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the president:i want to thank andy and ettafor hosting us today because not only did they open up their hometo all these secret service people and all these press andthe whole bit, but they also arranged forperfect weather. (laughter) i know bill richardson tried totake credit for it, but it was actually andy andetta that did it. and so we are very grateful tothem for their hospitality here today. and obviously we'reextraordinarily grateful to andy

for his service in the marinecorps, and for etta, doing what she's doing in ourschool system. and so thank you very much. everybody knows your governor,bill richardson, and we are grateful to him. (applause) your lieutenant governor, dianedenish, who is i believe going to bealso the next governor of the great state of new mexico.

we've got congressman martinheinrich, and i will say that martin toldme that if i was going to come to albuquerque that i bettervisit the south valley the next time i come. so he gets some credit forbringing me here today. and to all of you, thank you somuch for being here. we've been trying to do more ofthese, a, just to get me out of the house. it's a very nice house that theyprovide for me in washington,

but at times you do feel likeyou're in the bubble. and so every once in a while, ineed to just get out of there and have a chance to talk tofolks and listen to them and answer questions, but also getsuggestions and advice about what's happening in the country. and so instead of doing all thetalking, what i want to do is maybe justprovide a few opening remarks and then basically have aconversation with you about things that are important to youand important to this community,

important to this state. there is one thing i want tofocus on, though, if you don't mind in my openingremarks, and that's the issue ofeducation. we have gone through obviouslythe toughest economic situation since the great depression, andno state has been untouched, no group of people has beenuntouched by the devastation. we lost 8 million jobs. the financial sector almostcompletely melted down.

we almost slipped into a greatdepression. and so we acted very quickly totry to stop the bleeding. and we've had some success. an economy that was shrinking,was contracting by 6% when i was sworn in, is now growing again. we were losing 750,000 jobs amonth when i was sworn in. we've had eight consecutivemonths of private sector job growth. so we're making progress andwe're moving in the right direction, but in addition tothe immediate crisis that we

were dealing with, one of thechallenges that i think everybody around the countrywhen i talk to them recognizes is we've got to have a long-termplan for how we make sure america remains the number oneeconomy in the world and how we make sure that we still haveopportunities for middle-class americans to prosper and toexpand, to be able to support theirfamilies and send their kids to college and retire with dignityand respect; and how do we provide laddersfor people who aren't yet in the

middle class to be able to getinto the middle class; how do we help small businessesgrow; how do we help make sure thatour large businesses are the innovators that are designingthe new products that we're able to sell overseas. the issue of how we staycompetitive and are able to succeed in the next generationthe same way that previous generations have succeeded,that's a question that i think a lot of people have been askingthemselves for a long time.

because keep in mind, evenbefore this financial crisis, we were slipping in a lot ofways. from 2001 to 2009, during thateight-year period, wages -- average wages for middle-classfamilies actually fell by 5%. think about that. people's real incomes wereactually falling -- and this was at a time beforethe crisis. so supposedly, the economy wasgrowing and things were going pretty well.

in fact, people's incomes werefalling. during that same period of time,job growth was the most sluggish that it's been since 6world warii. so part of the reason i decidedto run for president was because we had all these problems thatwe hadn't been dealing with for a long time, even before thecrisis hit, that we had to deal with -- if we want to stay competitive for the 21st century. and the number one issue interms of us succeeding as an

economy is going to be how wellwe educate and how well we train our kids. nothing else comes close. now, the truth of the matter is,we used to have by far the best education system in the world. we were the first nation in theworld to have compulsory public education. and so as people were moving offthe farms, moving into the cities, movinginto industry, suddenly they were able to getthe training and the skills they needed for an advancedindustrial economy.

and we had the best universitiesin the world, and the best colleges in theworld, and we had the number one -- we ranked number one in the proportion of college graduates in the world. we now rank 12th -- and that's just happened in a generation. we went from number one tonumber 12 in the number of college graduates we have. even folks who didn't go tocollege still got a good education. my grandmother, she was anamazing woman.

she passed away a couple ofyears ago. but she never went to college. she worked -- when my grandfather went off to world war ii, she worked on an assembly line, making bombers. she was like rosie the riveter. and then when my grandfathercame back, he got the gi bill to go tocollege, but she didn't get the gi bill,so she went to work. she started off as a secretary;she ended up as a vice president

at a bank in hawaii. and despite the fact that shehadn't gone to college, she was so well prepared, interms of math and reading and skills, that she could end upgetting an executive position, working her way up from being asecretary. well, now we rank 21st inscience education in the world, and we rank 25th in matheducation in the world. so the trendline is that we'renot at the top in terms of college graduates, we're not atthe top at science,

we're not at the top at math. we've got a third of ourstudents who enroll who never graduate from high school. and all this means that not onlyis it bad for the young people who aren't getting thiseducation -- typically a high school grad gets paid about $10,000 less than a college grad, and over the course of a lifetime it means hundreds of thousand dollars in lost income -- but it's also bad for thecountry as a whole because we

don't have as many engineers, wedon't have as many scientists, we're not inventing the newproducts that are going to make all the difference in terms ofhow well we succeed. so the reason i want to raisethis is because there are a lot of issues we've been working onin washington, a lot of them get a lot ofattention, but something that hasn't gottenas much attention is what we've been trying to do, working withstates and local school districts over the last twoyears to make sure that we're

moving in a new direction inimproving our education system. let me just tell you a couple ofthings that we've done. first of all, we set upsomething called race to the top. and what we said was that ifstates wanted to get some additional money, some extramoney to help their schools, they would have to compete forthat money by showing us what it is that you're doing to reformthe school system so that you get excellent teachers, you havehigh standards, the schools are accountable;that you're going after the

lowest-performing schools andnot just sort of skimming off the top. and as a consequence of thiscompetition called race to the top -- we had about $4 billion -- we've ended up seeing 32 stateschange their laws to reform the system so that the wholeeducation structure works better for our kids and makes it moreaccountable and we start providing better training andbetter recruitment for our teachers and more professionaldevelopment and additional resources. so it's been a big boost foreducation all across the country.

