Barack Obama Major Speech on the Economy Live Feed, Transcript [VIDEO]

Barack Obama is giving a major speech on the American economy today. Barack Obama will attempt to portray himself as a champion of the middle class and the GOP as supporters of the rich. Barack Obama will likely discuss education reform, income inequality, healthcare and all the other topics which Barack Obama believes will win him political points. Below is a live feed of Barack Obama speaking as well as the full transcript which has just been released.

Barack Obama speech live feed below

Barack Obama transcript

Eight years ago, I came here to deliver the commencement address for the class of 2005.  Things were a little different back then.  I didn’t have any gray hair, for example.  Or a motorcade.  I didn’t even have a teleprompter.  It was my first big speech as your newest senator, and I spent my time talking about what a changing economy was doing to the middle class – and what we, as a country, needed to do to give every American a chance to get ahead in the 21st century.

You see, I’d just spent a year traveling this state and listening to your stories – of proud Maytag workers losing their jobs when their plant moved down to Mexico; of teachers whose salaries weren’t keeping up with the rising cost of groceries; of young people who had the drive but not the money to afford a college education.

 

They were the stories of families who worked hard and believed in the American Dream, but felt that the odds were increasingly stacked against them.  And they were right.

 

In the period after World War II, a growing middle class was the engine of our prosperity.  Whether you owned a company, swept its floors, or worked anywhere in between, this country offered you a basic bargain – a sense that your hard work would be rewarded with fair wages and benefits, the chance to buy a home, to save for retirement, and, above all, to hand down a better life for your kids.