Here's an excerpt:
...one year ago, when many of these institutions were on the verge of collapse - a predicament largely of their own making, oftentimes because they failed to manage risk properly - we took difficult, and frankly unpopular, steps to pull them back from the brink; steps that were necessary not just to save our financial system but to save our economy as a whole. Today, due to the timely loans from the American people, our financial system has stabilized, the stock market has sprung back to life, our economy is growing, and our banks are once again reporting profits. A year ago, many doubted we would ever recover these investments, but we've managed this program well. This morning, another major bank announced that it would be repaying taxpayers in full, and when they do, we'll have collected 60% of the money owed, with interest. We expect other institutions to follow suit, and we are determined to recover every last dime for the American taxpayer.By the way, here's the news about Citigroup announcing that it "will replace the $20 billion of remaining bailout aid with money from private investors, facilitate the sale of the government’s $25 billion in bank stock and allow it to wean itself off other forms of federal assistance." Overall, I'd say this has been an excellent job by the Obama administration in dealing with an extraordinarily difficult situation inherited from the Bush administration. It's a job that the administration hasn't gotten nearly enough credit for pulling off, in part because it hasn't done a very good job of tooting its own horn.
So, my main message in today's meeting was very simple, that America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry, and now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy...
Meanwhile, the people who want to "break" Obama have had a field day. To those people, I'd respond that it's very easy to snipe from the sidelines without making any positive contributions of one's own, as the Eric Cantors and Mitch McConnells of the world prefer to do. But, it's much harder - to quote Teddy Roosevelt - to be "the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds." Personally, I'll take the "man in the arena" - especially if that man is fighting hard for our country - any day over the people in the stands hoping that he fails.
