Therefore I have asked the Department of Labor to recreate the Depression-ear WPA the Works Progress Administration, which became the beating heart of recovery during the 1930s.
I take this action because I find it impossible to believe that there's not enough meaningful work to be done. After all, America's critical infrastructure, much of it built by Roosevelt's WPA, is now crumbling. Hundreds of bridges need repairs, upgrading or replacement. Our roads and highways crumble beneath our vehicles. Toxic waste sites from coast to coast await cleaning. Hospitals and schools need billions of dollars in upgrading or replacement. And the new WPA will spearhead those projects if no private sector company steps up the plate. Because we need both a major infusion into our national infrastructure and we need the jobs such an effort would create. We will therefore get a double benefit from the money spent through this WPA by creating desperately needed job and preparing America's infrastructure to compete with growing economies like China in the decades ahead.
Now let me be perfectly clear. To those on the right who object to any government-run jobs program I say this: then do it before we do it. Prove that you can create enough private sector jobs quickly. I'd prefer that. But don't tell us the answer to jobs are more tax cuts for corporations and the rich. We already tried that and it didn't work. In fact, it not only didn't work, but since we tried that eight years ago we've seen a near-gutting of private sector jobs.
So, if that's all you've, get out of our way. This has gone on for too long already. We have jobs to create, any way we can create them.
Finally, to those who would continue to obstruct rather than lend a hand, I say this.
I have three more years in office and whether or not I get re-elected to a second term is so far down on my string of worries I can't even find it. All I care about now is carrying out the promises I made to voters. If you want to continue obstructing those efforts you'll have to do so without my help from now on. And I will make sure the American public knows who you are. That goes double for members of my own party, those of you who've decide your own political futures are more important than addressing the dire problems facing American families who sent you here.
I apologize if this speech comes off as dismissive of Congress, or the quest for a more collegial and bipartisan process. I want that too and the Oval Office door will always be open to those who sincerely seek the same. But, we all know the old saying.. fool me once... and you know the rest. I tried the bipartisan course and it yielded nothing, giving me no incentive to put any of our legislative eggs in that basket again. Because time is running out. Our money has already run out. And now the patience of the American public is running out.
The state of the union is awful. One year from now I don't want to be standing here giving the same report. That's not why I was hired by the American people. And it wasn't why they hired you either. Nothing less than the American Dream is threatened, and not by al Qaeda, but by us, those of us in this room tonight.
We owe the American people better. A lot better.
Thank you, and good night.
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