moving forward on a reformagenda, it doesn't just dictate tostates, here's how you have to doeverything, but it says here's some criteriafor success; if you have a plan to matchthat, then we're going to help you. so that's number one. number two, we've been helpingmake sure that more young people get early childhood education,because the studies show that if

kids are well prepared when theyget to school, then they are much likely to dobetter. if they know their colors andtheir numbers and their letters and they know how to sit still-- i remember when malia and sashawere young; that was a key training point. and so early childhoodeducation, when it's well designed, makes abig difference, and we've been doing that.

third thing we've been doing isfocusing on higher education. now, it turns out that we've got-- the lottery scholarship programhere in new mexico is terrific, but we've got a whole lot ofstates all across the country and a lot of young people whostill rely on pell grants and student loan programs in orderto finance their overall education. and what we've been able to dois when we came into office, tens of billions of dollars weregoing to banks and financial intermediaries who wereessentially acting as middlemen

for the student loan program,even though it was federally guaranteed. so they weren't taking anyrisks, but it was passing through themand they would take -- they would skim off tens ofbillions of dollars of profit. so we said, well, that doesn'tmake any sense. why don't we just have the moneygo directly from the government to the student and we'll saveall that money. and now what we have, we've beenable to save $60 billion that we're putting in now to makesure that millions more young

people across the country areable to get the student loans and the pell grants that theyneed. and starting in 2014, we'reactually going to be able to say to young people that you willnever have to pay more than 10% of your income in repaying yourstudent loans. and if you go into publicservice, if you're like etta and you gointo teaching, for example, after 10 years, whatever isremaining on your debt will be forgiven. so that will give young people amuch better head start,

because everybody here, if theyhaven't experienced it personally, somebody in yourfamily has finished college with huge amounts of debt thatthey're having trouble repaying. i know michelle and i did, too. so there are a whole range ofthings that we're trying to do, working with colleges, communitycolleges, universities to try to improveour education system. one of the things that iannounced this week was we're really going to focus on scienceand math,

because that's where our youngpeople i think are falling the most behind. and we've made a commitment thatwe're going to hire over the next couple of years 10,000 newscience and math teachers. and we're going to work with theschools to help redesign their math and science curriculums, sothat we start boosting -- i want to get to the point wherewe're number one in science and math. and i also want to make sure, bythe way, that that's true for allstudents,

because i'll be honest with you,african american students, latino students, we're doingworse in science and math than the overall average. so america is the 21st and 25th,but if you actually looked at performance of latino andafrican american students, it would be even lower. and that's inexcusable becausethat's fastest growing portion of our population. that's our future.

that's our future workforce. and so we've got to have themost skilled, most highly trained workers inthe world. and this is what we're going tobe focusing on over the next couple of years. now, last point i'm going tomake and then i'm just going to open it up, because i promised iwouldn't give a long speech. this election coming up innovember is going to offer a choice on a whole range ofdifferent issues.

and this issue of educationgives you a sense of the choice that i think democrats aretrying to make and the choice that the republicans are tryingto make. the republicans recently put outwhat they call their pledge to america. and it basically outlined whattheir priorities are. their number one economicpriority is retaining $700 billion tax breaks to thewealthiest 2% of the country -- millionaires and billionairesmostly. we'd have to borrow the $700billion because we don't have it.

we've got these deficits anddebt. so we'd have to borrow the $700billion from china or the saudis or whoever is buying our debt,and then we'd pass off on average $100,000 check to peoplewho are making a million dollars up to more than a billiondollars. that's their main economic plan. and when you ask them, well, howwould you pay for some of this stuff, they don't really havegood answers. but one way they would pay forit is to cut back our education

spending by 20% and eliminateabout 200,000 head start programs and reduce student aid to go to college for about 8 million students. that's one of their answers. and i just have to say, look,china -- that's not the decision they'remaking about their education system and their kids. south korea, that's not thedecision that they're making about their kids.

i was in shanghai and i talkedto the mayor. he said, you know, teachers arethe most respected professions, as much as doctors or engineers,and they're paid to reflect how much we value them. i was in south korea, and i wastalking to the president, having lunch, and he said, youknow, my biggest problem in educationis the parents are so demanding, they're insisting that i ship inenglish -- people from the united statesand other english-speaking

countries because they want alltheir kids to learn english by the time they're in third grade. i mean, that's the -- that's their mindset. that's the competition thatthey're in. so they're not cutting back oneducation, right when we know that that'sgoing to be the most important thing in determining our successover the long term. and we can't either. and so i just want everybody tothink about those kinds of

issues as you go into thepolling place in november: who's going to prioritize ouryoung people to make sure they've got the skills they needto succeed over the long term? nothing is going to be moreimportant in terms of our long-term success. all right? so, with that, let me just openit up to any comments or questions people may have aboutanything. i talked a lot about education,but people may have a whole

bunch of different interestshere, and i'd love to hear from you. and we've got mics so thateverybody can hear your questions, okay? let's start with this young ladyright here. and introduce yourself again. even though i got all yournames, i'm getting older, so it's harder to remember thesethings. audience member:good morning, mr. president.

