State of the Union 2010 (our version - this film got 230,000 hits in 3 weeks...)

State of the Union, 2010

Madam Speaker, Members of Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Distinguished Guests, earlier today, I had the privilege of taking the oath of office as the President of the United States of America. Tonight, my fellow Americans, I begin my term in office by declaring that our nation and all nations are on the threshold of a world like no other. We are not only proud citizens of the United States, we are also citizens of the world. All nations now depend on each other, and the United States now depends on all nations.

For the first time, the State of the Union of the United States of America is the State of the World itself. I ask each of you watching tonight to imagine yourself as a global citizen, now. Because the destiny of our nation is tied to the destinies of all other nations, I will speak primarily of the world situation, for that is where America must now lead. On our planet, our greatest thinkers tell us that for the first time, it is possible to achieve that world long foreseen, a world of safety, where everyone's needs are met, where justice prevails, where prosperity is normal, and where our planet is healthy.

Yes, it is a new world, and many things are now possible.

A World of Prosperity, Justice and Sustainability

To reach that world of prosperity, justice and sustainability, first we must be safe then we must provide for everyone's basic needs then we must provide justice and rules that work fairly then we must create an economy that benefits everyone on a sustainable planet then, with relief, we can remember why the Creator gave us life But despite this incredible promise, our world situation is dire. We are not feeding two billion of our own people, when we could feed them.

As I speak, US military forces are in more than 100 nations, and 10,000 nuclear weapons are on hair-trigger alert. Dozens of our generals and admirals have stated that poverty, climate change, energy depletion and environmental damage are now central national security threats to the United States of America. World oil production has already peaked, so gasoline prices are rising steadily, and we have not planned well for what to do next about our energy supplies. Hurricane Katrina and drought in Georgia are just the beginning of many climate-driven disasters.

We are running out of renewable resources faster than they are being replenished. In just 30 years, one third of all renewable resources on Earth and in the oceans have vanished.

The Vital Interest of the United States, Together with All Nations

Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that because of the simultaneous occurrence of these threats; it is in the vital interest of the United States of America and all nations, to work together, today, to establish the wise and effective global rules that will work for everyone to protect our shared and sacred planet.

Where we must start our work is now clear, because there is no longer doubt. The overuse of oil, coal and gas is the principle reason for our climate damage, and our oil dependency has increasingly become the cause for which we are fighting wars around the world, today - including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States is today importing more than 50% of our oil because of our increasing demands. World demand for oil is now growing more than three times faster than new oil discoveries, and remaining conventional oil reserves are increasingly remote, dangerous and expensive to pump.

We must mobilize, Just as During World War II Rather than make any serious reductions in our own oil, gas and coal usage, or develop alternative energy sources, we have instead stationed American troops in over 100 nations, largely to protect our oil supplies. We are spending half, HALF(!) of our discretionary national budget, a whopping $500 billion dollars every year on our military, and we have borrowed an additional $500 billion dollars for the war in Iraq since 2003, largely as a beachhead to defend our oil supplies. All of this is occurring with little more than $1 billion per year spent on developing alternative energy sources.

My fellow Americans, I would rather spend this money on developing renewable energy sources at home than promoting foreign wars to defend a declining resource.

This is now a national emergency, and we must move quickly. I call now on all Americans to mobilize, using our unity during World War II as the model for national ingenuity, hard work, and can-do spirit. Then, we created the strongest industrial base the world had ever seen in only six months. Now, I ask America to show that same spirit, for the risk of global war over oil, and the risk of disastrous food and water shortages from climate change is now clear.

A New Mission for Our Military Industries

For American industries concerned with national security, I direct you towards a new mission: to bring forward the United States of America into a new energy future, in which we are no longer sacrificing our brave troops around the world for oil, and instead we use your talent, your energy and your brilliance to create the new energy future we all need. This is your future. This is your mission. This is your country! It requires from us an effort no less than that of World War II, for the conditions and threats facing Americans together with all humanity have grown too severe to let more time slip by.

