Obama: America 'Would Not be a Great Country' Without All Our Entitlements

You know the roughly 150 years before Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society? Well, if you ask Barack Obama, America was just so-so during that time.

During his budget speech at George Washington University yesterday, Obama said that it's only because of government entitlements that America became a great country. CNS News has the transcript and video:

“‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities,” Obama said. “We are a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.”

Editor's note: For Stu's take on Obama's remarks, click here.