welcome to albuquerque. and i have two questions for youthis morning, if i may. the first question has to dowith the changing demographics here in our neighborhood as wellas in the public school system. i grew up here in thisneighborhood, i'm raising my own family here,i work at a local public school here. and i've seen over the yearsfirsthand how recent immigrants have revitalized our localeconomy. they start small businesses,they hire locally,

they live within the community. how do you envision acomprehension immigration reform as one measure towards america'seconomic recovery and long-term vitality? the president:i have consistently, even before i was a presidential candidate, but when i was a u.s. senator and when i was running for u.s. senator, said that we have tomove forward on comprehensive immigration reform. bill richardson and i have had alot of conversations about this. this is a nation of immigrants.

it was built on immigrants -- immigrants from every corner of the globe who brought their talent and their drive and their energy to these shores because this was the land ofopportunity. now, we're also a nation of lawsso we've got to make sure that our immigration system isorderly and fair. and so i think americans have alegitimate concern if the way we've set up our immigrationsystem and the way we are securing our borders is suchwhere people just kind of come and go as they please, well,that means that folks who are

waiting, whether it's in mexicocity or in nairobi, kenya, or in warsaw, poland -- if they're waiting there filling out their forms and doing everything legally and properly and it takes them five years or six years or 10 years before they're finally here and made legal, well, it's not fair to them if folks can just come and ignore those laws. so what we -- i think is so important to do is for us to both be a nation of laws and affirm our immigrant traditions. and i think we can do that.

so what i've said is, look, yes,let's secure our borders; yes, let's make sure that the legalimmigration system is more fair and efficient than it is rightnow because if the waiting times were lessened then a lot ofpeople would be more prone to go through a legal route thanthrough an illegal route; let's make sure that we'recracking down on employers who are taking advantage ofundocumented workers to not pay them overtime or not pay themminimum wage or not give them bathroom breaks; let's make surethat we're cracking down on

employers to treat all workersfairly. and let's provide a pathway tocitizenship for those who are already here, understanding thatthey broke the law, so they're going to have to paya fine and pay back taxes and i think learn english, make surethat they don't have a criminal record. there are some hoops thatthey're going to have to jump through, but giving them apathway is the right thing to do. now, unfortunately, right nowthis is getting demagogued. a lot of folks think it's aneasy way to score political

points is by trying to act as ifthere's a "them" and an "us," instead of just an "us." and i'm always suspicious ofpolitics that is dividing people instead of bringing themtogether. i think now is the time for usto come together. and i think that economically,immigrants can actually be a huge source of strength to thecountry. it's one of our big advantagesis we've got a younger population than europe, forexample, or japan,

because we welcome immigrantsand they generally don't. and that means that our economyis more vital and we've got more people in the workforce who aregoing to be out there working and starting businesses andsupporting us when we're retired, and making sure socialsecurity is solvent. all those things are important. so this is a priority that icontinue to have. frankly, the problem i've hadright now is that -- and i don't want to get intosort of inside baseball by washington.

but basically the rules in theunited states senate have evolved so that if you don'thave 60 votes, you can't get anything throughthe united states senate right now. and several years ago, we had 11republican senators who were willing to vote forcomprehensive immigration reform, including john mccain. they've all reversed themselves. i can't get any of them tocooperate. and i don't have 60 democrats inthe senate.

and so we're going to have to dothis on a bipartisan basis. and my hope is, is that therepublicans who have said no and have seen their party i thinkuse some unfortunate rhetoric around this issue, my hope is,is that they come back and say, you know, this is something thatwe can work on together to solve a problem instead of trying toscore political points. okay? all right, who's next? yes, sir, right here.

audience member:i work for the new mexico va health care system. my question is that, i think asan integral part of being hispanic, being from here, homeis very integral to that, and not only for hispanics, forall new mexicans, for all americans. and yet i hear stories of myfamily members' friends, veterans that i treat, of losingtheir homes due to this economy that we've been through or aregoing through. and i guess my question is, whatare we doing to prevent people

from losing their homes? i know education is trulyincredible -- it moves people beyond what wecan ever expect -- but if we don't have homes to goto, what good is the education? the president:well, the housing crisis helped to trigger the financial crisis. and it's a complicated story,but essentially what happened was, banks started seeing moneyin peddling what looked like these very low-interest-ratemortgages, no money down. started peddling these things tofolks.

a lot of people didn't read thefine print, where they had adjustable-ratemortgages or balloon payments, and they ended up being insituations where they were in homes that they couldn'tnecessarily afford. the banks made a whole bunch ofmoney on all these mortgages that were being generated. but what happened was -- is that when the housing market started going down, then all these financial instruments that were built on a steady stream of payments for mortgages,

they all went bust, and that helped to trigger the entire crisis. so the housing issue has been atthe heart of the economic crisis that we're in right now. it is a big problem because partof what happened over the last several years is, is that webuilt more homes than we had families to absorb them. and what's happened now is, isthat housing values have declined around the country, insome places worse than others. in nevada, in arizona, they'vebeen very badly hit.