New Energy for America

In answer to this momentous challenge, we will create an America with energy for new prosperity, new job growth, and true energy security. Tonight, America embarks upon what we will call New Energy for America. New Energy for America will create a new era of prosperity for our nation by stimulating job growth and industrial productivity in clean energy to help restore the American economy. The New Energy for America program will inject $30 billion annually into our national economy over 8 years to move us towards a renewable energy future. Through a new Federal Renewable Energy Development Agency, whose Director will report personally to me, we will begin by creating a new national system of community-scale renewable energy using solar, wind, geothermal, non-food biofuels, small hydro and biomass. The National Association of Counties will be integral to this effort. New technologies will be brought online, as we will quintuple US research and development in energy technologies, using the expertise of our Military Industries, our great National Laboratories and our universities for their leadership and research capacities. We will pay for this program through the progressive shifting of Federal subsidies away from carbon-intensive industries and towards renewable energy infrastructure.

During this critical transition, we will provide income protection for workers in carbon-intensive industries as they move into the new energy economy. And, to protect those states involved in the production of coal, oil and gas, we will use the same State-based Federal subsidy allocation formulas currently used, but shifted towards renewable energy. Long-term investment in renewable energy requires business confidence that a long-term customer exists. Therefore, the Federal Renewable Energy Development Agency will guarantee the price of renewable energy so that it is more than competitive with fossil fuels for 20 years. This will provide investors with the certainty that there is a renewable energy market, and encourage new renewable energy production. Efficiency is the New American Way Efficiency must become the new American Way.

As part of New Energy for America, we will aggressively pursue a 20% reduction in carbon-based energy usage by 2017 as our new renewable energy production capacity is brought online, and as older, defunct and carbon-belching energy sources are taken out of service. To further stimulate job creation and industrial growth in renewable energy, we will also provide robust tax credits towards the purchase of US-made durable goods that meet a new national 50% energy reduction target. As a start, by Executive Order, I have directed that all new federal buildings will use Green, sustainable construction methods, effective immediately, using the methods of the US Green Building Council. I will also support legislation that strongly encourages all US construction to follow these same standards.

A Binding and Enforceable Global Warming Treaty by 2010

Perhaps most fundamentally, to stabilize our environment, we must agree by 2010, with the world community, to a binding and enforceable global greenhouse gas treaty based on capping then reducing global carbon emissions, with taxation for excess polluters that achieves an 80% reduction in greenhouse gasses by the year 2050.

Safety for the World is Safety for America

The second step toward a world that works is safety. Let me state unequivocally that safety for the world is safety for America, and that America has carried the burden of world safety for too many years. Despite the heroic efforts of our armed services, our intelligence services, and our military families, the crushing drain on Pentagon resources and the American taxpayer is diverting critically important people, time, energy, and money from the most pressing needs of Americans and of all humanity. America simply cannot continue to do the job of maintaining global safety alone. If you are in the Armed Services, I ask you to stop for a moment. Look into your own heart and ask: “What do I choose the world to look like? How can I treat others as I would be treated myself?”

Seven World-Regional Security Alliances

For we begin tonight to consider a new regime of cooperative global safety. First, the United States hereby proposes the establishment of Seven World-Regional Security Alliances. The standing forces of these alliances will handle aggressive moves by any countries in their areas, where they know one another best. Each region will control and financially support their forces, and we will insist on built-in checks-and-balances to prevent abuses. With American help, and starting with existing regional security structures, we propose that seven World-Regional Security Alliances be created in: East Asia South Central Asia The Middle East Africa Europe North America, and South America As a safety measure, should any regional conflict escalate, these Seven World-Regional Alliances would have the authority to request that the United Nations Security Council authorize additional strategic military supporting forces, in which the United States would participate, if asked. This system will fairly divide both the responsibilities and the costs for global safety, while providing the world community with the legal capacity for intervention, if needed.

Remember, that had a Middle East regional security alliance already been organized in 2003, the United States of America would not still be trapped in the Iraq conflict, because the nations of the Middle East, the United Nations, and the world community might have shouldered the burden. So do not be misled by self-serving talk of terrorists. Today, I rename so-called terrorists to be merely criminals, to be controlled by effective police work through a cooperative family of nations.

