We also have to focus on community colleges, because that’s -- it’s not just enough to have kids getting good educations.  We have to have adults who are constantly retraining.  I mean, how many here -- how many folks here who are working at Gamesa took some sort of training class at a community college that helped them along the way?  Anybody?  Look at that.  Right?  So we’ve got a decent number of folks who, maybe you’ve got a career change; maybe your old skills are a little obsolete¹ and you need to upgrade them.  Well, you’ve got to be able to also get a good education.  So that’s why we’re putting more money into community colleges as well as four-year colleges.  And what we’ve done is we’ve expanded the grant programs, the Pell Grant, the student loan programs, so that more people can afford to go to college without getting huge debt -- (applause) -- especially if you’re working and if you’ve already got a family, you can’t afford to be taking out $50,000 worth of debt.  So we want to give you more help.
 
Now, this is a good place to just talk, again, about this budget debate, because you’re going to be hearing a lot about this.  Right now we’re debating last year’s budget and we may have a government shutdown, and then we’re going to have to debate next year’s budget.  All of us think that the government should live within its means.  We all believe that.  You do it in your families.  Government should have to do the same thing.  And there is some waste in government.
 
And so we’ve been cutting in a whole bunch of areas, and we’re consolidating² some agencies and earmarks that are not necessary and we’re looking at the Pentagon -- how do we make our defense³ spending smarter and better?  And so we’re going to be doing a lot of consolidation⁴ and cuts, but one thing we can’t do is stop investing in education, in research, in infrastructure⁵, in things like a smart grid⁶.  Those are the things that are going to make us competitive over the long term.
 
So if you see me getting in some arguments in Washington, I want you to be clear.  Don’t believe that somehow the argument is about whether we should cut or not.  I’ve already said we’ve got to cut spending.  I just want to make sure we’re cutting the right things.  Don’t protect things we don’t need and get rid of things that we do.  That’s my basic attitude.  (Applause.)
 
All right.  I have time for one more question, and I’ll call on that young lady back there.
 
Q Mr. President, given that energy efficiency is the cleanest, safest, cheapest, and most labor-intensive energy resource, what else -- what more can the federal government do that is revenue neutral（使税收增减为零） to support the growth of the energy efficiency industry?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, I want you to know that you are absolutely right.  The first thing we can do to improve our economy and our environment at the same time -- and can actually produce a lot of jobs -- is to make everything we do more efficient.  That’s sort of the low-hanging fruit.  We use huge amounts of energy because our buildings aren’t well insulated, or the lighting⁷ that we use is old-fashioned, or the heating -- the HVAC systems, the heating and cooling systems, are inefficient⁸.  So what we’ve said is, why not provide incentives⁹ to both businesses and homeowners to make your home or your business more energy efficient, because you’ll get the money back.  It will pay for itself, because your electricity bills will go down.
 
But the only problem is, a lot of folks, they need a little bit of money up front to get started.  I mean, I’ll bet a lot of folks here -- anybody recently reinsulated their house or put in new windows or something?  Gentleman right here.  And how long ago did you do it?  A few months ago?  Are you already seeing a drop in your electricity bill?  You are, right?
 
So -- but you had those up-front costs that you had to deal with.  Right?  And so the question is, you may not have initially¹⁰ the couple thousand bucks¹¹ out of pocket to be able to do it.  Now, this guy looks like he’s pretty handy, so he might have done it himself, right?  But I would have gotten a nail in my thumb or something, because I’m challenged in those ways.  So I might have had to hire somebody.
 
But the point though is, is that that money up front -- if we can give you a tax break to do it initially, you’re going to get that money back.  And if you’re not somebody who can do it yourself, you’re going to hire somebody.  And that now is creating a job in a whole bunch of new industries for people who are doing energy efficiency.
 
So I already mentioned how we’re trying to provide incentives for cleaner cars and more energy-efficient transportation sectors¹².  I think the next big challenge are commercial buildings and homeowners, giving them incentives to make these investments.  It’s a win-win situation for everybody.  (Applause.) 
 
All right, well, listen, Gamesa, it was wonderful to be with all of you.  I’m proud of what you’re doing.  As I said before, just in closing, we’ve gone through a very tough couple of years.  And I’m not going to guarantee standing¹³ here that suddenly every single challenge we have is going to go away overnight.  And if somebody promises you that, they’re not telling the truth.
 
Gas prices, they’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes.  And that’s going to take a couple of years to have serious effect.  Not everybody is going to be able to remodel¹⁴ or insulate their homes right away.  But slowly we can get more and more homes and more and more buildings doing it.
 
If we get a clean energy standard, then Gamesa is going to have more customers.  It’s not going to immediately transform the wind industry, but it’s going to make it that much stronger.  And I’ll bet that the leaders of your company will start hiring some more people because there will be greater demand.
 
And day by day, week by week, year by year, we slowly make more and more progress.  On education, we’re not going to transform all the schools overnight.  Too many kids are going to be dropping out.  Too many kids are going to be ranking too low on international standards on math and science.  But if we improve those schools each year, then slowly but surely our whole workforce¹⁵ gets better.
 
We’re not going to eliminate the debt that’s built up overnight.  But if each year we’re making good choices, we’re investing in those things that we need, not investing in those things that we don’t, then the debt will come down.  That’s how progress is made.

In our own individual lives, whether it’s trying to build a career or raise your kids or getting exercise, it starts a step at a time.  And then slowly you make progress.  And then a year, two years, five years later you look back and you said, you know what, I’m in a better place now.  The country is the same way.
 
So we’ve got to have a vision for how we’re going to win the future.  We’ve got to be persistent¹⁶ about it.  We’ve got to be steady about it.  But we have to also have confidence.  America has always been able to make the changes that it needs to.  And I have every bit of confidence we’re going to be able to do that again this time out.  And we’re going to do it partly because of the great workers at places like Gamesa.
 
So thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless you.  (Applause.)