in new mexico, i don't think wehad the same bubble, and so prices have not been asbadly affected here. but overall across the country,housing lost a lot of value. now, this is amultitrillion-dollar market, so there's no government programwhere we can just make sure that whoever is losing their homethat we can just pick up the tab and make sure that they can pay. and frankly there are somepeople who really bought more home than they could afford, andthey'd be better off renting,

or they're going to have to makeadjustments in terms of their house. what we have tried to do,though, is to make sure that people whohad been making their payments regularly, who are meeting theirresponsibilities, if they could have a little bitof an adjustment with the banks, if some of the principal wasreduced, if some of the interest wasreduced on their mortgage payment, they could keep onmaking payments. the bank would be better offthan if the home was foreclosed

on, obviously they'd be betteroff, and as the housing market startspicking back up again -- which it will do over time,although not in the same trajectory as it used to, right;it's going to be more much gradual -- then potentially the bank could recoup some of the money that it had lost by making the adjustments on the mortgages. so we've set up a number ofthese mortgage modification programs that are out there. but i don't want to lie to you--

we've probably had hundreds ofthousands of people who've been helped by it. i think there have been a coupleof million who've applied. but that doesn't meet the entireneed because this is such a huge housing market. and what really is probably themost important thing i can do right now to keep people intheir homes is to make sure the economy is growing so that theydon't feel job insecurity. that's probably the thing that'sgoing to strengthen the housing

market the most over the nextcouple of years. if we've got a growing economy,unemployment is gradually being reduced, then people are goingto feel more confident; they're going to be able to maketheir mortgage payments; new -- homeowners, people who arepotentially buyers of homes, are going to say, you know what,i don't mind entering the market because i think things have sortof bottomed out -- that starts lifting prices andthat gets us on a virtuous cycle instead of a negative cycle.

but it's going to take sometime. we're working our way out ofoverbuilding in the housing market, a lot of not verysensible financial arrangements in the housing market. and we've got to get back tosort of a traditional, more commonsense way of thinkingabout housing which is, if you want a house you got tosave for a while. you got to wait until you have20% down. you should go for a mortgagethat you know you can afford.

you've got to -- there shouldn't be any surprises out there, right? that kind of traditionalthinking about saving and thinking about the house not assomething that is always going up 20% every year and you'regoing to flip and take out home equity loans and all that -- we've got to have a different attitude, which reflects what you talked about, more of an attitude that this isyour home. this is not just a way to makequick money. okay.

yes, sir. i know it's a little warm inhere, by the way, but -- audience member:you're right, mr. president, is it a little warm, but it's all good. the president:it's all good. audience member:yes, i want to thank you again, mr. president, for coming to albuquerque, newmexico. i have several questions to askyou -- i'll make them short and brief.

i am one of those persons thathas been helped by that modification program on myhouse. and i want to say thank youbecause it has helped my family, and i'm one of the persons thatit has helped. and i want to say thank you. the president:that's great. i appreciate that. audience member:it has helped me and my family. the president:i'm glad to hear that.

audience member:and it has helped several -- i mean, it has helped my family, i just don't know how to say thank you. second question, we can't alwaysdepend on government to help us as far as education isconcerned. i do think -- my wife is a teacher in an elementary school -- it all has to start at home. we as parents have to educateour children on how to get educated. it starts at home. and i want to thank you foreverything you've done for

public education. thank you again. but we all have to understand itkind of starts at home, as parents. and the last question is,mr. obama, i am the president of the boardof weatherization programs here in new mexico. and i heard you did the samething in chicago. and i thank you.

it's a nonprofit organizationthat has helped a lot of new mexicans here in new mexico. the central new mexico housingcorporation is a nonprofit organization helpinglower-income people with their homes. for example you had mentionedthat a lot of people can't afford to upgrade their homes,things that they need. well, we are able to provideassistance through washington, the state of new mexico, andsome other agencies to provide free assistance for a lot ofelderly or people who are --

meet certain criteria. so i want to say thank you againfor that weatherization program. it has helped a lot of newmexicans, as myself, as mortgage modification, as apersonal friend of yours, i want to say thank you becauseit has helped my family. the president:i appreciate that. the -- that's -- audience member:it has helped me, thank you. the president:you're welcome.

and people sometimes ask, well,you know, boy, you're working pretty hard andyou got all these issues coming at you, and how do you sort ofstay focused and sane? it's hearing stories like yours,where if we did something that actually helps a family stay intheir home or you meet a mom who says, my kid's now gettinghealth insurance and they weren't getting it before, youfeel a great satisfaction. and i know diane and thecongressman and bill all feel the same way about it.

