THE PRESIDENT: Hey! Hello, Phoenix! (Applause.) Hello, Arizona! (Applause.) It is --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Obama!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. It is good to be here. (Applause.)
I want to say thank you to the Thunder for hosting us here today. (Applause.) Well, we are soglad to be here. I want you to give it up for somebody who's been fighting for homeowners andworking families every single day, who's with me today -- Secretary Shaun Donovan, Secretaryof HUD. There he is right there. Give him a big round of applause. (Applause.) We've gotCongressman Ed Pastor who's here as well. (Applause.) We've got your Mayor, Greg Stanton,here. (Applause.) Doing an outstanding job. And to all the mayors and state legislators andtribal leaders who are here today, thank you. (Applause.)
Give Jorge a big round of applause for his introduction. (Applause.) To your superintendent,Dr. Kenneth Baca. (Applause.) Your principal, Dr. Anna Battle. (Applause.) And I appreciateeverybody at Desert Vista for having me here today. (Applause.) It is good to see the studentsare pretty enthusiastic about being back in school. (Laughter.) I'm not sure I would have beenthat enthusiastic starting on the 6th. (Laughter.)
And I know this isn't your typical school -- second day of school. So I want to give a specialshout-out to the new seniors, class of 2014. (Applause.) You are aware that you're not finishedyet. (Laughter.) Senior year, that's sometimes tempting. I want you all to stay focused.
Over the past couple weeks, I have been --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Happy birthday, Mr. President!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.) It was my birthday two daysago. (Laughter.) Got some singers here.
AUDIENCE: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, Mr. President. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.) I am now 52, and Michellesays that I don't look a day over 51. (Laughter.)
So over the last few weeks, I've been visiting towns all across the country, talking about whatwe need to do to secure a better bargain for the middle class -- a national strategy to makesure that everybody who works hard has a chance to succeed in the 21st century economy.
And I think people in Arizona especially understand the challenges that are out there, becausefor the past four and a half years, together, we fought our way back from a devastatingrecession that cost millions of jobs for Americans. A lot of folks lost their homes; a lot of folkslost their savings. And what the recession showed was the long erosion of middle-classsecurity that had been taking place for decades.
But we fought back. We took on a broken health care system. We took on a housing market thatwas in free fall. We invested in new technologies to reverse our addiction to foreign oil. Wechanged a tax code that had become tilted a little bit too much in favor of the wealthiestAmericans at the expense of working families. (Applause.) We saved the auto industry. We'venow got GM that plans to hire a thousand new workers right next door in Chandler to make surewe're building some of the best cars in the world right here in the United States of America. (Applause.)
Our businesses have created 7.3 million new jobs over the past 41 months. We now sell moreproducts made in America to the rest of the world than ever before. Our exports are way up. Weproduce more renewable energy than ever before, more natural gas than anybody else. Healthcare costs have been growing at the slowest rate in 50 years. And our deficits are coming downat the fastest rate in 60 years. So we're making progress. (Applause.)
So thanks to the efforts of a lot of people like you, we've cleared away the rubble of the financialcrisis. We're starting to lay the foundation for more stable, more durable economic growth.But as any middle-class family will tell you, we're not yet where we need to be. Because evenbefore the crisis hit, we had lived through a decade where a few at the top were doing betterand better, but most families were working harder and harder just to get by.
And reversing this trend should be -- must be -- Washington's highest priority. It's myhighest priority. (Applause.) I want to make sure that in America, it doesn't matter what youlook like, where you come from, who you love -- you should be able to make it when you try.You should be able to make it. (Applause.)
Now, unfortunately, for the last year or so, we've had an endless parade of distractions andpolitical posturing and phony scandals that shift focus away from what do we need to do toshore up middle-class families and create ladders of opportunity for folks to get into themiddle class. And as Washington heads towards another budget debate, the stakes could notbe higher.