We Will Only Use Military Force for Our Self-Defense

Second, the United States of America will never relinquish its right to use force - but we will only use force in self-defense, when there is a direct and imminent threat to the safety of our nation. As President of the United States, I hereby declare that the policy of our nation, immediately and henceforth, will return to this prudent and legal standard for the legitimate use of military force. Defusing the Threat of Nuclear Weapons Third, we must defuse the threat of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have not been used in 61 years. America has fought major wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq since then, without using nuclear weapons. We have not tested a nuclear weapon in more than 15 years, nor have the other nuclear states used them. Ask yourself, why? It is because these weapons are now hundreds of times more powerful than the two atomic bombs we dropped on Japan. If ever used again, they would not only destroy millions of lives at the point of impact, they would also destroy countless lives downwind in neighboring countries - including America's friends and allies.

The disaster at Chernobyl showed us that nuclear fallout is a much greater risk than expected, as 40 to 50 nations have been riddled with cancer deaths because of that single, comparatively small nuclear accident. Meanwhile, 20 new nations are considering building their own nuclear weapons. A new global nuclear arms race would be more precarious, psychologically disorienting, and economically even more costly than was nuclear deterrence during the Cold War. Ladies and gentlemen, nuclear weapons have become expensive, strategically useless and risky burdens for the United States. This is unacceptable. We must defuse these new nuclear threats, prudently and quickly.

But, we will not be fools about any of this. We will show leadership when we negotiate with Russia and other nuclear nations, so that simultaneous worldwide reductions in nuclear forces happen quickly and happen safely. As a first step, by Executive Order I am fulfilling the laws of the United States of America and our treaty obligations by bringing home all US nuclear weapons to within US territorial borders. Then, through wise and careful planning, we will join with Russia and the nations of the world for the de-alerting and stepwise removal of 98% of nuclear weapons from active service over three years. To make sure that dozens of new nuclear weapons countries do not emerge, my administration will seek ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a new Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, and the full implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Time and again, the vast majority of nations have supported many of these safety measures, only to be stalled in the United Nations Security Council. For the safety and security of us all, this must change. Therefore, I will support a change in the United Nations Charter so that a Security Council veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the United Nations General Assembly. Defusing the threat of dangerous, expensive and strategically useless nuclear weapons will relieve part of the heavy financial burden the United States and other nations carry, for better uses. I have directed the Secretaries of State and Defense, and our Ambassador at the United Nations, to convene the Security Council for the purpose of forwarding these initiatives, with the nations of the world.

A Prosperous World is Good for America

With global safety, we can realize the great visions of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Martin Luther King. They knew that American leadership in an interdependent world meant ending the great scourges of our time: of continued poverty in a world of plenty, of injustice in a world of strength, of illiteracy in a world of technology, and of chronic disease in a world of miracle cures. It is these scourges that promote war, terrorism, environmental destruction and refugee crises around the world. At the same time, our generals and admirals agree that climate change is destabilizing weak nations. Unless we act now to end these preventable crises, rooted in poverty, they will inevitably drag the United States of America into further conflicts. We know now that ending these crises is no longer just a dream. Look at the successes of China and India, nations which in less than a generation have moved from chronic famine and poverty into a new measure of prosperity.

A Global Marshall Plan

I believe that it is the duty of our blessed nation to continue to do our best towards making the world safe, just, and sustainable. As our example for how to accomplish this, we will turn to the success of the Marshall Plan after World War II. America used the Marshall Plan to turn the devastated and poverty-stricken nations of Europe into our important long-term friends, trading partners and military allies. Our economy grew fast in the 1950s, in part because we invested in Europe. Now, it is again time to invest in the world through a Global Marshall Plan, and our nation will again benefit strongly.

Tonight, I will describe how we can afford this, and why we must succeed. The success of the original Marshall Plan required the investment of only 2% of United States GDP then, and we must return to this level of generosity, knowing, then and now, that it will return home to benefit all Americans. Unfortunately, we are now providing only one-tenth of the investment needed. We need to give a full 2% of our GDP to fully fund the new and Global Marshall Plan. Remember that a peaceful world saves America money, and a prosperous world makes money for American businesses!

