PBS高端访谈:奥巴马呼吁开展实施长期经济计划

 　　JEFFREY BROWN: It was billed as a major policy speech, as President Obama called his commitment to combating economic inequality his highest priority and blasted partisan¹ politics in Washington for undermining continued recovery.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: With this endless parade of distractions² and political posturing³ and phony scandals, Washington's taken its eye off the ball. And I'm here to say, this needs to stop.

　　BARACK OBAMA: This needs to stop.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: President Obama kicked off his push to refocus on jump-start the economy at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, the site of his first major speech as a freshman⁴ senator in 2005.

　　BARACK OBAMA: This moment doesn't require short-term thinking. It doesn't require having the same old stale debates. Our focus has to be on the basic economic issues that matter most to you, the people we represent.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The president said five cornerstones support his plan to rebuild America's middle class.

　　BARACK OBAMA: Good job. Good education for your kids. Home of your own. Secure retirement⁵.

　　Fifth, I'm going to keep focusing on health care, because middle-class families and small-business owners deserve the security of knowing that neither an accident or an illness is going to threaten the dreams that you've worked a lifetime to build.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The speech came amid some signs of an economic rebound⁶, but continuing concerns. Hiring, while on the upswing, remains⁷ sluggish⁸. The latest jobs numbers put the nation's unemployment rate at 7.6 percent, compared to a high of 10 percent during the depth of the downturn in 2009.

　　And housing prices and consumer confidence continue to rise. But the president said more work still lies ahead.

　　BARACK OBAMA: We need a new push to rebuild rundown neighborhoods.

　　BARACK OBAMA: We need new partnerships⁹ -- we need new partnerships with some of the hardest-hit towns in America to get them back on their feet.

　　And because no one who works full-time¹⁰ in America should have to live in poverty, I am going to keep making the case that we need to raise the minimum wage, because it's lower right now than it was when Ronald Reagan took office. It's time for the minimum wage to go up.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The president also demanded a new political approach to tackling the nation's problems.

　　BARACK OBAMA: The key is to break through the tendency in Washington to just bounce from crisis to crisis. What we need is not a three-month plan, or even a three-year plan.

　　We need a long-term American strategy, based on steady, persistent¹¹ effort, to reverse the forces that have conspired¹² against the middle class for decades. That has to be our project.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Even before the remarks, but after its focus and theme had been reported, Republican leaders were out in force criticizing the president's campaign-like strategy.

　　House Speaker John Boehner demanded specifics:

　　REP. JOHN BOEHNER, R-Ohio: There are no new proposals in this speech. The president himself said it isn't going to change any minds. All right, well, so exactly what will change? What's the point? What's it going to accomplish? Probably got the answer, nothing. It's a hollow shell. It's an Easter egg with no candy in it.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, to be effective, the president must engage Republicans.

　　SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-Ky.: Because every time he goes out and gives one of these speeches, it generates little more than a collective bipartisan eye-roll, a bipartisan eye-roll.

　　It's just such a colossal¹³ waste of time and energy, resources that would be better spent actually working with both parties in Congress to grow the economy and to create jobs.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The back-and-forth comes as America's frustration¹⁴ grows with Washington, particularly with Congress.

　　An ABC/Washington Post poll released today found 73 percent of Americans disapprove¹⁵ of Congress' job. And another by NBC and The Wall Street Journal put the disapproval¹⁶ rating at 83 percent, an all-time high for that survey.

　　New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman said opposition¹⁷ to today's speech is all part of a larger Republican strategy to take on many of the president's economic priorities.

　　JONATHAN WEISMAN, The New York Times: They believe that they are answerable to a different electorate¹⁸ than the one that sent President Obama back to power. They don't believe that they are doing something out of spite. They believe that they are -- that they are representing their voters. And to most of these Republicans, they probably are.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: But President Obama today said he is ready for the political fights and compromises that lie ahead.

　　BARACK OBAMA: Now, in this effort, I will look to work with Republicans as well as Democrats¹⁹ wherever I can. And I sincerely believe that there are members of both parties who understand this moment, understand what's at stake, and I will welcome ideas from anybody across the political spectrum²⁰.

　　But I will not allow gridlock or inaction or willful indifference²¹ to get in our way.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Still, other major financial deadlines loom²² large over Capitol Hill.

　　On the agenda after the August recess²³: avoiding a government shutdown by Oct. 1 and once again raising the nation's debt ceiling.

1 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

2 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 posturing   

做出某种姿势( posture的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She was posturing a model. 她正在摆模特儿的姿势。
• She says the President may just be posturing. 她说总统也许只是在做样子而已。

4 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

5 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

6 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 sluggish   

adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的

参考例句：

• This humid heat makes you feel rather sluggish.这种湿热的天气使人感到懒洋洋的。
• Circulation is much more sluggish in the feet than in the hands.脚部的循环比手部的循环缓慢得多。

9 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

12 conspired   

密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They conspired to bring about the meeting of the two people. 他们共同促成了两人的会面。
• Bad weather and car trouble conspired to ruin our vacation. 恶劣的气候连同汽车故障断送了我们的假日。

13 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

14 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

15 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。

16 disapproval   

n.反对，不赞成

参考例句：

• The teacher made an outward show of disapproval.老师表面上表示不同意。
• They shouted their disapproval.他们喊叫表示反对。

17 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

18 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

19 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

21 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

22 loom   

n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近

参考例句：

• The old woman was weaving on her loom.那位老太太正在织布机上织布。
• The shuttle flies back and forth on the loom.织布机上梭子来回飞动。

23 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。