so it's great to hear. let me just say something aboutthe weatherization issue, which i think is so important. we've got to change how we useenergy in this country. and i know that bill has beencommitted to this; diane is committed to continuingthis enormous progress. new mexico has been at theforefront in thinking about solar and wind. one of the most important thingsthat we can do is something that

doesn't require all kinds of newtechnology. it doesn't require huge, fancyinvestments. it's just making our buildings,our homes, our schools, our hospitals more energyefficient: putting up insulation, getting in newwindows, caulking, getting a new energy-efficienthvac system. these things, if we did itacross the board across the country, it could not onlydrastically reduce people's electricity bills, drasticallyreduce their heating bills,

their air-conditioning bills,their gas bills, it could also go about a thirdof the way in solving the problems of climate change andthe pollution that is causing the temperatures around theglobe to get warmer. so it's an environmental win andit's a pocketbook win. and it creates businesses,because you can have a whole bunch of mom-and-pop hvaccompanies who suddenly they're out there getting businessretrofitting homes to make them energy efficient.

and small businesses can growinto larger businesses, can grow into bigger businesses. i met a business in seattle,washington, that started off as a smallmom-and-pop plumbing operation. and they now have a thousandemployees, and they're ranked as one of thetop 10 companies to work for in the state of washington. they've got unionized tradesmenworking alongside computer experts who diagram how theentire energy system of a school

or a hospital works, and thenthey go in there and they redo it soup to nuts. now, we made a huge investmentin the recovery act on this issue of clean energy andweatherization, but this is again an example ofwhere there's just a strong difference between the twoparties. the other side, they really havenot shown much of an interest in promoting this. and the irony is, is that youcan actually get your money back on this.

a lot of homeowners would loveto do it. they'd get their money back overtime, it would pay for itself, but if you don't have $5,000upfront to do it, you can't do it, even though youknow you'd get the $5,000 back over the course of five years. so a lot of these programs aredesigned to say, we're just going to give you aloan upfront so that you can go ahead and do it, and as you thenrecoup your money, you can pay some of it back.

it is something that is smart todo. we're seeing states start toimplement it. but we've got to i think keep onpushing harder. the more we do this, the moreefficient our economy as a whole is going to be, and that's goingto mean more growth and more jobs in the future. so -- and by the way, the last point i'll make, i can't agree with you enoughabout the parent thing. i was on an interview with mattlauer yesterday,

and they asked me about parents. i said, look, malia and sasha,as wonderful as they are, they are great students, butif michelle and i weren't supervising them,they'd come home, they'd turn on the tvand watch tv all night, or be on their computers, ortalking to their friends. right? so even in the white house, thekey ingredient is parenting and just making sure your kids arefocused on school.

teachers can help, but parents,they've got to get those kids started in the right direction. all right. audience member:thank you. the president:yes, right here. audience member:hello, mr. president. thank you for coming to thesouth valley. the president:yes, it's great to be here. audience member:it's really a great opportunity, and i thank the cavalier family

for inviting me and my husband. i have three questions andthey're kind of hot topic questions and i'll just -- the president:all three of them? audience member:all three of them. the president:you didn't slip in like sort of a easy, boring one in there with the -- audience member:no. the president:all right, let's hear them.

audience member:one of them is basically -- mother teresa answered it in an article and i was going to ask you the same because i loved heranswer. the first one is: why are you achristian? second one is, there's really nolaws about the abortion law and when a woman can and can't havean abortion, whether it's two months or eightmonths, and what is your view on that? and the third one -- it's not as -- it is a hot topic but it'sliterally a hot topic,

and it's about my husband'schili peppers. and that was my question:would you please take some chili peppers home with you? one is a habanero. the president:i will definitely check out these chili peppers. i like spicy food to go withyour spicy questions. audience member:spicy. the president:you know, i'm a christian by choice. my family didn't -- frankly, they weren't folks who went to

church every week. and my mother was one of themost spiritual people i knew, but she didn't raise me in thechurch. so i came to my christian faithlater in life and it was because the precepts of jesus christspoke to me in terms of the kind of life that i would want tolead -- being my brothers' and sisters'keeper, treating others as they wouldtreat me. and i think also understandingthat jesus christ dying for my

sins spoke to the humility weall have to have as human beings, that we're sinful andwe're flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achievesalvation through the grace of god. but what we can do, as flawed aswe are, is still see god in other peopleand do our best to help them find their own grace. and so that's what i strive todo. that's what i pray to do everyday. i think my public service ispart of that effort to express

my christian faith. and it's -- but the one thing i want to emphasize, having spoken about somethingthat obviously relates to me very personally, as president ofthe united states, i'm also somebody who deeplybelieves that the -- part of the bedrock strength ofthis company is that it embraces people of many faiths and of nofaith -- that this is a country that isstill predominantly christian. but we have jews, muslims,hindus, atheists, agnostics,

buddhists, and that their ownpath to grace is one that we have to revere and respect asmuch as our own. and that's part of what makesthis country what it is. now, with respect to theabortion issue, i actually think -- i mean, there are laws both federal, state and constitutional thatare in place. and i think that this is an areawhere i think bill clinton had the right formulation a coupleof decades ago, which is abortion should besafe, legal, and rare.

i think that it's something thatall of us should recognize is a difficult, sometimes -- oftentimes tragic situation that families are wrestling with. i think the families and thewomen involved are the ones who should make the decision, notthe government. but i do think actually thatthere are a whole host of laws on the books that after acertain period, the interests shift such thatyou can have some restrictions, for example, on late-termabortions, and appropriately so.

so there is in fact a set ofrules in place. now, people still argue about itand still deeply disagree about it. and that's part of our -- that's part of our democratic way. all right, next. i want to make sure i geteverybody in. audience member:(inaudible) as far as the mosque in new york. i'm a christian, but we base ourfaith on free will. and that's what we were foundedon, was freedom. and i just -- i just thank you for taking a stand.

