Tips for talking about policy from the OFA

When speaking with others about the important choice this election. Democrats are fighting to repair a decade of damage and grow an economy based on the values of hard work and responsibility that strengthens our country and middle class families for the long run.

Talking Points: President Obama’s Speech on Higher Education

· If our country is serious about creating a stronger American economy and guaranteeing American success in the 21st century, it is absolutely critical that we ensure American children receive the best possible education.

· Education is simply an economic issue – and quite possibly the most important economic issue of our time. If other countries are able to out-educate America today, they will out-compete America in the future. We have long acknowledged education to be a prerequisite to prosperity, because an individual’s success is becoming more dependent on higher education – from a college degree to workforce training.
· But unfortunately, we have allowed America to fall behind other countries in terms of educational achievement – falling from first in the world to twelfth in terms of college education in just one generation. The current educational status quo is unacceptable, but we can change it. To that end, President Obama has set a goal to recapture America’s global leadership by educating the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.
· The President wants to make sure that America not only leads the world in college graduation rates, but also that American graduates emerge from school ready to work and compete in the modern economy.
· One of the ways the President hopes to accomplish that goal is by increasing the affordability of college – so that higher education becomes an option for more Americans. Rather than offering big banks and other lenders $60 billion worth of subsidies to administer student loans for the next ten years, this Administration is using that money to make college more affordable for almost 8 million students and to improve our country’s community colleges.
· The President is tripling funding for the biggest tax credit available to middle class families for college; stabilizing funding for Pell Grants by increasing how much Pell Grants are worth and working to ensure that the value of Pell Grants keeps pace with inflation; making loan repayments easier for more than one million student in coming years; and making financial aid forms simpler.
· This Administration is also working to ensure that a college education prepares students for a career. To that end, the Administration is working to help community colleges teach students the skills demanded by local businesses and growing industries.
· And this Administration has taken on the challenge of increasing college completion rates. Right now, more than one-third of all American college students and more than half of minority students don’t finish college. So the Administration is taking a hard look at college programs that are increasing achievement and graduation rates and is working to help other colleges implement similar programs.

· Those are the efforts the Administration has undertaken to help more Americans earn a college degree. That is how they plan to increase America’s share of college graduates and to make America a world leader by 2010. And this is how they plan to boost opportunity and bolster the American economy.

Talking Points: President Obama’s Visit to the Chicago Ford Plant
· President Obama visited the Ford auto factory in Chicago to talk about the tough choices this Administration made to rescue the American auto industry, the necessity of those choices to resurrecting American car companies, and the impact of those choices – saving a million jobs and preventing the total economic devastation of American auto workers and their communities across the country.
· During the year before President Obama took office, American auto companies shed hundreds of thousands of jobs as sales of American automobiles dropped 40 percent. Now, for the first time in more than half a decade, all three American auto companies are operating profitably; automakers are adding jobs – in fact, they’ve added 55,000 workers since last June, making this past year the strongest period of industry job growth in over a decade; and auto manufacturers are keeping their plants running through the summer – as opposed to closing for a typical summer shutdown – to meet increased demand.

· The President said that if the American auto companies would agree to take the difficult steps required to make themselves more competitive, America would invest in their future success. Now, Ford is working to produce the kinds of fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will drive America toward energy independence, in keeping with the new fuel efficiency standards put in place by this Administration last year. And with the help of a 2-year loan commitment from the Department of Energy, the Ford plant the President visited is building a new Explorer that is up to 30 percent more fuel efficient – and they’re bringing on 1,200 new workers to help them build it.
· In addition, the new Explorer model presents a new export opportunity for Ford. Because it is a small, more fuel-efficient vehicle, it will be more attractive to customers overseas and in more than 90 countries around the world.

· President Obama has committed this Administration to helping American manufacturers sell more American-made cars around the world. To that end, Ford today received a new $250 million loan guarantee from the Export-Import bank. That loan guarantee will help Ford export more than 200,000 cars and trucks, supporting more good jobs here in America. And it will help the United States to reach the President’s goal of doubling exports in the next five years, growing our economy and boosting job creation.
· It’s important not to forget that some Republican leaders claimed last year that investing in the auto industry would guarantee companies’ failure. Some of those Republicans continue to claim that the President chose the wrong course. But if those Republicans had their way, the auto plants running today, and the jobs they support, might not exist. So the President has this to say to the Republican naysayers: don’t bet against American workers.
· President Obama made the difficult and politically unpopular choices that were necessary to save the economy. Although we still have a ways to go to achieve full recovery, America is back on the right track and the Administration’s efforts are beginning to pay off. And with the support of American auto manufacturers, the President believes we can rebuild our economy even better than before.