Obama: 'America is back!'

Citing Great Depression-era projects such as the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge, Obama proposed an extensive makeover of America’s infrastructure, including renovation of crumbling roads and bridges, more efficient power grids and expanded high-speed broadband networks.

“In the next few weeks, I will sign an executive order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects,” he said. “But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.”

To improve the lagging housing market, Obama also promised to put forward a plan to help homeowners refinance at historically low interest rates without “red tape” and “runaround from the banks.”

“A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won’t add to the deficit, and will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust,” he said. “Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that do the same. It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs.”

Pledging to establish a financial crimes unit of highly trained investigators “to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people’s investments,” Obama said he would push for legislation “that makes the penalties for fraud count.” He also pledged to expand investigations into the “abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis.”

Calling for higher taxes on wealthy Americans, Obama said loopholes and tax shelters result in one-quarter of all millionaires paying lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households.

“Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?” he asked. “Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else – like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we’re serious about paying down our debt, we can’t do both.”

He argued that Americans who make more than $1 million a year should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes and “shouldn’t get special tax subsidies or deductions.”

“Now, you can call this class warfare all you want,” Obama said, referencing GOP criticism of his attacks on the wealthy. “But asking [Warren Buffett] to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”

Obama urged Congress to 1) send him a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, 2) pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days and 3) “grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.”

Finally, the president blasted the notion that Democrats and Republicans “must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction.”

“That politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas,” he said.

Noting that the U.S. is ending the wars and that “the renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe,” Obama said:

“From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.

“Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”