Education budget can’t be cut: look at India, says Obama

President Barack Obama vowed on Friday that austerity measures in the still recession-hit US won't come at the cost of cuts in the education budget, as suggested by the Republicans, arguing that countries like India, China and Germany are spending massively on their education system.

"We see an America where every citizen has the skills and training to compete with any worker in the world. The other side might think it's a good idea to cut education by 20 per cent, but let's think about this," Obama said at an election event in Delaware ahead of the November Congressional polls.

"Do you think that China is cutting education by 20 per cent? Is South Korea cutting education spending, or India, or Germany? These countries, they're not cutting back on education. They are not playing for second place. And neither should we. The United States of America, we play for first place," Obama said.
 
Millions of youths, because of their student loans, can go to college. "That's why we want to make our new college tax credit permanent. This is a tax credit worth $10,000 in tuition relief for each student who's going to college.
 
"That's the America we believe in, where the middle class is growing and where opportunity is shared, and the only limit to your success is how hard you are willing to work. That's why the tax cuts we want to make - the tax cuts we want to make permanent - would go to middle-class families," he said.

His comments come even as the three major-party candidates for governorship of the state of Minnesota delivered an austere message Friday to students and staff at the University of Minnesota.

During a debate at the McNamara Alumni Center on the Minneapolis campus, Democrat Mark Dayton, Republican Tom Emmer and the Independence Party's Tom Horner said that with the state facing a $5.8-billion budget shortfall over the next two years, the next governor and legislature will not be able afford to increase state funding to public colleges and universities, even if that means higher tuition.
 
No privatising social security
Obama said his administration will fight the political efforts aimed at privatising social security - because as long as I'm president, no one is going to take the retirement savings of a generation of Americans and hand it over to Wall Street. Not on my watch," he said.
 
"That's why we're going to keep fighting to keep the new protections we put in place for patients and consumers, so insurance companies can't drop you when you're sick, credit card companies can't jack up your rates without notice on your bill," Obama said.

The president said 'special interest groups' were fighting against him in this election. "Right now, the same special interests that would profit from the other side's (Republicans') agenda, they are fighting hard, they're fighting back. To win this election, they are ploughing tens of millions of dollars into front groups that are running misleading, negative ads all across America," he said.

"Tens of billions of dollars are pouring in. And they don't have the courage to stand up and disclose their identities. They could be insurance companies, or Wall Street banks, or even foreign-owned corporations. We will not know because there's no disclosure," Obama said.

This is not just a threat to the Democrats, but it is a threat to the American democracy, he warned. "The only way to fight it, the only way to match their millions of dollars is with millions of voices who are ready to finish what we started in 2008. And that's where you come in."