File this under "What a Difference a Year Makes."
... when the Republican House had put forward a budget ... and when I gave a speech about my budget ... during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation.
... so I just want to make a larger point here. We've got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We're going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt -- how do we do that in a balanced way.
And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements - and that's good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.
And I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have.
But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.
We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other.
We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts.
We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grand kids and our great grand kids proud.
And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we're going to have to get serious to do it."
No, that wasn't today. That was President Obama on April 27, 2011 ... when he released his "birth certificate."
Three weeks later Team Obama was selling birth certificate mugs and t-shirts.
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