Here at ZBB, you’re building batteries to store electricity from solar cells（太阳能电池） and wind turbines.  And you’ve been able to export batteries around the globe, and that’s helping¹ lead this new industry.  For years, we’ve heard about manufacturing jobs disappearing overseas.  Well, companies like this are showing us how manufacturing can come back right here in the United States of America, right back here to Wisconsin.  (Applause.) 

Now, obviously, we’ve got a lot more work to do.  The damage that was done by this recession was enormous.  Eight million people lost their job; 750,000 lost jobs the month I was sworn into office; 3 million had lost their jobs by the time we took office, and several more million in those first few months of 2009.  So too many of our family members and our friends and our neighbors are still having a tough time finding work.  And some of them have been out of work a long time.

And I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, my administration will not rest till every American who is willing to work can find a job, and a job that pays decent wages and decent benefits to support a family.

But what’s clear is that we’re headed in the right direction.  A year and a half ago, this economy was shrinking rapidly.  The economy is now growing.  A year and a half ago, we were losing jobs every month in the private sector².  We’ve now added private sector jobs for seven months in a row.  And that means the worst mistake we could make is to go back to doing what we were doing that got us into the mess that we were in.  We can’t turn back.  We’ve got to keep going forward.  We’ve got to keep going forward.  (Applause.)

Now, I’ll be honest with you, there’s going to be a big debate about where we go.  There are folks in Washington right now who think we should abandon our efforts to support clean energy.  They’ve made the political calculation that it’s better to stand on the sidelines（当旁观者） than work as a team to help American businesses and American workers.

So they said no to the small business tax cuts I talked about.  They said no to rebuilding infrastructure³.  And they said no to clean energy projects.  They even voted against getting rid of tax breaks for shipping⁴ jobs overseas so we could give those tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Wisconsin.

And my answer to people who have playing politics the past year and a half is, they should come to this plant.  They should go to any of the dozen new battery factories, or the new electrical vehicle manufacturers, or the new wind turbine（风力涡轮机） makers⁵, or the solar plants that are popping up all over this country, and they should have to explain why they think these clean energy jobs are better off being made in Germany or China or Spain, instead of right here in the United States.

See, when folks lift up the hoods⁶（头巾，覆盖） on the cars of the future, I want them to see engines stamped “Made in America.”  When new batteries to store solar power come off the line, I want to see printed on the side, “Made in America.”  When new technologies are developed and new industries are formed, I want them made right here in America.  That's what we’re fighting for.  That's what this is about.  (Applause.)

So, ZBB, you’re part of that process.  You guys are at the cutting edge.  You’re how we’re going to strengthen this economy.

These have been a couple of very hard years for America.  And we’re not completely out of the woods yet.  There are going to be some more tough days ahead.  It would be a mistake to pretend otherwise.  But we are headed in the right direction.  You’re pointing us in the right direction.  And I am confident about our future, because of what I have seen at this plant and what I see when I talk to workers like all of you, what I have seen all across this country.  When the chips are down, it’s always a mistake to bet against the American worker.  It’s a mistake to bet against American businesses.  It’s a mistake to bet against the American people. 
 
This is the home to the most skilled, hardworking people on Earth.  There’s nothing we cannot achieve when we set our minds to it.  All we’ve got to do is harness the potential that’s always been central to our success.  That’s not just how we’re going to come through the storms we’ve been in recently.  That’s how we’re going to emerge even stronger than before.

So I want to say thank you to Eric.  I want to thank ZBB for hosting us.  More importantly, I want to thank all of you for setting a model for how we’re going to create the kind of lasting⁷ economy that’s going to be good not just for this generation, but for the next generation.

Thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
                  
END
11:27 A.M. CDT