奥巴马每周电视演讲20150919：总统祝福人民感恩节快乐
Weekly Address: It’s Time for Congress To Pass a Responsible Budget (September 19, 2015)
奥巴马每周电视演讲：奥巴马敦促国会及时通过新年度的预算
Hi, everybody. It’s hard to believe, but it was seven years ago this week that one of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks went bankrupt, triggering a meltdown on Wall Street and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And in the months that followed, millions of Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and the savings they’d worked so hard to build.
大家好。往事不堪回首，正是七年前的这个时候，华尔街最大的投资银行之一宣布破产，引发了整个华尔街的崩溃和自大萧条以来最严重的经济危机。在随后的时间里，数百万美国人失去工作、失去家园、失去了辛辛苦苦积攒下来的积蓄。
Today’s a different story. Over the past five and a half years, our businesses have created more than 13 million new jobs. The unemployment rate is lower than it’s been in over seven years. Manufacturing is growing. Housing is bouncing back. We’ve reduced our deficits by two-thirds. And 16 million more Americans now know the security of health insurance.
今天，一切都大不一样了。过去的五年半时间里，我们的企业共创造了1300多万个就业岗位。失业率也降低到七年来的最低水平。制造业开始增长，房地产业也触底反弹；我们的财政赤字也减少了2/3；1600多万美国人获得医疗保险带来的保障。
This is your progress. It’s because of your hard work and sacrifice that America has come back from crisis faster than almost every other advanced nation on Earth. We remain the safest, strongest bet in the world.
这是大家的成就。因为有了大家的辛勤付出和牺牲，美国从危机中复苏的速度比世界上其它任何发达国家都快。我们依然是全世界最安全、最强大的国家。
Of course, you might not know all that if you only listened to the bluster of political season, when it’s in the interest of some politicians to paint America as dark and depressing as possible. But I don’t see it that way. I’ve met too many Americans who prove, day in and day out, that this is a place where anything is possible. Yes, we have a lot of work to do to rebuild a middle class that’s had the odds stacked against it now for decades. That’s the thing about America – our work is never finished. We always strive to be better – to perfect ourselves.
当然，如果你只听大选季的政治宣传，你可能无法了解实情，那些政客为了某些政治利益，把美国描绘的要多黑暗就有多黑暗。但我不这么认为。我遇到了太多的美国人，他们坚强勇敢、早出晚归，是因为这是一片充满机遇的土地。是的，我们在重新打造一个坚强的中产阶层，几十年来，这件事上我们积压了太多的问题。这是美国永远的任务，我们的工作永远不会结束。我们会一直为更美好的生活、更完美的自己而奋斗。
We just have to make the right choices. And if Republicans want to help, they can choose, right now, to pass a budget that helps us grow our economy even faster, create jobs even faster, lift people’s incomes and prospects even faster. But they’ve only got until the end of the month to do it – or they’ll shut down our government for the second time in two years.
我们要做的就是做出正确的选择。如果共和党人愿意帮忙，他们现在就可以做出选择，通过预算方案，帮助我们的经济实现更快增长，更快创造更多就业岗位，更快提升人民收入，增强人们对美好未来的期待。但他们拥有的时间仅仅是这个月剩下的这几天了，否则，他们就会让政府在两年内再次关门。
Democrats are ready to sit down and negotiate with Republicans right now. But it should be over legitimate issues like how much do we invest in education, job training, and infrastructure – not unrelated ideological issues like Planned Parenthood. We need to set our sights higher than that. We need to reverse harmful cuts to middle-class economic priorities, close loopholes that benefit only a fortunate few at the top, and invest more in the things that help our entire economy grow.
民主党人已经做好准备跟共和党人坐下来好好商谈。但交流的范畴应该限定在法定议题以内，例如我们在教育、职业培训、基础设施建设等领域投入多少资金，而不是一些像计划生育一类的无关痛痒的意识形态议题。我们需要把眼光放的更高远一点。我们需要扭转危害中产阶级发展壮大的局面，不再削减重点经济领域的预算，消除那些只为少数顶层富裕人士有利的漏洞，在实现整个经济增长有利的领域加大投资。
There’s nothing principled about the idea of another government shutdown. There’s nothing patriotic about denying the progress you’ve worked so hard to make. America is great right now – not because of our government, or our wealth, or our power, but because of everyone who works hard every day to move this country forward. Now Congress needs to work as hard as you do.
让政府第二次关门并没有什么原则性的问题。否认你们辛勤付出取得的发展成就也跟爱国与否无关。美国现在之所以伟大，不是因为我们的政府、财富或者是我们的军力，而是因为我们每个人每天都在辛勤付出，推动这个国家向前发展。现在，国会也应该向大家学习，努力工作。
Thanks, and have a great weekend.
谢谢大家！祝周末愉快！