But, the president said, “I will argue and insist that we cannot cut back on those investments that have the biggest impact on our economic growth.”
He said that cutting spending on education, research and development, and green technologies would be like trying to reduce the weight of an airplane by removing the engine.
“We’ve got to have a long-term vision about where we want to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now,” he said.
Obama also used his speech at Forsyth Technical Community College to press for a compromise on the continuation of Bush-era tax cuts, reiterating his position that no upper-income tax cuts should be extended unless jobless benefits are as well.
Even as Obama spoke in Winston-Salem, negotiations were under way in Washington toward a deal that would extend jobless benefits along with a temporary extension of all the tax cuts. Such a deal would fall short of Obama’s long-stated goal of extending tax cuts for middle-income people while letting cuts expire for the rich.
The president seemed resigned to a compromise, saying a solution must be found to keep middle-class taxes from going up, “even if it’s not 100 percent of what I want or what the Republicans want.”
But the president insisted he’d be resolute in ensuring America’s competitiveness. He reeled off a string of statistics showing Asian nations and other countries pulling ahead of the U.S. in certain areas, science graduates among them.
The nation needs more high-speed rail, broadband internet access, and spending on roads and bridges, he said.
“Today China has the fastest trains and the fastest supercomputers in the world,” the president said.
- Weak tech could push students, faculty to other institutions - April 13, 2026
- 13 predictions about edtech, innovation, and–yes–AI in 2026 - January 1, 2026
- 5 essential dimensions of AI literacy - December 12, 2025