To American business owners, I say that if you would like two billion new customers, help me end poverty now! So too, the words of the prophet Isaiah again ring true, that in a world of brotherhood, we should love our brothers as ourselves. Clearly, it is in both the practical and moral interests of America to do our best to end these scourges.

The Millennium Development Goals are the Blueprint for Ending Poverty The blueprint of our time for the ending of poverty can be found in the Millennium Development Goals, the worldwide plan to which the United States of America proudly agreed and signed. With the new foundation of global safety I have just described, achieving the Millennium Development Goals is now possible: to provide for the fundamental needs of every human being: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education for every child, women's equality so that no woman need live in fear, improving child survival and maternal health, controlling HIV/AIDS, malaria and preventable disease, and finally achieving global environmental sustainability.

We now need to achieve these goals, and then go further as we implement our Global Marshall Plan. In my many travels, I have found that people are smart and hard-working - everywhere. Americans have always supported those ready to work hard to make a better life for their families - this is at the heart of the American Dream.

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, we must help the hard-working people in poor nations to provide for themselves, to create their own personal dreams of success. To do this, each country must be the author of its own plan to end poverty.

Coordinated Poverty Reduction Plans

We will build on the newly successful programs that show how good development works. We will work with the United Nations Millennium Project to create a sensible, coordinated and global program of country-specific Poverty Reduction Plans for every Highly-Indebted Poor Country. We and the other developed nations will help each poor nation not only to end poverty, but also to develop their economic infrastructure so that they can be full players in the global economy.

Restoration of Mercy on Earth: Debt Forgiveness

The first element of our poverty reduction support will restore Mercy on Earth by invoking the Biblical Jubilee Year through the forgiveness of international debt obligations for Highly Indebted Poor Countries by the US and other rich nations. Mega-Corridors of Ecological Wonder as World Heritage Sites Second, we and other rich nations will support each Highly Indebted Poor Country to protect its great wild forests and mountains as Connected Mega-Corridors of ecological wonder. These are the last wild places on earth, and they will be permanently protected as World Heritage Sites, to be managed by the United Nations Global Environment Facility. U.S. Technology in Medicine, Food and Energy Third, for developing nations the United States of America will make available private patents in the areas of life-saving medicines, renewable energy, sustainably grown food, water, and communications, using fair and just compensation to patent holders, so that these nations can quickly reach self-sufficiency. Climate Refugee Resettlement Fund Fourth, with other nations, we will help expand the Climate Refugee Resettlement Fund so that families displaced by climate change can quickly find new homes.

I have directed the Secretary of State to prepare for these efforts, and my administration has already begun preparing legislation for Congress to increase our national contribution to the Global Marshall Plan to a full 2% of GDP. For our safety, our prosperity, and because it is the just and moral thing to do, it makes good sense now that we implement these poverty reduction measures.

Section 5 Global Fair Play

As these development goals begin to succeed, our entire world, for the first time, has the opportunity to become prosperous. My fellow Americans, the United States of America needs global prosperity. We need the 2 billion new customers for American business that it will create. Real global prosperity needs rules and standards that are stable and consistent. I believe that good business will support a worldwide system of converging global standards that correct the excesses of the past. Therefore, tonight our nation proposes that all nations work to bring together the existing framework of global rules into a new system I will call Global Fair Play Laws. Strong Treaties Work As the first step in implementing Global Fair Play Laws, I will push forward and seek ratification of the international treaties that form the backbone of responsible international behavior. In addition to the treaties I have already discussed: For the oceans, I will sign the pending Law of the Sea Treaty To protect our critically important satellites, I will sign the Treaty on the De-Weaponization of Outer Space To protect civil rights everywhere, I will sign a Treaty on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples To protect our ecosystems, I will sign the Biodiversity Treaty To protect the fundamental right of all people to fresh water, I will support the United Nations Convention on the Right to Water … and perhaps most important of all, to Americans who love justice as I love justice, The United States of America, with the rest of the world already on board, will join the International Criminal Court, so that no criminal can escape justice, anywhere on the planet.

