Three possibilities these days: financial lethargy, no spending (libertarianism), stupid huge short-term spending (8 years of Bush), sustainable spending (Obama).
The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank.
We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy, yet we import more oil today than ever before.
The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year [result of stupid huge short-term spending], yet we keep delaying reform.
Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for [result of stupid huge short-term spending].
And though all of these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt [result of stupid huge short-term spending], both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.
In other words, we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.
A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy [stupid huge short-term spending] instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations...
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Regulations -- regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.
Well, that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.
Now is the time to act boldly and wisely, to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.
Now is the time to jump-start job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that is what I'd like to talk to you about tonight.
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I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act [financial lethargy] would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. And that's why I pushed for quick action.