the president:well, i appreciate that. you're exactly right. we were founded on freedom ofreligion. that's how this country gotstarted. that's why people came here,because there were a bunch of other folks who said you can'tworship the way you want. and we have to constantly ithink reaffirm that tradition, even when it sometimes makes usuncomfortable. yes.

audience member:okay. the president:and i will try those chili peppers. audience member:just like the rest of everyone, we appreciate you being here. it's a big honor to have youhere. the president:thank you. audience member:and i have three things also -- mine are simple, though -- kind of. first one is, i did a lot ofresearch on you when you were running for president, and so,again,

i appreciate you being here andyou have come from the same place a lot of the rest of ushave come from. we've worked our way to where weare now, and we're working harder to getfurther high up. so that's one thing -- easy. second thing is, i did take myson -- as i said, we did a lot ofresearch on you. i took my -- he was probably four years old at the time, and we took him to your rally upat unm.

so we snuck all the way up asfar as we can go -- it would have been an honor ifhe was able to see you yesterday; unfortunately weweren't able to -- but we were. now, you -- we own a restaurant right down here in the south valley. the president:what's it called? audience member:it's called matteo's. the president:well, the -- where are some samples? audience member:you know what? we have some for you.

we brought some for you. the president:okay, i'm going to check them out. what do we got? audience member:we got to get it past -- the president:oh, i'll talk to secret service. we'll see what you got. audience member:but we did indeed bring you some. the president:okay, all right. audience member:now, you have just recently signed a bill for

small businesses -- the president:yes. audience member:-- and getting loans. now, it is hard for us toreceive a loan only because the money we count on are localpeople to support us, and we support them with ourmeals, obviously. now, the funds are supposed tobe available immediately. now, what is the criteria, whatis -- when will that be going intoaction,

and how hard would that be forsomeone in our situation? the president:well, obviously i haven't looked at your books and i don't know what your expansion plans areand -- audience member:no, i understand that. the president:-- but let me describe for you what we did. number one is we set up loanfacilities both through the sba as well as the new facility sothat if you want to expand your business, you're having troublegetting credit through your local community bank, we are nowproviding additional financing

to the bank that they -- that gives them an incentive to loan to you and they only get these loans if they pass it on to small businesses. so we're not helping the bankjust to hold the money. we're saying if you, southvalley bank, decide that you want to lend tomatteo's restaurant because you think that -- you've tasted their food, it's terrific, and they want to open a new oneor they want to build an addition, then they now have apool of money that is going to

make it much easier for them tolend to you at low interest rates. that's number one. sba, the small businessadministration, also has a whole host of lendingprograms that we have expanded. we've reduced the fees for them. we've made it easier to apply. so if you're interested in thelending programs, then you should contact yourlocal sba administrator here in new mexico, and i'm assumingthat they're --

i'll bet your congressman herecould probably let you know immediately how to get in touchwith them and they would outline for you all the programs thatwere available. so that's on the lending side. now, what we've also done is onthe tax side we have said that for companies that are startingup, small businesses that arestarting up, we're going to give them a wholebunch of tax breaks. if you decide that you have tobuild a new oven,

and you haven't been sure -- should you invest in it this year, should you put it off, it's kind of expensive -- well, we're giving youincentives to go ahead and buy that oven this year and put itin. and it will be cheaper for youbecause you can essentially take -- you can write off the business expenses of purchasing that oven this year a lot faster than you would have otherwise been able to do. so that's an example of just oneof the kinds of tax cuts that

are provided in this bill. and it builds up -- by the way, eight tax cuts that we already passed as part of the recovery act that people don't talk about, right now you can get a tax break if you hire an unemployed worker. we will give you a tax break onthe payroll taxes that you have to pay for that person. there are tax breaks right nowfor health care. i don't know if you're providinghealth care for your employees.

it's oftentimes very hard forrestaurants, who are operating on pretty slimmargins, to provide health insurance fortheir employees, but what we're doing now isbecause of health reform, we'll pay up to a third of thecost to your premiums in the form of tax credits so that it'smuch more affordable, much cheaper for you to be ableto provide health insurance for your employees. so we've got a whole basket oftax cuts and lending assistance

to small businesses. and the reason this is soimportant is because small businesses create the majorityof new jobs in this country. big businesses are veryimportant, too, and we're trying to encouragethem obviously to do more to invest. they actually have a lot ofmoney right now. it's just they're sitting on thesidelines with it instead of investing it, and we've got toencourage them to invest more. but small businesses, that's thebeating heart of so many

communities -- restaurants like yours, small dry cleaners, a plumbing operation, a tentcompany a flower shop. okay, so the -- we've got a bunch of small business owners here. you knit the community together,and you give people opportunity, as well as building somethingfor your family. and you're so invested in itbecause it's yours. and small businesses have beenharder hit by this recession than just about anybody elsebecause they had a harder time getting financing and becauseobviously customer demand was down.

and that's why we have reallytried to focus on making sure that small businesses on mainstreet get help. i've got to do a little bit ofeditorializing again, though, about the politics of thisbecause this is something that -- this bill that i signed this week drew on republican and democratic ideas. traditionally, this is somethingthat's been completely bipartisan. the chamber of commerce, theassociation for small businesses, a whole bunch ofdifferent groups supported it.

