GOV. RITTER: Thank you.Good afternoon. I'm Bill Ritter, governor of the great state ofColorado. (Cheers, applause.)It is my distinct honor and privilege to welcome the presidentand the vice president of the United States to Denver, Colorado forthis historic bill signing. (Cheers, applause.)Two months ago, I joined governors from all across America at ameeting in Philadelphia with then-President-elect Obama and VicePresident-elect Biden.They wanted to hear from the nation'sgovernors about how the economy was hurting people in our states, howfamilies were struggling, how children were being impacted. For thegovernors, this was encouraging: new leaders solving problems bybuilding new partnerships and coming up with new solutions. Theyasked, they listened, and they included our ideas for short-term jobcreation and long-term economic growth in the American Recovery andReinvestment Act. (Applause.)Mr. President, thank you. Thank you for the millions of jobsthat will be created by investing in transportation, energy and otherinfrastructure projects. Thank you for investing in vital safety netservices like health care and unemployment insurance. Thank you forinvesting in education, research and innovation. And thank you forbelieving in the promise of Colorado to help lead our nation forward.(Cheers, applause.)There is no better place for this signing ceremony than righthere in Colorado, the home of the new energy economy. (Cheers,applause.) Two years ago, Colorado started building a new energyeconomy, creating new jobs, building new wind farms and wheat fields,and making our universities research leaders in renewable andalternative energy. The new energy economy is very much aboutcreating a new energy future, but it's also about creating neweconomic opportunity. It's about creating sustainable jobs so parentscan keep food on the table, so they can send their kids to college, sothey can afford health care. It's about creating a new economicfuture for all Americans.Companies like Namaste Solar are at the heart of the new energyeconomy.When Colorado voters became the first in the country to pass arenewable-energy standard in 2004, Namaste did not exist. Today,Namaste has 55 employees. They built the solar array on top of thismuseum. They installed solar at the governor's residence. There arehundreds of new-energy-economy businesses like Namaste employingthousands of people all across Colorado. (Applause.)Mr. President, your recovery package will drive the new energyeconomy forward, not just in this state but all across America,creating jobs, reducing the cost of energy for families and moving ournation closer to energy independence.This is how we rebuild America. This is how President Obama'srecovery package will get the economy moving again. This is thepromise of a better tomorrow. (Applause.)And it is now my privilege to introduce a great friend to thestate of Colorado, someone I've long admired for his commitment andhis dedication to public service, the vice president of the UnitedStates, Mr. Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.)
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Governor, thank you. (Applause.)Governor, thank you very much. It's a genuine honor. It's an honorto be here with the president.And my name is Joe Biden. I used to work for -- I used to workfor Ken Salazar -- (laughter) -- in the United States Senate. Andit's good to see you here, Ken. I -- I guess you got -- you were --you're going to hitch a ride home with me, right? (Laughter.) Herode out on the big plane; he's going back on the little one.(Laughter.)But I -- it's -- and I -- I also want to acknowledge SenatorMichael Bennet, who I had an opportunity to meet. (Cheers, applause.)And Congresswoman DeGette is here as well. There she is.And Mayor Hickenlooper, I -- I want you to know how much weappreciate the hospitality.And also, I believe -- Congressman Perlmutter was at the -- thereyou are, Congressman. (Laughter.) I wasn't sure you were --(applause) -- he greeted us when we got off the plane.And I -- (applause) -- and Mr. President, it's a slightdiversion, but I think we got to be nice to him: The chairman of theFinance Committee, Max Baucus, is here.(Laughter.) So we got to make sure -- Max, just remember, when wecall -- when I call, just say, "Yes, Joe." Okay? (Laughter.) Allkidding aside, thanks for your great help in this matter.You know, you don't need to be an economist to know that jobs arethe engine of our economy. And without jobs, people can't earn. Andif people can't earn, they can't spend. And if they don't spend, itmeans more jobs get lost. It's a vicious cycle. And that's thevicious cycle we're in today. And it's one of the reasons that thisbill is so desperately needed. We have to reverse that cycle.But everyone knows that jobs are more than just about a job.They're about dignity. They're about respect. They're about beingable to get up in the morning and look your child in the eye and say,everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay.Last year -- last year our economy lost 3 million jobs; 600,000more just this last month. There are an awful lot of mothers andfathers who had to