1、 Hello, St. Paul! （Applause.） It is good to be back in Minnesota. （Applause.） AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you! I love you back. Thats why I came here. Good to see you. Although, can I just say that when we got off the plane, Secretary Foxx, who is from NorthCarolina, turned to me and he said, this is t
2、he coldest Ive ever been in my life. （Laughter.）Now, we were only out there for like a minute - （laughter） - which goes to show how soft thesefolks from North Carolina are when it comes to the weather. （Laughter and applause）. I, on theother hand, am from Chicago - （applause） - I walked off those st
3、airs and I was like, this isbalmy, this is great. （Laughter.） February, in Minnesota - cant beat it. Cannot beat it. Now, in addition to Secretary Foxx, who I want to - give him a big round of applause forthat introduction. （Applause.） Youve two champions for the people of Minnesota who are heretoda
4、y. Youve got Representative Betty McCollum - （applause） - and Representative KeithEllison. （Applause.） Youve got your Mayor, Chris Coleman, in the house. （Applause.） The newMayor of Minneapolis, Betsy Hodges, is here. （Applause.） And my great friend, who actually toldme I was running for President b
5、efore I knew I was running for President - R.T. Rybak. Lovethat name. （Applause.） Wheres R.T.? Now, I want to thank everybody who showed me around Union Depot and gave me apreview of this new light rail line. It is fantastic. （Applause.） And I also just want to say -even though hes not here today -
6、I want to say to everybody how Michelle and I have beenkeeping in our thoughts and prayers one of the great Americans that we know, as well as agreat Minnesotan - Walter Mondale. （Applause.） Now, like millions of Americans, Ive spent some time with Minnesotans lately - because Iwas watching the Olym
7、pics. （Laughter.） Minnesota sent 19 athletes to the games. （Applause.）Thats tied for second most of any state, and they did us all proud. It is not shocking thatMinnesotans might be pretty good at the Winter Olympics. （Laughter.） What is particularlyinteresting is that, once again, the tiny town of
8、Warroad proved that it really is Hockeytown,USA, thanks to T.J. Oshie and Gigi Marvin, who were just so proud of. And T.J.s shootoutperformance against the Russians I might say I enjoyed a lot. （Applause.） I tweeted at himabout it. So weve spent some time over the last few weeks on hockey, but Im no
9、t here to talk abouthockey. By the way, I cannot play hockey. （Laughter.） I grew up in Hawaii - we do not havehockey in Hawaii. But Im here to talk about what youre doing in the Twin Cities, and howyoure helping to create new jobs and new opportunities for every American. We are at a moment when our
10、 economy is growing. Our businesses have created about 8.5million new jobs in the past four years. Unemployment is at the lowest its been in over fiveyears; in Minnesota, its lower than its been in six and a half years. （Applause.） And, by theway, youve got a great governor who I served with in the
11、Senate, Mark Dayton, who is helpingto make that happen. （Applause.） So in a lot of ways things are looking up. But in some ways, the trends that had beenbattering middle-class families for a long time have gotten even starker, because those at thetop are doing better than ever, while wages and incom
12、es for a lot of families have barelybudged. And too many families are working harder than ever just to keep up. So as I said atthe State of the Union address a few weeks back, our job is to reverse those trends. （Applause.） Weve got to build an economy that works for everybody. Weve got to restoreop
13、portunity for all people, so that no matter who you are, where you come from, what youlook like, you can get ahead if you work hard and youre responsible. And so I laid out an opportunity agenda that has four parts. Number one, good jobs thatpay good wages in manufacturing, in energy, in innovation
14、and infrastructure. Number two,train folks with the skills they need to get those good jobs, something that your senator, AlFranken, is doing great work on every single day. He cares a lot about that job training issue. （Applause.） Number three, guaranteeing every child has access to a world-class e
15、ducation. （Applause.） And, number four, making sure that hard work is rewarded with wages you can liveon, and savings you can retire on, and health care you can count on. Thats what were fightingfor. （Applause.） Minnesota is helping to lead the way on these issues. Your state legislature is poised t
16、oraise your minimum wage this year. （Applause.） In my State of the Union address, I called fora new womens economic agenda. Its actually a family economic agenda - equal pay for equalwork, paid sick leave and more. And there are leaders in your state legislature that areworking hard at this, because
