Labor Day Address 6
th
Grade SPEECH
Barack Obama gave this speech on August 24
th
, 2008 in Billings, Montana.
The text of this speech is in the public domain.
Hello Everybody. This Labor Day weekend, we don’t just celebrate the end of
summer. We also honor the hardworking men and women who have made this country what
it is. And, the American labor movement that has fought tirelessly to improve their wages,
benefits, and working conditions. America was built by its laborers, but today our workers
are struggling just to get by, in an economy that no longer works for them. That’s why we
can’t afford four more years of the failed George Bush economic policies. Policies that
Senator McCain has proudly embraced and promises to continue.
It’s time we had a President who will stand up for working men and women, by
building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but work, and the workers who created it.
It’s time you had a partner in the White House, who knows that the struggles facing working
families can’t be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big
corporations and wealthy CEOs. And, that hardworking families need immediate relief.
That’s why, as President, I’ll end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and
give them to companies that create good-paying jobs, here at home. And, while Senator
McCain is proposing $4 billion in new tax breaks for oil companies that are making record
profits, I’ll put a $1,000 tax cut into the pockets of 95% of workers and their families.
It’s time you had a President who honors organized labor, who’s walked on picket
lines, who doesn’t choke on the word “union,” who lets our unions do what they do best and
organize our workers, and who will finally make the “Employee Free Choice Act” the law of
the land. That is the choice in this election. We can choose to remain on the path that has
abandoned workers and gotten our economy in so much trouble. Or we can re-claim the idea
that in America, opportunity is open to anyone who is willing to work for it.
I’ve spent my entire career fighting for working men and women. And so has my
running mate, Joe Biden – a man whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the middle
class. With him by my side, I am confident that we can take this country in a new direction,
and restore that fair shot at your dreams that is the core of what Joe Biden and I stand for, and
what America stands for, as a nation.