Preface

As President George W. Bush’s second term draws to an end and presidential candidates begin ramping up their campaigns, Americans across the political spectrum are considering the future of their country. This volume of Representative American Speeches examines many of the issues that will be debated in the upcoming presidential election: education (particularly as it relates to the economy), the United States’ place in the increasingly globalized marketplace, health care reform, the role of immigration in our society, and global climate change.

The first two chapters in this collection are closely intertwined. There is an undeniable relationship—particularly in today’s highly technological workplace—between the quality of education and both the economic viability of a nation and the security of its workers. According to recent census data, American adults with advanced degrees earn four times more than those with less than a high school diploma. Consequently, as more and more American manufacturing and unskilled jobs move overseas, the wage gap is likely to increase further. Though most citizens and politicians agree that to counteract this trend the country’s underperforming schools must be improved, how best to improve them remains in dispute.

Much as with education reform, no consensus has emerged as to how to fix the nation’s ailing health care system, the focal point of the speeches in the third chapter. In the United States, comprehensive health care is mostly beyond the reach of those who do not receive health insurance from their employer or through government programs—and the number of uninsured Americans continues to climb, growing from 44.8 million in 2005 to 47 million in 2006. Even those who are covered often find their insurance in some way lacking, especially when faced with higher deductibles, exorbitant copayments, and bureaucratic red tape. Indeed, having health insurance does not shield one from the financial peril of a medical crisis. A study conducted by Harvard University found that of the nearly 1.5 million personal bankruptcies declared in the United States in 2001, over half were so called “medical bankruptcies,” resulting from doctors’ bills, lost wages due to illness, and other health-care–related expenses. Of those who declared bankruptcy, most were insured and middle class at the outset of their medical emergency. Consequently, while the United States has the technology and human capital to provide the highest level of health care in the world, we nevertheless spend significantly more and yet are in poorer health than our counterparts in western Europe, where socialized medicine—government-provided or subsidized health care—is the norm. Given the uneasiness many Americans have with the European model, the prospects of such a system developing in the United States remain distant, though if the situation continues to deteriorate and no market-based solution emerges, such a model might become increasingly appealing.

Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center have found that while the majority of Americans have a favorable attitude toward free markets and globalizing trade, they also believe that immigration should be further restricted and controlled. This latter sentiment can be partially attributed to the fallout from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as the rather porous border between the United States and Mexico presents a security risk. On the other hand, Americans have long debated whether the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who enter the country every year—as either seasonal workers or permanent residents—pose a net benefit or liability to the economy.

Speeches in the final chapter examine the debate over global warming. Upon announcing that it would award the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,” the Nobel committee declared, “Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support.” Nevertheless, global climate change remains a politically contentious issue in certain circles—particularly in the United States, as is demonstrated by the speeches featured in this chapter.

In conclusion, we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the men and women who allowed us to reprint their speeches in this book. In addition we would like to offer particular thanks to Richard Stein for his invaluable assistance in compiling this collection.

December 2007