we could not get the republicansto let this come up to a vote for months. and there were finally articlesin usa today about how small businesses were holding offmaking investments or hiring because they were still waitingto see if this thing would pass. and finally we got tworepublicans to vote for it -- out of 41. and one of them had to justadmit -- he said, look, the time forplaying games is over; this is too serious.

and i guess -- that's something that i just hope as you are talking to your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers, i hope that's the one thing youcome away from here today thinking about is, these areserious times. i mean we've got toughcompetition out there. this is the greatest country onearth and will continue to be the greatest country on earth aslong as we can go ahead and handle serious problems that wehave, instead of playing politicalgames all the time.

and when you look at the choicesbefore you, i think you've got to askyourself, who is offering serious answers. and i know you feel that way notjust for your business but also for this new son that's coming. have you thought about barack asa name? (laughter and applause) that's good. i like that.

all right, this gentleman righthere. audience member:my name is dan. i'm the principal of los lunashigh school. the president:well, it's great to see you. audience member:thank you, sir. the president:now, has somebody given you a pass so you can be off campus? audience member:yes, we do. as a matter of fact, i'm reallyproud that etta is my counselor at my high school.

so thank you all and welcome tonew mexico. audience member:this statement -- i promised my students -- every day, my students are mymission every day, and what they think and whatthey do is important to all of us. and i have a statement from ms. valerie may's [phonetic] ap class. and it could be a statement orquestion from any high school group of students. and it says, "welcome, presidentobama, to new mexico." and it says, "we are allconcerned and sometimes scared

that there will be no money forus to continue our education. while we seem to be the targetand the gauge on how much monies our school and state gets, whatassurance will we have that we will be rewarded for good work? there seems to be less moneythat banks lend our families and most of all no jobs. we want to thank you forlistening to us. thank you for all you do for ourcountry. we know that you are only oneman and we must all believe,

have faith, and support you inyour endeavors." the president:well, thank you so much. that's a wonderful letter. and i think it's part of whatmakes me so optimistic about the country. when you actually travel andmeet young people around the country, they'll make youoptimistic. i mean, they're smart andthey're ambitious, and they want to help theircommunity, and they've got good values, andthey've got good common sense.

but they are anxious right now,which is understandable. they're growing up in the shadowof a financial crisis that we hadn't seen in our lifetimes. unless you were born in 1910,1915, you wouldn't remember a crisislike this having happened. and so they're seeing itfirsthand and they're seeing it in their families. i'm sure even though theirparents are trying to hide their stress from them, if business isbad,

if you're having trouble payingthe bills, kids hear that. they know it. and some of the letters that aremost heartbreaking for me when i'm -- i get a group of letters every night that i read from people all across the country, selected from the 40,000 emails and letters that we get. and sometimes it's letters fromchildren and they'll write to you about, you know, my dad losthis job and he just doesn't seem the same, and is there somethingyou can do?

and it's heartbreaking. they absorb all the pain that isgoing on out here right now. but that is why it is soimportant for us to make sure that we are meeting ourcommitments to them not just individually as parents but alsoas a society. so when we increase student aidso that these young people that just wrote to me are able toafford going to college, and you've then got the otherside in this election pledging to reverse those increases sothat they're less likely to be

able to afford going to college,that should motivate you at the voting booth in terms of whatyour priorities are. when we're talking about -- when we -- here's a good example, and thecongressman will remember this. we had a debate in washingtonbecause states were very hard-strapped for cash and werestarting to lay off teachers. and we said, let's close acorporate tax loophole that is incentivizing companies to shipjobs overseas, let's close that loophole anduse that money to help states

keep teachers and firefightersand cops on the job, because there are a bunch ofstates -- hawaii, actually, had gone to afour-day-a-week school week because they just couldn'tafford teachers. four days a week you go toschool. they are missing a fifth of theschool year because of budget crunches. and so we said, well, that's notacceptable. let's just close the taxloophole that even the companies that were using the loopholescouldn't really defend.

so we closed it. the leader of the republicans inthe house, he fought us tooth and nail todo that. and then when we pointed outthis is saving a whole bunch of teacher jobs and police officerjobs and firefighter jobs, he says, well, those are justgovernment jobs. those are government jobs? well, these are people who areteaching our kids. these are folks who are rushinginto burning buildings to save

our families, putting theirlives on the line. government jobs? but that is the ideology thatthe other side has been bringing to every problem out here foryears now. and that's the choice that we'vegot in this election. so, look, those young people,they're going to succeed. but we've got to make sure thatwe make it easier for them, as opposed to harder for them,to succeed. ultimately what's going to bringabout their success is their

determination and their talentsand their pluck and their willingness to stick to it. but, you know, we can give thema hand up. we can make sure that college isaffordable. we can make sure that they'reable to stay on their parents' health insurance until they're26 if the first job they get out of school doesn't have healthinsurance. we can make sure that they'renot cheated the first time they buy their home because now we'vegot a consumer finance

protection agency that's goingto monitor mortgage brokers and bank practices so that peopledon't have to get tricked because of fine print. these are just basic things thatwe can do. if they decide they want to opena business, we can make sure that they canget some financing and that they don't have to pay capital gainson their startup business. these little things add up tobig things. it means that they can focustheir energy on their dreams and

their vision and what they'retrying to build, and not spend all their timeconstantly just worrying about, am i going to be able to go toschool or not. that should be a given in thiscountry because it's good for all of us, not just for theseyoung people individually. how are we doing on time? i want to make sure that i'm not-- last question? i've got to -- you're going to defer to him? you're going to defer to him.

