Weekly Address: If Business and Government Fulfill Their Responsibilities, America Will Win the Future
每周电视讲话：如果企业和政府都履行自己的责任，美国将赢得未来
WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Obama said America can prosper and win the future by supporting innovation, education, and infrastructure. This past week, the President highlighted how students and researchers at Penn State University are poised lead the way on innovation and job creation through their work on energy efficiency. In the coming week, he will visit Marquette, Michigan, where high-speed broadband infrastructure is connecting a small town to the larger world. And on Monday, he will talk to the Chamber of Commerce about how if we make America the best place to do business, then businesses should make their mark on America by setting up shop in America, hiring American workers, and paying good wages.
华盛顿：在本周的讲话中，奥巴马总体称，通过支持创新，教育与基础设施建设，美国将繁荣昌盛并赢得未来。上周，总统肯定了宾夕法尼亚州立大学的同学和研究人员在能源效率研究上的工作，这也为我们在创新研究和创造就业上赢得先机。下周，他将访问马奎特，密歇根，那里的高速宽带基础设施将小城镇与大世界相连。下周一，他还将与商会人士交谈，商议如何将美国建成最适合经商的地方，让企业来到美国，在这里开设店铺，雇佣美国工人，给他们支付不错的薪水。
This week, we received a report on jobs and unemployment that told us we’re continuing to move in the right direction. But we need to get there faster. In the short-term, the bipartisan tax cut we passed in December will give an added boost to job creation and economic growth. This is a tax cut that is already making Americans’ paychecks a little bigger and giving businesses more incentive to invest and hire.
本周，我们接到了一份就业与失业情况报告，报告称我们正在正确的道路上继续前行。但我们的步伐需要更快一些。短期来看，去年12月通过的两党减税计划将提振就业和经济增长。这项减税计划已经开始让美国人民的工资更高一点，并激励企业增加投资和雇佣人员。
But ultimately, our true measure of progress has to be whether every American who wants a job can find one; whether the jobs available pay well and offer good benefits; whether people in this country can still achieve the American Dream for themselves and their children. That’s the progress we’re after.
但最终来讲，衡量我们取得的成就的标尺是每个希望工作的美国人是否能找到一份工作；工作能否有好的薪水和好的福利；全国人民是否依然可以为自己和儿女们实现美国梦。这才是我们所期冀的成就。
To get there, we have to realize that in today’s global, competitive economy, the best jobs and newest industries will take root in the countries with the most skilled workers, the strongest commitment to research and technology, and the fastest ways to move people, goods, and information. To win the future, America needs to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build the rest of the world.
要达到这一目标，我们必须认识到在当今的全球化，充满竞争的经济环境中，最好的工作和最新的产业将会在那些有着技能最熟练的工人，对科研和技术有着最坚定的支持，并拥有最快的运输人员、物资和信息方式的国家扎根发展。为了赢得未来，美国需要超越世界其他国家的一流的教育，一流的创新，一流的基础建设。
On Thursday, I went to Penn State University, whose students and researchers are poised to lead the way on innovation and job creation. They’re taking up the challenge we’ve issued to scientists and engineers all across the country: if you assemble teams of the best minds in your field, and focus on tackling the biggest obstacles to providing America with clean, affordable energy, we’ll get behind your work. Your government will support your research.
周四，我去了宾夕法尼亚州立大学，那里的同学和研究人员在创新和创造就业门路上为我们赢得了先机。他们正在应对我们给全国的科学家和工程师们提出的挑战：如果你们能够联合你们领域内最优秀的人员组建队伍，集中精力解决所面临的最困难的问题，为美国人民提供清洁的、承受的起的能源，我们将你们身后支持你们的工作。你们的政府将支持你们的研究。
The folks in Pennsylvania have decided to focus on designing buildings that save more energy – everything from more efficient lighting and windows to heating and cooling. This won’t just cut down on energy pollution, it can save us billions of dollars on our energy bills.
宾西法利亚的研究人员决心专门设计更加节能的建筑——这一切都源自于能效更高的照明和可制热制冷的窗户。这不仅仅能减少我们的能源污染，还将节约数十亿我们在能源上的支出。
Most of all, discovering new ways to make buildings more energy-efficient will lead to new jobs and new businesses. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a window manufacturer in Maryland boost business by 55%. A lighting company in North Carolina hired hundreds of workers. A manufacturer in Pennsylvania saw business increase by $1 million.
更重要的是，寻求新的方式，建造能效更高的建筑将带来新的就业岗位和新的产业。在过去的两年里，我们眼见马里兰州的一家窗户制造商的业务增长了55%。北卡的一家灯具公司雇佣了几百个工人。宾夕法尼亚州的一家制造企业的业务增长了100多万美元。
All we did for these companies was provide some tax credits and financing opportunities. And that’s what we want to do going forward, so that it’s profitable for American businesses to sell the discoveries made by the scientists at Penn State and other hubs of innovation. If businesses sell these discoveries – if they start making windows and insulation and buildings that save more energy – they will hire more workers. And that’s how Americans will prosper. That’s how we’ll win the future.
我们为这些企业所做的就是为其提供一些税收抵免和融资机会。而这也是我们将继续做的工作，通过将宾夕法尼亚州立大学和其他创新研究中心的科学家的发明产品化，将为美国的企业带来利润。如果企业开始销售这些创新产品——如果他们开始制造这种窗户和隔热材料，建造更加节能的建筑——他们将雇佣更多的工人。这样，美国将更加繁荣。而我们也将赢得未来。
Our government has an obligation to make sure that America is the best place on Earth to do business – that we have the best schools, the best incentives to innovate, and the best infrastructure. Next week, I’ll see that kind of infrastructure when I visit Marquette, Michigan – a place where high-speed broadband is connecting a small town to the larger world.
我们政府有责任让美国成为世界上最适合经商的地方——这就需要我们拥有最好的学校，对创新有最优厚的激励，有最好的基础设施。下周，我将到访马奎特和密歇根，那里的基础设施建成——高速宽带将小城镇与大世界相连。
Supporting businesses with this kind of 21st century infrastructure and cutting-edge innovation is our responsibility. But businesses have a responsibility, too. If we make America the best place to do business, businesses should make their mark in America. They should set up shop here, and hire our workers, and pay decent wages, and invest in the future of this nation. That’s their obligation. And that’s the message I’ll be bringing to American business leaders at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday – that government and businesses have mutual responsibilities; and that if we fulfill these obligations together, it benefits us all. Our workers will succeed. Our nation will prosper. And America will win the future in this century just like we did in the last.
支持企业投入到这种21世纪的基础设施建设和前沿科技创新研究中去是我们的责任。但企业也同样有责任。如果我们将美国建成最适合投资经商之地，企业就能在美国扎根发展。他们将在这里开设店铺，雇佣我们的工人，为我们的工人支付不错的薪水，并为我们国家的未来投资。这是他们的责任。而这也将是下周一我与全美企业领袖在商会会面是要表达的意思——政府和企业有着共同的责任；如果我们共同履行自己的职责，我们都将受益。我们的工人将获得成功。我们的国家将更加繁荣。美国也将在本世纪赢得未来，就如同过去我们做到的一样。 |