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Reporters just received excerpts from the President's upcoming speech on the economy today at Georgetown University. Obama's remarks are a little more elegant than some of the president's recent efforts, recalling the campaign and his instinct, when faced with a difficult problem, to deliver a serious address on the topic. I'd speculate these remarks are aimed at framing the forthcoming budget debates. Here's a key section:
There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad. It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build.Incidentally, conservative Catholics have announced a plan to protest the speech in a truly insane press release. Apparently, they're mainly angry that Georgetown would dare to host the president after the controversy surrounding his graduation speech at Notre Dame:
Georgetown's attitude seems to be: Germany's leaders built great roads in the 1930s, they helped save the banks, and they rebuilt the economy. Let's focus on their economy – not that whole genocide thing. Mr. Obama is spending our money to promote child-killing in Africa and forced abortion in China; he is changing the conscience regulations for health workers, so that Catholic hospitals must refer for abortion, or dispense abortifacients; he has unleashed our money to pay for the creation and destruction of innocent human embryos. This sudden invite is as wicked as it is sneaky.Sigh. I'm glad my Alma mater isn't being intimidated by these folks and their hyperbolic outrage. The contrast between the divisive rhetoric of the Christianists and the optimism of our the president, who can reference his faith as a way of reaching out to others while alluding to his own deeper motivations, is quite amazing.
-- Tim Fernholz
