David Price For Congress

Price speaks to Women for Obama Rally

FAYETTEVILLE, NC – Rep. David Price (NC-04) delivered the following remarks to a Women for Obama rally on Saturday, June 23, in Fayetteville. Actress Angela Bassett also spoke at the rally.

Welcome to the Women for Obama rally!  It is a pleasure to be here with you today and, while I’m at it, to welcome Cumberland County to the Fourth District.

Before I begin, I would like to recognize your two leaders.  Would Iris Hunter and Dr. Sophia Pierce please stand up?

Iris Hunter – as a mother to four soldiers, wife of a soldier, and a health care champion, we honor you for your service and sacrifice.  Dr. Sophia Pierce – as a business owner, teacher, and champion of children with special needs, we thank you for your many contributions to the community.  You are both leading by example here in Cumberland County, and recently that leadership has included serving as co-chairs of this organization.  This is the largest Women for Obama chapter in North Carolina because of your hard work.  I want to thank you, and to lead a much deserved round of applause from everybody here.

All of you are on the frontline – as women have always been – in the Democratic Party.  We are the party of Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Democratic presidential candidate, of Eva Clayton and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, our chairwoman of the DNC.  The common thread among these women is energetic leadership, effectiveness and strength.

We are going to need your energy to re-elect President Obama.  We know what we’re up against, and we know what the consequences will be if we do not succeed.

Over the coming months you’re going to hear an enormous number of political ads with scary and menacing voices saying everything under the sun is the president’s fault.

The same folks who created the recession and then stonewalled President Obama’s proposals to end the recession are now hoping to make him take the fall!  They want to block investments in our future that also create jobs now – education, infrastructure, research, and innovation – and then to say Obama’s policies are at fault for a fragile economic recovery.  Their message boils down to “Hey Obama, you didn’t clean up our mess fast enough!”

If Republicans win, you can bet the war on women will be taken to new heights.  Already, they’re blocking VAWA, something we never even fought about before!  The Republican budget cuts nearly a billion dollars from food aid for low-income pregnant women, mothers and children.  It cuts Medicaid and Head Start to the bone.  It calls for ending Medicare as we know it, and slashing investments in education, infrastructure, research, and veterans programs.  Will this reduce the deficit?  No.  It will pay for a tax break that averages $150,000 for people making a million dollars a year.

Those are the wrong priorities, they make a mockery of our values.

This president has been trying to do what’s right since day one.  You are the most effective advocates we have.  We are counting on you to make sure people know that President Obama has been standing up for what’s right: investing in our future, equality for women, and a fair shot for anybody willing to work hard and play by the rules.

That is what I’m going to do.  I’m going to tell people that I stood with the president to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Act to ensure equal pay for women.  I’m going to say that I was proud to help the president pass health care reform legislation that says women don’t have to pay more for insurance just because they’re women.  And when Republicans tried to pay for an extension of lower student loan rates by cutting childhood immunizations and breast cancer screenings, I said “No, that’s a false choice if there ever was one.”

This president has had our backs, now it’s time for us to have his back.

This will be a close election, and we have the power to decide it here in North Carolina.  This is a fact: If President Obama wins North Carolina, he will win a second term.  That gets me fired up.  That gets me ready to go.  Let’s buckle down, let’s stay determined, and let’s make this happen.

Thank you.