17、 they know when women succeed, America succeeds. （Applause.） So on all these issues, were reaching out to members of Congress, looking to see if theyrewilling to work with us on some of these priorities. But what I also said at the State of theUnion is, in this year of action, whenever I can partner
18、 directly with states or cities or businessleaders or civic leaders to act on this opportunity agenda, Im going to go ahead and do it.We cant wait. Weve got to move. Weve got to get things going. Too many families arecounting on it. （Applause.） So yesterday, I launched new hubs to attract 21st centu
19、ry manufacturing jobs to America.And today, Im here to launch a new competition for 21st century infrastructure and the jobsthat come with it, because any opportunity agenda begins with creating more good jobs. Andone of the fastest and best ways to create good jobs is by rebuilding Americas infrast
20、ructure -our roads, our bridges, our rails, our ports, our airports, our schools, our power grids. Weve gota lot of work to do out there, and weve got to put folks to work. （Applause.） One of the most difficult things about the financial crisis we went through was the housingbubble bursting, and con
21、struction workers were hammered harder than just about anybody.And while weve cut the unemployment rate for construction workers almost in half since2019, too many are still looking for jobs at a time when weve got so much that we could putthem to work on rebuilding. Weve got ports that arent ready
22、for the next generation ofsupertankers. Weve got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify forMedicare. （Laughter.） Everybody knows, and nobody knows better than Minnesotans, when weve gone through awinter like this, roads are wrecked, full of potholes all across the country. （Applaus
23、e.） Now, other countries are not waiting to rebuild their infrastructure. Theyre trying to out-build us today so they can out-compete us tomorrow. As a percentage of GDP, countries likeChina, Germany, theyre spending about twice what were spending in order to buildinfrastructure - because they know
24、that if they have the fastest trains on the planet or thehighest-rated airports or the busiest, most efficient ports that businesses will go there. But we dont want businesses to go there. We want them to come here to Minnesota. （Applause.） We want them to come here to the United States of America.
25、And that means thebest airports and the best roads and the best trains should be right here in America. At a time when companies are saying they intend to hire more people this year, we need tomake that decision easier for them. And we can create jobs at the same time, rebuilding ourtransportation s
26、ystems, our power grids, our communications networks - all the things thatcommerce relies on and that help get workers to those jobs. So the bottom line is theres work to be done, workers ready to do it. Rebuilding ourinfrastructure is vital to business. It creates good-paying jobs that, by the way,
27、 cannot beoutsourced. （Applause.） This is one of Congresss major responsibilities - helping states andcities fund new infrastructure projects. （Applause.） And part of the reason Im focused on this is Congress has an important deadline comingup. If Congress doesnt finish a transportation bill by the
28、end of the summer, we could seeconstruction projects stop in their tracks, machines sitting idle, workers off the job. So next week, Im going to send Congress a budget that funds rebuilding ourtransportation infrastructure in a more responsible way - by doing it over four years, whichgives cities an
29、d states and private investors the certainty they need to plan major projects.Projects like repairing essential highways and bridges; building new transit systems in fast-growing cities and communities, so folks who live there can get to work and school every dayand spend less time sitting in traffi
30、c. （Applause.） And were going to have to constructsmarter, more resilient transportation systems that can withstand the worst impacts ofclimate change, like bigger surges of water that weve seen in recent floods. So, all told, my transportation budget will support millions of jobs nationwide. And we
31、llpay for these investments in part by simplifying the tax code. Were going to close wasteful taxloopholes, lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs here at home, stop rewardingcompanies for sending jobs to other countries, use the money we save in this transition tocreate good jobs with good
32、 wages rebuilding America. It makes sense. （Applause.） Now, Ill be honest with you, there are leaders in both parties who are willing to reachacross the aisle in Congress when it comes to American infrastructure. They know howimportant it is. And infrastructure didnt use to be a partisan issue - shouldnt be Democrator Republican. Everybody uses roads, everybody uses ports, airports. Unfortunately, time andagain over the past few years, there have been some Republic
