Here's a live video stream of President Obama's speech on the economy from at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois:
The speech, titled "A better bargain for the middle class" is scheduled to begin at 12:55 ET. The White House has signaled that it represents the start of a major and sustained push to advance the president's second-term economic agenda. We will provide live updates throughout the speech including the text of the remarks when they become available.
9:55 AM PT: BTW, in case you were concerned that Republicans weren't paying attention, they are paying so much attention that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have already trashed the speech. Before it was even delivered.
10:01 AM PT: As Jonathan Weisman detailed this morning in the New York Times, the president's biggest challenge is Republican control of the House of Representatives, where the GOP majority is taking an axe to program after program supported by President Obama and Democrats.
10:10 AM PT: If you're just tuning in, don't worry, you haven't missed anything—things are running a bit behind schedule.
10:13 AM PT: President Obama walks on the stage, rudely interrupting discussions about Mayor Anthony Weiner on both FNC and MSNBC.
10:15 AM PT: And we're underway. Here are the remarks as prepared.
10:20 AM PT: President Obama emphasizes this line in his prepared remarks: "The link between higher productivity and people’s wages and salaries was severed – the income of the top 1% nearly quadrupled from 1979 to 2007, while the typical family’s barely budged" with extemporaneous comments about how rising corporate profits haven't been linked to rising family incomes.
10:26 AM PT:
10:28 AM PT: After talking about the ways in which the economy has improved since the Great Recession, President Obama says that there's more work to be done. Despite rising profits, he says, most people aren't seeing the benefits. "In many ways, the trends that I spoke of here in 2005 – of a winner-take-all economy where a few do better and better, while everybody else just treads water – have been made worse by the recession. And that's a problem. This growing inequality—not just of outcome, but also opportunity—isn’t just morally wrong; it’s bad economics."
10:29 AM PT: Reversing the trend of inequality, says Obama, is his top priority, and must be Washington's top priority. But, he says, over the last two years (since Republicans reclaimed the House), Washington is making it worse, citing the debt limit crisis and sequestration. And, he says, over the past six months Republican obstruction has gotten worse—in the House. He says a handful of Senate Republicans have been working towards compromise, but the House Republicans have been steadfast in their obstruction, citing immigration reform and the farm bill.
10:33 AM PT: Obama says it's wrong for Republicans to cite out of control government spending as an argument for their obstruction, because the deficit has fallen by half as a share of the economy, and because they've already made major spending cuts.