on!
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    This larger debate that we'll be having
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    about the size and role of government;
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    this debate has been with us since our
    founding days.
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    But no matter what we argue,
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    or where we stand,
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    We have always held certain beliefs as Americans:
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    We believe that in order to preserve our
    own freedoms and pursue our own happiness,
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    we can't just think about ourselves.
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    We have to think about the country that made
    those liberties possible.
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    We have to think about our fellow citizens,
    with whom we share a community.
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    We have to think about what's required
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    to preserve the American dream for future generations.
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    And if we keep that in mind,
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    and uphold our obligations to one another
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    and to this larger enterprise that is America,
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    then I have no doubt that we will continue our
    long and prosperous journey
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    as the greatest nation on Earth.
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    Thank you, God bless you, God bless United States of America.
Title:
Why Obama Now
Description:

An animated short about the big choice in 2012's presidential election, by Simpsons / Family Guy animator Lucas Gray.
http://whyobamanow.org. Get registered and ready at http://gottavote.com

Click the "cc" button for captions in English or Spanish.

Donate to the campaign:
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/2012/whyobamanow
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Captions Requested
Duration:
03:44
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