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<\/p>\nWashington, DC…Please, everyone, have a seat. Let me begin by saying thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. It\u2019s a long trip for a lot of you, and I \u2014 I hope you have found it worth it so far. And good evening, everyone. I felt like we had a decent meeting yesterday. That felt good.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And, you know, the thing I like about working with governors: You\u2019re used to having to get things done \u2014 (trips over object on stage) \u2014 like tripping this President. (Laughter.) Okay? That\u2019s okay. All right.<\/p>\n
But all kidding aside, you know, I served in the Senate for a long, long time and Vice president for eight years. But, governors, you got to get it done. You got to \u2014 you got to fix the potholes. You got to take care of the crime in your street. You got to do everything.<\/p>\n
And you can\u2019t say, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put it off. We\u2019re going to debate it for about six months.\u201d (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
No, but I really mean it. <\/p>\n
So, thank you. It\u2019s a pleasure working with you all. <\/p>\n
And Jill, Kamala, and Doug and I, we \u2014 we are really happy to have you here in the White House.
\nFolks, you know, I want to thank Brad for sharing his time with us \u2014 talent tonight. Looking forward to it. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
Brad, I have no talent. None. (Laughter.) My dad used to have a band when he was college age. He didn\u2019t go to college, but when he was in high school and college. And he used to look at me, and he said, \u201cJoey, I don\u2019t know where the hell you came from. You have no\u2026\u201d He played the clarinet. He said, \u201cYou have no lip, number one.\u201d (Laughter.) \u201cNumber two, you have two left feet. And number three, you can\u2019t carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. But I still love you.\u201d (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
But, look, and I want to thank the first spouses. And this is not \u2014 this is not hyperbole. I really mean this from the bottom of my heart. Especially if you\u2019re a local, meaning local in your state, all the time \u2014 you can\u2019t go to the grocery store, you can\u2019t walk out the door, you can\u2019t go anywhere without being questioned. Whatever is going on in the office, you got to \u2014 you have to be ready to answer it. And it\u2019s not your job, but it is your job, in effect, because you keep the governors moving. And I really mean it. <\/p>\n
So I think people vastly underestimate how difficult it is to be a spouse of an elected official. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
As Jill would tell you, being my spouse is difficult even if I weren\u2019t elected. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n
But all kidding aside, I want to thank you. And, you know, and we\u2019ve gone through a couple tough last two to six years. I mean, things have \u2014 things have been up and down. And \u2014 and so you\u2019ve really had to \u2014 you had to be on your toes, and you had to be ready to answer all the questions that you get asked.<\/p>\n
And I \u2014 you know, I \u2014 as I said, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s been a tougher two years being a governor. That\u2019s why we started off with a controversial piece of legislation, making sure you had enough money, each one of you. (Applause.) No, I mean it.<\/p>\n
And, look, I think that the partnership that we\u2019ve had is \u2014 I don\u2019t want to ruin anybody\u2019s reputation here, but the partnership has been thoughtful \u2014 I mean, whether you\u2019re Republican or Democrat \u2014 on the things that affect your state.<\/p>\n
I said I wanted to be President for everybody, not just blue states or red states, but for everybody. And \u2014 and I think, to the best we can, we\u2019ve tried like hell to step up, particularly to the governors and mayors that \u2014 people every day are looking at people straight in the eye, face to face, and wanting to know what\u2019s going on, what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n
And, you know, I think our partnership \u2014 I think we\u2019re beginning, not because of me or my administration, but I think hopefully, where value added, begin to rebuild the economy. We went through a heck of a tough time. And the pandemic made it a whole lot worse. And the pandemic \u2014 I think we\u2019re going to find that they\u2019re going to be writing about this. Your grandkids are going to be writing about the pandemic in terms of the impact it had on the psychology of the country, on the mental health of the country, and so much more. And you\u2019ve dealt with it every single, solitary day.<\/p>\n
You know, I know we\u2019re not going to always agree. I think you\u2019re going to agree \u2014 we\u2019re going to agree more than you pretend, but I don\u2019t blame you if you don\u2019t say we agree.<\/p>\n
But, look, I \u2014 I think that when we work together, we\u2019re able to get things done. Now, I know I don\u2019t talk about bipartisanship all the time. I\u2019m ready to fight. I\u2019m ready, as you all are. And I\u2019ve spent a lot of time in Congress and then as Vice President.<\/p>\n
But, you know, one of the things I found is \u2014 one of the reasons I made sure we had so many governors in my administration and mayors \u2014 I mean it sincerely \u2014 because you got to get things done.<\/p>\n
And I kid Jennifer Granholm: If she were born in the United States, she\u2019d be standing here talking to you, and I\u2019d be \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 I\u2019d be taking care of things.<\/p>\n
