Remarks by the Vice President at a Meeting of the National Governors Association

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. I tell you what, I didn't know Jack was as good as he is until I heard that rhyme last night. (Laughter.) Jack, if you had done that, I'd be introducing you here. (Laughter.)

Thank you all very, very much. I'm sorry -- you guys are much more disciplined than the place I lived for 36 years, up on the Hill, and you're running ahead of schedule. And so the President is with me, and I want to thank you all for being here.

We have a lot to work on. There's a lot from fixing a broken immigration system to rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, and this new word everybody in America is learning about -- "sequester."

This town, unlike many of your capitals, is I hope temporarily frozen in -- not indifference but in sort of an intense partisanship, the likes of which in my career I've only see the last couple years. But you know the American people have moved to a different place. By the way, thanks for being so nice to my wife last night. I like you a hell of better. (Laughter.) We disagreed on some things.

But all kidding aside, I think the American people have moved -- Democrats, Republicans, independents. They know that the possibilities for this country are immense. They're no longer traumatized by what was a traumatizing event, the great collapse in 2008. They're no longer worried, I think, about our economy being overwhelmed either by Europe writ large, the EU, or China somehow swallowing up every bit of innovation that exists in the world. They're no longer, I think, worried about our economy being overwhelmed beyond our shores.

And I don't think they're any more -- there's no -- there's very little doubt in any circles out there about America's ability to be in position to lead the world in the 21st century, not only in terms of our foreign policy, our incredible defense establishment, but economically. I think the American people are ready to get up. As a civil rights leader, when I was coming up as a kid, said, they're just -- the American people are tired of being tired. I think they're ready to get up and move. And you guys know that because it's happening in your states. You probably feel it in your fingertips more than most of us do here in Washington.

And as I said, I think they know we're better positioned than any nation in the world to lead the world. And that's why I think they're so frustrated by what they see and don't see happening here in Washington. And I think their frustration is turning into a little bit of anger.

I found an interesting dynamic -- without ruining any of your reputations and picking out any one of you -- but whether it was a Democrat or Republican governor I had been talking to last night and over this past weekend, I heard from several of you, both parties, how do you deal with this going on up here? How do you deal with the Congress? No distinction, Democrat or Republican, depending who I was talking to, no distinction about who you're dealing with -- but how do you deal with this? Because you guys deal and women deal with legislatures that are split. Some of you represent a minority party as a governor, yet you get on very well with -- you accomplish things in your home state. And as I said, I've been here long enough -- that's the way it used to work, and I think we can make it work that way again.

But there's a number of things we have to do immediately, and we may disagree on how to address them, but I don't think anybody disagrees on the need for them to be addressed -- from implementing the Affordable Care Act. It's the law. You all are grappling with that. Each of you are making different decisions, but you're grappling with it. You're moving and you're making your own judgments.

We also have to -- I don't think there's much disagreement there's a need for immigration reform. I've not met a governor from the time of implementing the Recovery Act to now who doesn't think that we have do something about our crumbling infrastructure in order to impact on our productivity here in this country -- continue to attract, keep and bring back American business from abroad.

And there's very little disagreement on the need to build an education system that has such immense possibilities for our people.

But on most of these issues we're united by more than what divides us. All these issues intersect at a place -- the ones I just mentioned and others -- they intersect at a place where both the state and federal governments engage. So we're going to have to work together. They overlap in many cases.

We'll have our differences, but we all should agree that the United States has to once again have the highest percentage of college graduates of any nation in the world. I don't think there's any disagreement. Everybody agrees and some of you governors have led the way on early education and the consequences for the prospects of success for our children not only of graduating, but avoiding the criminal justice system. You've all led in knowing that we have to have reform of our high school system so that we -- and not only finding a pathway for people who are going to four-year college and community college but go into the trades.

So there's so much agreement that I think we ought to be able to get a fair amount done. And we should all agree that to grow our economy we have to invest in manufacturing, clean energy, infrastructure, education. The question is who invests and how much and how -- we're going to debate that. But there's not much disagreement about the need to invest.

And I think we're all -- I've never met a Democrat or Republican who's been a governor who doesn't think that the American people should have the sense that hard work is going to be rewarded, that there's a chance that if you work hard, you got an opportunity. I don't know of any group of men or women who are a better living example of that than all of you sitting in front of me in your own experiences.

So the question is -- we all use the phrase "move forward in a balanced way" -- when one man's balance is another man's imbalance, but that's what we got to talk about. That's what's at stake. But the one thing that I don't think any of you lack is a vision about how great this country can be now that we're coming back, that we ought to be able to reassert ourselves in a way that we own the 21st century. And I know the guy I'm about to introduce believes that as strongly as all of you do.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the President -- who's back with the pastry chef and I'm wondering what he's doing back there. (Laughter.) The President of the United States, my friend, Barack Obama. (Applause.)