But I start tonight with the economy.
The president and the Democrats are in trouble.
President Obama went to Ohio today
to try to sell voters that the economy is his top priority.
I intend to keep fighting as hard as I can,
as long as it takes, to make sure this economy is working for every single payer American.
Anybody who wants a job has got to be able to go out there and get one,
and we‘re not going to be done until we get that result.
But the new polls out are dire. The president‘s approval rating on how he‘s handled
the economy is down to an all-time low
of 41 percent. Democrats are also losing to the Republicans in generic congressional
match-ups,
49-45 percent.
The Democrats are losing because the economy has not recovered
as well as people had hoped.
The jobs have not come back.
So what went wrong?
How can they fix their political problem,
but much more importantly,
how can they fix our economy
so that we as a country
can get back to work?
Well, here‘s the problem.
They forgot how they‘re policies affect the average man in the country.
They, along with the Republicans who started TARP,
made a fundamental error.
They confused Wall Street‘s interests
with Main Street‘s interests. I know it‘s a bit of a cliche,
but it‘s so true here.
They forgot that eventually, this was supposed to help a guy like—
I don‘t know, who do we pick? Somebody in the audience,
Bob in Iowa. OK?
When the economic collapse first started,
the original idea was the financial industry was in trouble and if we didn‘t
fix it,
the economy wouldn‘t recover.
Well, that makes sense, but at some point
they forgot the ultimate goal,
which was economic recovery for all of us.
Instead, billions went into TARP
and trillions more went into indirect funding
of the largest banks in the country.
But no one stayed on the beat
to make sure they actually lent that money out
so that businesses can invest and hire more people like Bob or you.
So the bankers took the money and went back to gambling
because they make more money doing that than lending out to small businesses.
Now, that‘s eventually going to lead to a second crash.
But more importantly for now,
that meant that the small business in the country
couldn‘t hire you for new projects.
The people in D.C. and New York didn‘t recognize this
because they live in a bubble.
Inside that bubble, their incomes are still going way up.
Over the last three decades,
the top one percent of this country
had their income rise
by 281 percent.
They don‘t feel your pain.
So until the elections started to roll around,
the politicians didn‘t even get that the recovery plan isn‘t working.
So having realized this, the administration recently decided to give out
$30 billion to local community banks
so they can loan out to small businesses.
The Republicans had pushed for this earlier,
so that‘s great.
We all agree. Let‘s shake on it.
Well, that would have gotten us on the right road,
except the
Republicans flip-flopped
and voted no to kill the bill.
Now, why in the world did they do that?
Why filibuster a bill that you claimed to support earlier
and that helps small businesses you claim you care so much about?
The answer?
Politics.
They figured that their best course to get reelected
is to obstruct
everything the president proposes, hope that the economy does not recover,
and then blame the president for it.
Honestly, that‘s sick.
But there‘s plenty of blame to go around here. Both the Obama and Bush administrations
chose to support the big banks over you.
The Republicans have been in the corner of the big banks on
every single proposal. I‘ve been watching it like a hawk. They never wavered.
Every time, they voted with the banks.
Now they kill bills to help small businesses while pretending to be champions of them.
So what‘s the answer?
I think the Democrats need to do a mea culpa and say look,
we followed the Bush strategy of giving to the banks and hoping it trickled down to you.
Well, that did not work.
We‘ve learned our lesson.
If we give any more money out, it will be directly to small businesses
to hire Americans for projects that go to rebuilding this country.
And if the Republicans stand in our way,
may God help them,
because we‘re coming for them,
and from now on we‘re not taking no for an answer.