walk up those stairs to the bedroom of theirchildren and tell them that I'm out of work, honey. We may not beable to stay here. You may not be able to stay in school. It's atough, tough conversation, and many -- too many times it's alreadyoccurred in this country.We're here today -- we're here today to start to turn thataround. (Applause.) But folks, we're not just -- we're not justgoing to help the economy recover. We're going to start building theeconomy for the future. I'm particularly pleased that this billincludes investments in areas I've worked my whole political career.Thanks to the Recovery Act, thousands of additional policeofficers will go on the streets of America and hundreds and hundredsof fire stations will be built, making the people of Denver and everyother city in America safer.Thanks to this act, we're going to see an unprecedentedinvestment in improving America's rail system coast to coast.(Applause.) In Denver -- right here -- right here in Denver, yourlight rail will be affected all the way to the Northeast Corridorwhere I'm coming from. We should have the best transportation -- thebest transportation system in the world, and we don't. (Applause.)But ladies and gentlemen, it's not only that this will helpcreate jobs in the rail -- in the rail sector. It's also good for theenvironment. So there's a double bang for the buck in a number of theinvestments we're making in this legislation.Starting today, our administration will be working day and nightto provide more aid for the unemployed, create immediate jobs buildingour roads and our bridges, make long-term investments in a smarterenergy grid, and so much more.And as we turn the economy around, we've got to make sure of onemore thing. Last time an economic recovery occurred after a deeprecession, the middle class got left behind -- the middle class gotleft behind. And that's why the president set up a -- a White Housecouncil on the -- Task Force on the Middle Class, which he's asked meto chair. So as we go through this process, we're also going to makesure that America's -- as we recover, that American middle class isnot left behind.But before we start on -- on -- on the way, there is much more tobe done in the weeks to come. I want to say something about how --what got us to this point. I remember having the meetings of thetransition team with President-elect Obama and President -- and VicePresident-elect Biden in Chicago, and meeting in those offices knowingwe were about to inherit a very, very bad economic situation. And westarted to put together with the president's leadership the blueprintfor our recovery.Faced with a swirl of options and uncertainties, then President-electObama was as clear and as firm then as he is today about what isneeded. He said, and I quote, "We have to be bold, we have to actfast, and we have to think of the future that we wish to build."Well, I believe that's what the president delivered. He neverlost sight of those goals that he set back in November and December oflast year. Over the weeks that followed I watched him reach out,asking senator and congressman of both parties to put the good of thenation above the disagreement over one particular part of thissignificant package. The president showed a willingness to compromiseon specifics, but he never compromised on the principles he set out inthat room in Chicago back in November.And so, folks, he showed a willingness to work with others to getthings done, but he never bent in his determination to put us on arecode to -- a road to recovery and reinvestment.So today, less than a month -- think of this -- less than a monthinto his presidency, the president is about to sign into law what is,I believe, a landmark achievement. Because of what he did, Americacan take a first very strong step leading us out of this verydifficult road to recovery we find ourselves on.So on behalf of our country and its people, Mr. President, let mepresume to say thank you. We owe you a great deal. (Applause.)To introduce -- to introduce the president, it's my pleasure tointroduce Blake Jones, president of now Namaste -- I told him if Ididn't say it right, he could call me "Bidden" -- (laughter) -- butNamaste Solar. In four years, this company has grown from threepeople to 60 owner-employees and have become one of the leadinginstallers of -- of photoelectric panels here in the state ofColorado. And I expect they have ambitions that go beyond that, and Ihope they succeed.In fact, Bill Ritter isn't just the governor, he's a customer.(Laughter.) Namaste installed, as he mentioned, the solar panels onthe governor's mansion.And -- and despite Manaste's (sic) success, without the recoveryand reinvestment bill that the president is about to sign, I think thepresident would tell you he was a little worried he might have to takeother action in spite of all the progress that had been made. Thatmight have included layoffs.But with this bill -- with this bill -- he's going to be lookingto hire -- not fire, hire. And that's the difference between -- thatthis investment is going to make, and why we're so happy to be heretoday.So please join me in welcoming Blake Jones. (Applause.)