But all kidding aside, you know, I think we\u2019ve made some bipartisan progress. And \u2014 and a lot of it \u2014 for example, the idea that we have over a trillion 200 billion dollars in infrastructure to rebuild this country over the next 10 years \u2014 (applause) \u2014 is because of a bipartisan action. And \u2014 and it matters. This matters.<\/p>\n
And the good news is \u2014 not \u2014 well, I shouldn\u2019t say \u201cgood news.\u201d I think the most important thing we have to do is let people know what we\u2019ve done, because it\u2019s just starting. I mean, people are \u2014 like, for example, when we did the legislation dealing with pharma, people are now coming up, and I imagine they may come up to you too, and say, \u201cYou mean my \u2014 it only cost me 35 bucks and not 450 bucks?\u201d Or we\u2019re able to negotiate drug pri- \u2014 we pay the highest drug prices in the world. And because of a number of Republicans crossing over and joining us to make sure we got the legislation done, things are changing. Things are beginning to change.<\/p>\n
And, by the way, I might note parenthetically \u2014 and I don\u2019t want to get into any detail here \u2014 but parenthetically that, you know, what we did in terms of drug companies is going to \u2014 and allowing Medicare to negotiate \u2014 is we\u2019re actually going to reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Because guess what? The federal government is not going to be paying all that \u2014 those expensive costs for some drugs that don\u2019t warrant being paid. And people are going to pay less for them, and it means the federal government is paying less taxpayers\u2019 dollars to \u2014 to purchase the drugs on Medicare.<\/p>\n
So I guess my point is: You know, I think we ought to be able to \u2014 I hope we\u2019re going to get a little bit \u2014 I\u2019m going to try \u2014 a little bit less partisan and work on the things that we can really get done to change people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
And, again, we\u2019re not going to agree \u2014 we\u2019re not going to always agree. But, you know, I think when we work together, it works. <\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not going to go into any detail about the Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. And I know that you guys don\u2019t want any of those fabs in your states. (Laughter.) There\u2019s only $300 billion going to be spent. You know? What the hell \u2014 who needs that, right? (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
But the main thing \u2014 reason I\u2019m happy about that is I\u2019m determined as you are, because I know a number of you Republican governors, you\u2019re determined that America lead the world again, dammit \u2014 not joking \u2014 lead the world again in manufacturing, lead the world again in the economy. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
I was talking about the CHIPS and Science Act investing in America. Again, I called the governor of Illinois \u2014 I\u2019m not joking \u2014 who encouraged me to keep moving on this. Because, look, it\u2019s going to make a gigantic difference.<\/p>\n
We used to spend 2 percent of our entire GDP on research and development in America. We spend 0.7 percent. We used to be number one; we\u2019re number 17. <\/p>\n
So we\u2019re changing things. This is the United States America. And you guys and women know it better than I do.<\/p>\n
So, look, I want to thank Governor Murphy and Governor Cox for their leadership. And I\u2019d like to \u2014 (applause) \u2014<\/p>\n
And, Governor Cox, I promise I won\u2019t tell anybody how much I like you. (Laughter.) We\u2019ll keep it quiet as long as we can.<\/p>\n
But \u2014 but all kidding aside, I\u2019d like to make a toast, if I can find a glass. Oh, there it is. <\/p>\n
Now, the reason I have my glass in my left hand: My grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan, who was an All-American football player at Santa Clara and a newspaper guy up in Scranton, Pennsylvania \u2014 he used to say, \u201cIf you don\u2019t drink\u2026\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m the only Irish you ever met that\u2019s never had a drink \u2014 \u201c\u2026if you don\u2019t drink, then you should have to do your toast, if it\u2019s not alcohol, with your left hand, not your right hand.\u201d And that\u2019s what I\u2019m about to do.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t want my gr- \u2014 (looks up) \u2014 Grandpops, I\u2019m doing it right. (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
And, look, I\u2019d like to make a toast to remembering who in God\u2019s name we are. We\u2019re the United States of America. We can get big things done if we do it together. <\/p>\n
God bless America. And God bless all of you. Hear, hear. <\/p>\n
(A toast is offered.)<\/p>\n
And, by the way, now I got to make an introduction. Now I\u2019m going to turn it over to Governor Cox. There\u2019s press in the room, so be careful. Don\u2019t say anything nice. Okay? Come on. (Applause.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC…Please, everyone, have a seat. Let me begin by saying thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. It\u2019s a long trip for a lot of you, and I \u2014 I hope you have found it worth it so far. And good evening, everyone. I felt like we had a decent meeting yesterday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/whitehouselogo200.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155761,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155760\/revisions\/155761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}