If you’re looking for an applauseline, that’s about as guaranteed an applause line as youcan get. But guesswhat? It does nothing to guarantee our security. It doesn’t guaranteeastronger country. It doesn’t guarantee a sounder economy or a more stable jobmarket. Itdoesn’t guarantee that the best interests of our nation are beingserved. It doesn’t guaranteethat another young American man or woman won’t goand lose their life because we weren’twilling to make the right investmentshere in the first place.
We need to say no to the politicsof the lowest common denominator and of simplisticslogans, and start makingreal choices that protect the interests of our country. That’simperative.(Applause.)
Unfrtunately, the StateDepartment doesn’t have our own Grover Norquist pushing a pledgeto protect it.We don’t have millions of AARP seniors who send in their dues and rally toprotectAmerica’s investments overseas. The kids whose lives we’re helping savefrom AIDS, the womenwe’re helping to free from the horrors of sex trafficking,the students who, for the first time, canchoose to walk into a school insteadof into a short life of terrorism – their strongest lobbyists arethe rare,committed Americans who stand up for them and for the resources that we needtohelp them. And I hope that includes all of you here and many listening.
You understand why. Every timethat a tough fiscal choice looms, the easiest place topoint fingers – foreignaid. As Ronald Reagan said, foreign aid suffers from a lack ofdomesticconstituency, and that’s part of the reason that everyone thinks it costs a lotmore thanit really does. So we need to change that. I reject the excuse thatAmericans just aren’tinterested in what’s happening outside of their immediatefield of vision. I don’t believe thatabout any one of you sitting here, and Idon’t believe that about Americans.
In fact, the real domesticconstituency for what we do, if people can see the dots connectedandunderstand what we’re doing in its full measure, is really large. It’s the 314millionAmericans whose lives are better every day because of what we do, andwho, deep down, whenthey have time to stop and think about it, know that ourinvestment abroad actually makesthem and our nation safer.
Now, my friends, in this age,when a shrinking world clashes with calls for shrinking budgets– and we’re notalone – it’s our job to connect those dots, to connect them for theAmericanpeople between what we do over there and the size of the difference that itmakes overhere at home, why the price of abandoning our global efforts wouldbe exorbitant, and whythe vacuum we would leave by retreating within ourselveswill quickly be filled by those whoseinterests differ dramatically from ours.
We learned that lesson in thedeserts of Mali recently, in the mountains of Afghanistan in2001, and in thetribal areas of Pakistan even today. Just think: Today’s first-years here atUVAwere starting the second grade when a small cabal of terrorists halfwayaround the worldshattered our sense of security and our stability, ourskylines. So I know that you certainlyhave always understood that bad thingshappening over there threaten us right here.
Knowing that, the question isthis: How do we, together, make clear that the opposite is justas true; thatif we do the right things, the good things, the smart things over there, itwillstrengthen us here at home?
Let me tell you my answer: Ibelieve we do this in two ways. First, it’s about telling the storyof how westand up for American jobs and businesses – pretty practical, prettystraightforward,and pretty real on a day-to-day basis. And second, it’s abouthow we stand up for our Americanvalues, something that has alwaysdistinguished America.
I agree with President Obama thatthere is nothing in this current budget fight thatrequires us to make baddecisions, that forces us to retrench or to retreat. This is a time tocontinueto engage for the sake of the safety and the economic health of our country.This is notoptional. It is a necessity. The American people understand this, Ibelieve. Our businessesunderstand this. It’s simple. The more they sellabroad, the more they’re going to hire here athome. And since 95 percent ofthe world’s customers live outside of our country, we can’thamstring our ownability to compete in those increasingly growing markets.
Virginia understands this as wellas any state in the union. Senator Kaine, I know, when agovernor, took thosetrips to try to make this happen. International trade supports more thanamillion jobs right here in Virginia – more than one in five jobs in Virginia,which actually todayis the story of America.
You have a company up near Dullescalled Orbital Sciences Corporation. With the help of thepersistent advocatesof our Embassy in Bangkok, it beat out French and Russian competitors tobuildThailand’s newest broadcast satellite. Virginia’s Orbital is now teaming upwith a Californiacompany called Space Exploration Technologies that makessatellite equipment. The deal thatour Embassy helped secure, valued at $160million, goes right back into American communitiesfrom coast to coast. That’sthe difference that our embassies abroad actually can make back hereat home.