Obama: Gov’t Investments in ‘Faster Trains, Faster Internet’ ‘Pay off Many Times Over’

“It means working with businesses to provide apprenticeships and on the job training, another pass into the middle class. And I want to bring down the cost of community college to zero. (Cheering and Applause)

Two years of community college should be as free and universal as high school is today. If we’ve got the best trained work force in the world, then businesses will come to Alabama, they’ll come to Birmingham, they’ll come to America, and we will succeed. (Cheering and Applause)

Middle class economics means building the most competitive economy anywhere. So we can keep churning out high wage jobs for the workers to fill. I want to put more people back to work, rebuilding our roads and our bridges, modern ports, faster trains, faster Internet. We should invest in those things. They pay off many times over.

I want to invest in basic research so that jobs and industry for the future take root here, because we’ve invented new products and new services and innovate it. And we can pay for these investments without blowing up our deficits. We just need to reform our tax codes so it helps middle class families get ahead instead of [indecipherable] folks who already got a lot get ahead.”