Global Trade Must be Fair, Sustainable and Just

As the second step in implementing Global Fair Play Laws, the United States of America must make global trade fair, sustainable and just. To accomplish this, our nation tonight proposes a restructuring of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund so that they are transparent, democratic and accountable. The World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund must converge toward effective, transparent policies that help eliminate poverty, protect the environment, protect fair labor practices, protect fundamental human rights, and protect investors. Therefore, we will move to establish voting rights in these organizations that fairly recognize both financial contribution and population. At my direction, the Vice President has already moved to begin and lead this process on behalf of our country.

Section 6 Economic Stability

America, the world needs an economy that brings prosperity to all, but people in developing nations can only dream of this. Most are now so deeply indebted that repayment is nearly impossible. Under this crushing debt burden, developing nations not only cannot provide for their own peoples’ needs, but they are selling their forests, their fields, their oil and their minerals faster than nature can regenerate them, to raise cash to pay their debts. Many are creating deserts of their nations instead of building schools, roads and infrastructure. This short-term resource depletion is disastrously selling the natural inheritance of the world's children. But these nations have little choice, with debt-financiers hounding them for repayment. At the same time, the financiers who loaned the money to these nations are themselves in jeopardy as global currency and financial markets are dangerously fragile. Markets now see-saw wildly, with the potential for the financial collapse of entire markets and currencies. The US dollar itself has lost 35% of its value in just the past four years. A further major decline in the value of the US dollar would damage the global economy, and could force the United States into an economic recession or even a depression.

A Global Reserve Currency

In order to stabilize this fragile and dangerous situation, while providing a consistent source of funding for global development, the United States proposes two measures: First, at my direction, the Secretaries of Treasury and State, with the Chairman of the private Federal Reserve Bank, will shortly convene an international conference to create a single, stable Global Reserve Currency. We propose that this new Global Reserve Currency be used to provide stability for all national currencies. The European Union, Japan, China, India, Brazil and South Africa have already agreed to support this new Reserve Currency. This new Global Reserve Currency will be administered by a new entity that we propose to call the Global Public Trust. With the new stability created by a single Reserve Currency, it will be less likely that individual national currencies will fail.

Those listening tonight in the financial and banking sectors of the US and overseas, please take note: you better than anyone, know that the US and the nations of the world need currency stability, now.

Promote American Businesses Through Tiny International Transaction Taxes

Second, in order to finance part of the costs of human development and the restoration of a stable global environment, my administration proposes that the international community create a new system of tiny “One Cent Taxes” on the large international transactions originating within wealthy nations. I know that nobody likes new taxes. But let me assure you that you will like even less the consequences of planet-wide disasters if we do not stabilize international currencies and adequately fund global needs, so that poverty and resource depletion do not again degenerate into war! Therefore, my Administration proposes that all nations join to levy tiny “One Cent Taxes” on the use of our shared Common Resources:

One cent per pound of carbon emissions into our shared atmosphere

One cent per hundred dollars of international currency transferred

One cent per 1000 miles of international transport distance

Now, here is a beautiful result: by taxing international transport distance we will strongly promote American-made durable goods, automobiles and food. With this new demand for locally-produced goods, our economy will be stimulated, and our country will be able to comply with US and international laws by progressively eliminating damaging trade protectionism. Using the income from these tiny “One Cent Taxes,” the Global Public Trust will pay poor nations, annually, to protect their natural resources by not developing them.

The 100-Year Plan for Sustainability

Because we can now see a convergence of global rules creating peace, justice and prosperity within an economy that is stable and fair, we are capable of creating a long-term plan for the environment that can promote both human prosperity and ecological sustainability. We must do this because our air, our water, our energy and our resources come from everywhere on the planet. For our examples, we will turn to those who already know sustainability, the tribes who lived with the land for 10,000 years before we arrived. Lakota, Apache, Leni Lenape, it is now time for us to learn from you, and I ask you to step forward and speak. We will now borrow from your wisdom and declare that we must see 100 years ahead toward a future of planet-wide environmental sustainability.