MR. BLAKE JONES: Thank you, VicePresident "Bidden" (ph). (Laughter.)Again, my name is Blake Jones, and I'm the president and CEO ofNamaste Solar. We're a small business based here in Colorado, and wedesign and install solar electric systems for homes, businesses, non-profits and government entities.We also specialize in designing systems for museums that havegood rooftops for presidential tours. (Laughter.) So we can't get toArizona, or whatever is next, fast enough, but maybe next time. We'llget him to come back.As the governor and the vice president said, our company hasgrown very quickly. We've grown from three to 55 employees in justthe past three years. And in this fast growth, we're not alone. Thisfast growth is representative of what thousands of other smallbusinesses throughout the country have experienced in the solarindustry and in other green industries.But despite this past success, we're very concerned about ourfuture, and over the past few months, our company has been preparingfor a drastic downturn in our business this year. It started with ahiring freeze, then we slashed budgets, then we cut work for oursubcontractors, then we slashed budgets again. And then we were facedwith difficult, challenging conversations about laying people off.But now, because of the stimulus bill that the president willsign today, our pessimistic outlook has been injected with new hopeand optimism. (Applause.)And this weekend, I called CEOs of other solar companies tocompare notes about what we saw in the stimulus bill, and theoverwhelming consensus is that this stimulus bill will immediatelybenefit companies like ours. (Applause.)Now, demand for solar is almost overwhelming. It's been growingvery rapidly. It continues to grow. But despite this, over the pastsix months we've had dozens of projects that have been on hold, almostentirely due to the uncertainty and instability in capital markets.Among many other things in the stimulus bill, there are provisionsthat will directly address this, that will open up the markets againand harness the power of the private sector to finance these projects,these wrench-ready projects, so that they can move forward right away.We're -- this in turn will allow us to not only maintain jobsthat otherwise would have been lost this year, but it will also allowus to begin hiring again. And this is for a company that was used tohiring an employee a month. The hiring freeze has been strange forus. But we will begin hiring again. And we now have plans toincrease our workforce by 20 percent this year, and 40 percent through2010. (Applause.)Now, we're just one small business creating one- to two-dozenjobs. But the point I want to stress is that there are thousands ofsmall businesses just like ours that will be doing the same thing.Our trade association, the Solar Energy Industries Association,estimates that as a direct result of this stimulus bill, U.S. solarcompanies will create 69,000 good-paying jobs this year, and almostdouble that number over the next two years. (Applause.) And we'rehoping that the thousands of carpenters, plumbers, electricians,roofers, salespeople, marketing people and executives that have beenlaid off by the building industries, that they'll consider joining usin the solar industry to help us install millions of solar panels onhomes and businesses throughout the United States.(Cheers, applause.)It's important that we talk about the creation of all types ofjobs. But in this day and age, it's particularly important that we'retalking about the creation of green jobs, because green industries aregoing to be some of the most important and fastest-growing industriesin the 21st century. And we're at a crossroads.We cannot afford to be left behind. We must seize thisopportunity to make sure that the United States takes a leadershipposition in this movement. (Cheers, applause.)And furthermore there is a unique claim that we can make aboutgreen jobs. And that's that green jobs aren't just good for those ofus that have them. Green jobs are good for everyone.There are widespread benefits, such that with every green job wecreate, our nation takes one step closer towards achieving energyindependence, strengthening national security, bolstering the economy,protecting the environment and improving public health, all at thesame time. (Cheers, applause.)We're very fortunate to have leadership that understands this,particularly leaders like Governor Ritter, Vice President Biden andthe next speaker. And without further ado, it is my great pleasure tointroduce the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat. You guys can sit down, too. (Laughter.)
Let me begin by saying thank you to a few people -- first of all, your outstanding Governor, Bill Ritter. Please give Bill a big round of applause. (Applause.) Lieutenant Governor Barbara O'Brien. (Applause.) Secretary of State Bernie Buescher. (Applause.) Your outstanding Mayor, John Hickenlooper. (Applause.) Your new Senator, Michael Bennett. (Applause.) Your old senator, now my Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. (Applause.) Mark Udall is not here, but give him a round of applause anyway. (Applause.)
One of the outstanding leaders who helped shepherd this process through in record time -- please give Max Baucus of Montana a big round of applause. Thank you, Max. (Applause.) To Secretary Federico Pena, one of my national co-chairs -- I would not be here if it were not for Federico. Thank you. (Applause.) To Representative Diana DeGette, who is a -- we are in her district. So, thank you so much. (Applause.) Representative Betsy Markey. (Applause.) Representative Jared Polis. (Applause.) Representative Ed Perlmutter. (Applause.)
To all the other elected officials and outstanding leaders who are here. And to the whole Namaste family and Mr. Jones for outstanding work, congratulations. Give them a big round of applause. (Applause.) And to the best Vice President that we've had in a long time -- Joe Biden. (Applause.)
