Reading that story reminded me of an aside I wrote in a recent post on how hard it is to tell the difference between an official visit and a campaign stop. I want to give a good illustration of this point. The following is from remarks President Obama made on April 24th in North Carolina:
But I’ve got to tell you, the Republicans who run the House of Representatives have not yet said whether or not they’ll stop your rates from doubling. And they’ve hinted that the only way they’d do it is if they cut things like aid for low-income students. So let me scratch my head there for a second. Think about that. We’re going to help some students by messing with other students. That’s not a good answer. How many people think that’s a good answer?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t think so. One of these members of Congress -- sometimes I like just getting these quotes, because I’m always interested in how folks talk about this issue. You’ve got one member of Congress who compared these student loans -- I’m not kidding here -- to a "stage-three cancer of socialism."
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE PRESIDENT: Stage-three cancer? (Laughter.) I don’t know where to start. What do you mean? (Laughter.) What are you talking about? (Applause.) Come on. Just when you think you’ve heard it all in Washington, somebody comes up with a new way to go off the deep end. (Laughter.)
And then, you’ve got the spokesman for the Speaker of the House who says, we’re -- meaning me, my administration -- we're just talking about student loans to distract people from the economy. Now, think about that for a second. Because these guys don’t get it -- this is the economy. (Applause.) This is the economy. This is about your job security. This is about your future. If you do well, the economy does well. This is about the economy. (Applause.)
And here is what he said at an event in Michigan on April 18th:
And we need to build in America -- roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband lines. That’s what this museum reminds us of, is what it means to build. It’s time we stop taking the money that we’re spending at war -- use half of it to pay down our debt, use the other half to do some nation building here at home. (Applause.) And when we talk about the deficit --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Obama!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you, baby. (Laughter and applause.) Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you more! (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: When we talk about the deficit, it’s a real problem. It is something that we’re going to have to address. We can’t leave a bunch of unpaid bills for our kids and our grandkids. And so that means that we’ve got to make some tough decisions, get rid of programs that don’t work to make sure that we can invest in programs that do. But we’ve also got to make sure that the tax system reflects everybody doing their fair share. (Applause.)
The Republicans in the Senate just rejected the Buffett Rule --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE PRESIDENT: -- wouldn’t let it come up for a vote. Simple idea that if you make more than $1 million a year, you shouldn’t pay a lower tax rate than your secretary. Now, the reason that’s important is because if we abided by that rule, then we could say to folks what I have repeatedly said, which is, the 98 percent of Americans who make $250,000 a year or less, your taxes shouldn’t go up. And that idea is not -- it's not class warfare to say that somebody like me can afford to do a little bit more. It’s just basic math.
Which one is the campaign stop and which one is the official visit? That's for you to decide.
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