So I set forth today our national goal of a 100-Year Plan for global environmental sustainability, that we will craft in the next few months.

Organic Food Production

We will start by moving gradually away from hazardous chemicals and towards what US consumers overwhelmingly want already, and that is completely organic food production in the United States.

National Water Contingency Plan

Next, we will triple water use efficiency in United States through a coordinated National Water Contingency Plan that will adapt to global climate change. As we just saw in the drought-devastated states of the Southeast, massive droughts will become more common with global warming, so that a key provision of our new National Water Contingency Plan will be to provide National Farm Crop Insurance. I have directed the Secretaries of State and Interior, and the Administrator of the USEPA to begin implementing these two initial steps where possible by my Executive Order, and my administration will present legislation to Congress to further implement them.

And my fellow Americans, we must stop buying cheap junk. We are buying cheap junk whose resources deplete our ecosystems, whose production pollutes our world, and whose disposal clogs our landfills. Although I am willing to consider other means with Congress, I will propose that inefficient, throwaway goods be taxed based on their resource inefficiency, and that recycling should become commonplace. Americans deserve products that last, and Americans must produce them.

This will be good for American businesses. By being efficient, Americans will save money. By doing this, we will also reduce our use of materials until our demands on the world are within its capacity to sustain us, just as the North American tribes have long understood.

The Gift to Re-Balance the World

Tonight I have a special request for the wealthy families of America and the world. Tonight I personally ask you to gather together and look into your hearts. I know that you understand this unique moment in history, for you to help secure well-being for all people. As you know from the examples of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and George Soros, you can change the world. I ask you to remember some of the Sermon on the Mount: "Store not for yourselves treasures upon the earth…but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven...For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Because your generosity can forever change the world, I ask you to make the profound contribution of our generation.

First I ask that you donate your large tracts of land to the Nature Conservancies of the world. Second, I ask that you give the greatest gift of all, and donate half of your extraordinary wealth to one of the great organizations which support responsible development in the world, organizations you already know, whose purpose is the ending of hunger and poverty now, and the immediate construction of the economic infrastructure in poor nations so that they can become full partners in the world economy. With your greatness, I ask that you act together, knowing that with your contribution, you will re-balance the world itself, and that through your goodwill, you will forever change what it means to be human.

As your reward, there will be an outpouring of Joy on this planet such as humanity has never known. Know that as you do this, that the love and forgiveness and blessing of the divine will shine upon you.

Achieving this Dream is Now Possible

The future we have always dreamed of, this future is here now. So I ask you to visualize and think about and talk about what we have created:

New Energy for America Safety and peace through the system of seven world-regional security alliances

Rapid movement towards the end of poverty

Justice through new Global Fair Play Laws

A stable and fair economic system, and

A sustainable planetary ecosystem

For the first time in human existence, each of these goals is achievable. Imagine a world in which each of these is already present. This future will be dynamic, just as are the systems of the natural world. In this new world, safety and prosperity will bring all people into the global economy, to the benefit of all. This will be good for American business and good for American safety.

My last wish is a personal one, and a simple one. Everything we do now is for the children, or so we say. Some day, our children will turn to us and ask: " Mom and Dad, what did you do when the President asked?" They are the ones who will carry the burden of our decisions, and they too can think, know and act. So I ask tonight that every school child in America do one simple thing: plant a little tree, every year, as you graduate to the next grade.

Children, first ask your parents for help, ask your teachers for help, and then plant a tree each year that says for you as it grows: "I'm doing my part to help the world." Send me a picture of you planting your tree, and we will post as many as we can on the White House website.

As I end tonight, remember again that it is America's calling as a blessed nation to make the world a better place, just as people of all religions understand the simple Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." This principle is in the hearts of all Americans, and it is fundamental to the vision of our great nation itself, a vision that must now move onto a planetary stage. This future is a goal worthy of the people of the United States of America!

Thank you, and Good Night.