It is great to be back in Denver. (Applause.) I was here last summer -- we had a good time -- (laughter) -- to accept the nomination of my party and to make a promise to people of all parties that I would do all that I could to give every American the chance to make of their lives what they will; to see their children climb higher than they did. And I'm back today to say that we have begun the difficult work of keeping that promise. We have begun the essential work of keeping the American Dream alive in our time. And that's why we're here today. (Applause.)
Now, I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems. Nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end -- the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; the beginning of what we need to do to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills; the beginning of the first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I will sign today -- a plan that meets the principles I laid out in January -- is the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. It's the product of broad consultation and the recipient of broad support -- from business leaders, unions, public interest groups, from the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as the AFL-CIO. (Applause.) From Democrats and Republicans, mayors as well as governors. It's a rare thing in Washington for people with such diverse and different viewpoints to come together and support the same bill. And on behalf of our nation, I want to thank all of them for it, including your two outstanding Senators, Michael Bennett and Mark Udall, as well as all the members of your congressional delegation. They did an outstanding job and they deserve a big round of applause. (Applause.)
I also want to thank Joe Biden for working behind the scenes from the very start to make this recovery act possible. I want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid for acting so quickly and for proving that Congress could step up to this challenge.
I have special thanks to Max Baucus, who's the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Without Max, none of this would have happened. He had to work overtime, and push his committee to work overtime. And I want to thank all the committee chairs and members of Congress for coming up with a plan that is both bold and balanced enough to meet the demands of this moment. The American people were looking to them for leadership, and that's what they provided.
Now, what makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, including 60,000-plus here in Colorado. It's that we're putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done -- (applause) -- in critical areas that have been neglected for too long; work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.
Because we know we can't build our economic future on the transportation and information networks of the past, we are remaking the American landscape with the largest new investment in our nation's infrastructure since Eisenhower built an Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. (Applause.) Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees, bringing critical broadband connections to businesses and homes in nearly every community in America, upgrading mass transit, building high-speed rail lines that will improve travel and commerce throughout our nation.
Because we know America can't out-compete the world tomorrow if our children are being out-educated today, we're making the largest investment in education in our nation's history. (Applause.) It's an investment that will create jobs building 21st century classrooms and libraries and labs for millions of children across America. It will provide funds to train a new generation of math and science teachers, while giving aid to states and school districts to stop teachers from being laid off and education programs from being cut.
In a place like New York City, 14,000 teachers who were set to be let go may now be able to continue pursuing their critical mission. It's an investment that will create a new $2,500 annual tax credit to put the dream of a college degree within reach for middle-class families and make college affordable for 7 million students -- (applause) -- helping more of our sons and daughters aim higher, reach further, fulfill their God-given potential. (Applause.)
Because we know that spiraling health care costs are crushing families and businesses alike, we're taking the most meaningful steps in years towards modernizing our health care system. It's an investment that will take the long overdue step of computerizing America's medical records to reduce the duplication and waste that costs billions of health care dollars, and medical errors that cost thousands of lives each year.
Further, thanks to the actions we've taken, 7 million Americans who lost their health care along the way will continue to get the coverage they need, and roughly 20 million more Americans can breathe a little easier knowing that their health care won't be cut due to a state budget shortfall. And a historic commitment to wellness initiatives will keep millions of Americans from setting foot in the doctor's office in the first place -- because these are preventable diseases and we're going to invest in prevention. (Applause.)
So taken together with the enactment earlier this month of a long-delayed law to extend health care to millions more children of working families -- (applause) -- we have done more in 30 days to advance the cause of health care reform than this country has done in an entire decade. And that's something we should be proud of. (Applause.)
Because we know we can't power America's future on energy that's controlled by foreign dictators, we are taking big steps down the road to energy independence, laying the groundwork for new green energy economies that can create countless well-paying jobs. It's an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years. Think about that -- double the amount of renewable energy in three years. (Applause.) Provide tax credits and loan guarantees to companies like Namaste, a company that will be expanding, instead of laying people off, as a result of the plan that I'm about to sign.
And in the process, we will transform the way we use energy. Today, the electricity we use is carried along a grid of lines and wires that date back to Thomas Edison -- a grid that can't support the demands of this economy. This means we're using 19th and 20th century technologies to battle 21st century problems like climate change and energy security. It also means that places like North Dakota can -- that can produce a lot of wind energy can't deliver it to communities that want it, leading to a gap between how much clean energy we are using and how much we could be using.
