President Obama in Iowa: “We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Back Now”

Hours after delivering an intensely political and populist State of the Union address, President Barack Obama took to the road on a three-day tour of five politically crucial states that pollsters say will very likely decide the outcome of November's election.

Speaking at an engineering plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr Obama hammered home his message of investing to create a "fair America" by doubling taxes on millionaires who he said were being "subsidized" by tax breaks brokered by elite vested interests in Washington.

"We're not going to go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing and bad debt and phoney financial promises," he said, repeating his attack on the banks that caused the 2008 financial crisis, "That's not how America was built and we're not going to go back to that."

"Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else – like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both."

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(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

"I hear a lot of folks running around calling this class warfare . . . This is not class warfare," Obama said, citing legendary financier Warren Buffett's argument that he should pay a higher tax rate on his vast fortune than his own staff pay on their annual income.

"Asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary is common sense," Obama said, warning Americans must decide whether to build an equitable economy, fund education and the military or let the rich evade fair taxes.

"We cannot do both. You have got to choose," Obama said, hammering out his core election message while seeking to defuse Republican claims he is vilifying the rich in a bid to mine envy over their success.

"We don't begrudge success in America. We aspire to it," Obama said, speaking in front of a banner that read "An America built to last."

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(AFP, Jewel Samad)

“I know there’s been a lot of excitement here over the past couple of months. It kind of made me nostalgic,” Obama said during an event at a Cedar Rapids factory, referring to the Iowa caucuses.

“I used to have a lot of fun here in Iowa. I remember a great backyard barbecue out in Marion way back in 2007. Good burgers,” he said.

“I did not have as much gray hair back then, but you know when I think about all the days I spent in Iowa, so much of my presidency, so much about what I care about, so much about what I think about every day has to do with the conversations that I had with you – in people’s backyards or VFW halls. Those conversations I carry with me.

“All across this state, in all 99 counties, and I was in, I think, just about every county, we talked about how for years the middle class was having a tougher time. Hard work had stopped paying off for too many people. Good jobs in manufacturing were leaving our shores. Folks at the very, very top saw their incomes rise like never before but most Americans, most folks in Iowa were just trying to stay afloat.

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(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

“Our economy is getting stronger, and we’ve come too far to turn back now,” President Obama said from the floor of a factory here. “There are people in Washington who seem to have collective amnesia. They see to have forgotten how we got into this mess. Their philosophy seems to be simple: We are better off when everybody is left to defend for themselves and play by their own rules.

“I am here to say they are wrong,” he said.

“Look at what happened in our auto industry,” Obama said. “On the day I took office, it was on the verge of collapse. And some even said we should let it die. I’ve got the clips in case, because I remember, they were beating the heck out of me. Why are you doing this? Why are you intervening? But we stood to lose a million jobs. I refused to let that happen.”

He said he wants to see the success of Detroit replicated “in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Raleigh. And I want it to happen right here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.”

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(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

“It’s an economy built on manufacturing made right here in America,” Obama said. “It’s an economy of renewal built on American values. Heartland values. They’re values Iowans know all about; hard work, responsibility, and the same set of rules for everybody from Main Street to Wall Street.”

"There's no reason why we can't restore the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well," Obama said. Most people don't have unrealistic ambitions about their economic future but they do want to own a home, save for retirement and "achieve that small measure of an American dream," he said.

“When we come together as a country, there’s no reason we can’t restore the basic American promise of if you work hard you’ll do well,” Obama said. “We are making progress.”

“Today American manufacturers like this one are hiring again and creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s. We’ve come too far to turn back now.”

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(REUTERS/Jason Reed)