well, he was a good-lookingyoung man, i got to admit. you want to hear from him, iunderstand. all right, go ahead. audience member:thank you so much, mr. president. my name is andrew cavalier, i'mhis son. i've got a couple questions foryou. one really hits hard for me. i'm getting a little emotionalhere. my father, being a veteran, weappreciate everything that he's

done for the country. and obviously the va does a lotfor my father. the president:yes, we love your dad. yes, we appreciate what he'sdone. the president:absolutely. audience member:the reason i get emotional is because -- the president:because he's your dad. audience member:well, unfortunately at the va sometimes he doesn't get the care and the service that heshould.

the president:right. audience member:i mean he sacrificed his body -- i mean, over 17 surgeries that he's had -- audience member:i really didn't want to do this on tv. the president:that's all right. audience member:but, you know, i see -- he put his blood, his sweat and his tears into this country and doesn't always get the type of care that he deserves because -- i just want to ask, i mean, doyou have any plan for that?

there's obviously lots ofveterans out there -- audience member:-- feel the same way, not getting the treatments that they deserve. it's not just the medications,you know, it's really being treated like ahuman. audience member:and, i mean, that's kind of the issue that i have is, we put in our taxpayer dollarsand, you know, it's -- i mean, i have a small businessmyself. we help provide people withlegal services, stuff like that,

you know, having access to theirrights. but when you can't afford it, imean, we're forced to just basicallysettle for what we got because of the fact that that's all wecould afford. the president:well, let me -- first of all, you don't have to apologize for being emotional about your dad who served ourcountry as a marine, man. that's -- i get emotional when i think about our young men and women and our veterans who have served this country with such bravery and courage.

we have a sacred trust forpeople who put on the uniform of the united states. they serve us. they're willing to put theirlives on the line. and that means that when theycome back, we've got to serve them. now, here's the good news. first of all, i've got what ithink is one of the finest, if not the finest, secretariesof veterans affairs ever,

general ric shinseki, whohimself is a disabled veteran. and this guy just thinks day andnight about how are we going to make sure that veterans servicesare provided in a timely, effective, respectful fashion,all right? so that's point number one. point number two. we are actually -- even in the midst of this very difficult budget situation that we're in, we have increased over the last two years funding for veterans more than any time in the

last 30 years. more than any time in the last30 years. and the reason we did it wasbecause a lot of va facilities had gotten outdated. the backlog in terms of folkstrying to get medical services or getting their claimsprocessed had just gotten ridiculous. you had over a million youngpeople who had served in iraq and now afghanistan who had comeback and they've got new problems like -- well, they're not new problems but now we're

much more effective at diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury -- they weren't getting services. we've got women who are nowserving in a much more dangerous situation in a lot of thesetheaters, and yet a lot of va facilitiesstill did not have special services for women and theirspecial needs as they return. so we are in the process ofinvesting more in the va and reforming how business is doneat the va than at any time in

the last 30 years. now, we've still got a ways togo, but this is again an example ofwhere, come november, we've got to start making somechoices because if, for example, we give tax breaks tomillionaires and billionaires that cost us $700 billion thatwe don't have, that money has to come fromsomewhere. and we've got to be able toprovide for our veterans. i'd rather choose veterans.

i'd rather choose these youngpeople who are looking for scholarships. homeless veterans. the notion that we've gotsomebody who served our country and they're now on the streets,they don't have a house? so we've said we're going tohave zero tolerance for homeless veterans. we are going to do everything wecan to make sure that every single person who has served ourcountry, that they've got proper medicalcare and they've got a roof over their heads. and oftentimes that meanscounseling.

and the irony is if you make theinvestments early, then it turns out that they'reless expensive over the long term. so this is something that you'reright to be emotional about, and i think we should all beemotional about it. and we're grateful to your dadfor his service, and we just need to remindourselves that there are millions of folks across thecountry who deserve that same kind of respect and we've got tomeet our obligations to them. one last point i'll make aboutveterans,

because it ties in with theoverall theme of education -- working with our terrificmembers of congress here, we were able to pass thepost-9/11 gi bill, which means that this generationof veterans is going to be able to benefit the same way mygrandfather benefited when he came back from world war ii;that he was going to be able to get his college education paidfor. and by the way, we made ittransferable to the spouses of veterans and their familymembers if they weren't going to

use it, because militaryfamilies make huge sacrifices as well and oftentimes they don'tget the service and the attention that they need. and this has been a hugepriority of the first lady, and it's something that i amvery, very proud of. but we've got to keep onfighting for these changes. they don't come by themselves. and i hope everybody is going topay attention and do their homework and find out aboutcandidates.

and i think what you'll find is,is that when you're making choices for governor and you'remaking choices for senate and congress, that these choices aregoing to mean something. and you got to ask yourselves,what direction do i want this country to go in? do i want to invest in ourpeople, in our middle class and makingit stronger, and our infrastructure and oureducation system and clean energy -- is that one vision or are we just going to keep on

doing the same things that got us into this mess in the first place? thank you so much, everybody. it was great spending time withyou. thank you.