The investment we're making today will create a newer, smarter electric grid that will allow for broader use of alternative energy. We will build on the work that's being done in places like Boulder -- a community that's on its -- that's on pace to be the world's first Smart Grid city. (Applause.) This investment will place Smart Meters in homes to make our energy bills lower, make outages less likely, and make it easier to use clean energy. It's an investment that will save taxpayers over $1 billion by slashing energy costs in our federal buildings by 25 percent; save working families hundreds of dollars a year on their energy bills by weatherizing over 1 million homes. And it's an investment that takes the important first step towards a national transmission superhighway that will connect our cities to the windy plains of the Dakotas and the sunny deserts of the Southwest.
Even beyond energy, from the National Institutes of Health to the National Science Foundation, this recovery act represents the biggest increase in basic research funding in the long history of America's noble endeavor to better understand our world. And just as President Kennedy sparked an explosion of innovation when he set America's sights on the moon, I hope this investment will ignite our imagination once more, spurring new discoveries and breakthroughs in science, in medicine, in energy, to make our economy stronger and our nation more secure and our planet safer for our children.
Now, while this package is composed mostly of critical investments, it also includes aid to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of firefighters or police recruits in -- (applause) -- recruits like the ones in Columbus, Ohio, who were told that instead of being sworn in as officers, they were about to be let go. It includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis like the nearly 18 million Americans who will get larger unemployment checks in the mail. About a third of this package comes in the forms of tax cuts -- by the way, the most progressive in our history -- (applause) -- not only spurring job creation, but putting money in the pockets of 95 percent of hardworking families in America. (Applause.) So unlike the tax cuts that we've seen in recent years, the vast majority of these tax benefits will go not to the wealthiest Americans, but to the middle class -- (applause) -- with those workers who make the least benefiting the most.
And it's a plan that rewards responsibility, lifting two million Americans from poverty by ensuring that anyone who works hard does not have to raise a child below the poverty line. So as a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans pull themselves into the middle class in a way we haven't seen in nearly 50 years.
What I'm signing, then, is a balanced plan with a mix of tax cuts and investments. It's a plan that's been put together without earmarks or the usual pork barrel spending. It's a plan that will be implemented with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.
With a recovery package of this size comes a responsibility to assure every taxpayer that we are being careful with the money they work so hard to earn. And that's why I'm assigning a team of managers to ensure that the precious dollars we've invested are being spent wisely and well. We will -- (applause) -- Governor Ritter, Mayor Hickenlooper, we're going to hold governors and local officials who receive the money to the same high standard. And we expect you, the American people, to hold us accountable for the results. And that's why we've created Recovery.gov -- a web site so that every American can go online and see how this money is being spent and what kind of job is being created, where those jobs are being created. We want transparency and accountability throughout this process. (Applause.)
Now, as important as the step we take today is, this legislation represents only the first part of the broad strategy we need to address our economic crisis. In the coming days and weeks, I'll be launching other aspects of the plan. We will need to stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses. We will need to end the culture where we ignore problems until they become full-blown crises instead of recognizing that the only way to build a thriving economy is to set and enforce firm rules of the road.
We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans, and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes -- something I'll talk more about tomorrow. And we will need to do everything in the short term to get our economy moving again, while at the same time recognizing that we have inherited a trillion-dollar deficit, and we need to begin restoring fiscal discipline and taming our exploding deficits over the long term.
None of this will be easy. The road to recovery will not be straight. We will make progress and there may be some slippage along the way. It will demand courage and discipline. It will demand a new sense of responsibility that's been missing from Wall Street all the way to Washington. There will be hazards and reverses. But I have every confidence that if we are willing to continue doing the critical work that must be done -- by each of us, by all of us -- then we will leave this struggling economy behind us, and come out on the other side, more prosperous as a people.
For our American story is not -- and has never been -- about things coming easy. It's about rising to the moment when the moment is hard, and converting crisis into opportunity, and seeing to it that we emerge from whatever trials we face stronger than we were before. It's about rejecting the notion that our fate is somehow written for us, and instead laying claim to a destiny of our own making. That's what earlier generations of Americans have done, that's what we owe our children, that's what we are doing today.
Thank you, Colorado. Let's get to work. Thank you.