in high standards and accountability for our schools; in rewards for teachers who succeed; and an affordable college education for anyone who wants to go. That’s the reason the three of us are standing here today. None of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths — but we got a great education. And if we combine additional resources with a commitment to reform, then I think we can deliver that for every American child.
Because we know that the new jobs and new industries of tomorrow will involve harnessing renewable resources — renewable sources of energy, this budget will finally spark the transformation we need to create those jobs and those businesses right here in America. It makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy, and it invests in technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, fuel-efficient cars and trucks.
And because millions of Americans are already struggling under the weight of their monthly bills and mortgage payments, this budget does not raise the taxes of any family making less than $250,000 a year by a single dime. In fact, 95 percent of all working families will receive a tax cut as a result of our recovery plan.
Now, there are those who say the plans in this budget are too ambitious to enact; to say that — they say that in the face of challenges that we face, we should be trying to do less, than more. What I say is that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. The cost of our health care is too high to ignore. The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is growing too wide to ignore. To kick these problems down the road for another four years or another eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point. That’s not why I ran for this office. I didn’t come here to pass on our problems to the next President or the next generation — I came here to solve them.
I know that there are some on Wall Street and in Washington who’ve said that we should only focus on the banking crisis and one problem at a time. Well, we’re spending a lot of time focusing on this banking crisis, and we will continue to do so because until we get liquidity flowing again, we will not fully recover. But the American people don’t have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don’t have the luxury of choosing to pay either their mortgage or their medical bills. They don’t get to pick between paying for their kids’ college tuition and saving enough money for retirement. They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems. And as a consequence, so do we.
Now, there’s been a lot of discussion about this budget already, and I hope we engage in a healthy debate going forward. The challenges we face are not partisan. We’re going