Good afternoon, everybody. On Friday, we learned that the United States received a downgrade by one of the credit rating agencies — not so much because they doubt our ability to pay our debt if we make good decisions, but because after witnessing a month of wrangling over raising the debt ceiling, they doubted our political system’s ability to act. The markets, on the other hand, continue to believe our credit status is AAA. In fact, Warren Buffett, who knows a thing or two about good investments, said, “If there were a quadruple-A rating, I’d give the United States that.” I, and most of the world’s investors, agree.
诸位下午好。上星期五，我们获悉某信用评级机构下调了美国的等级——并非主要因为他们怀疑我们在作出良好决策的情况下偿付债务的能力，而是因为看到有关提高债务上限问题的争论持续了一个月，他们怀疑我们的政治制度付诸行动的能力。另一方面，市场继续相信我们的信用等级为AAA。事实上，在何谓好的投资问题上颇有见地的沃伦∙巴菲特说：“如果有4A这一等级的话，我会将美国评为4A。”我，以及全世界大多数投资者都同意。
That doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem. The fact is, we didn’t need a rating agency to tell us that we need a balanced, long-term approach to deficit reduction. That was true last week. That was true last year. That was true the day I took office. And we didn’t need a rating agency to tell us that the gridlock in Washington over the last several months has not been constructive, to say the least. We knew from the outset that a prolonged debate over the debt ceiling — a debate where the threat of default was used as a bargaining chip — could do enormous damage to our economy and the world’s. That threat, coming after a string of economic disruptions in Europe, Japan and the Middle East, has now roiled the markets and dampened consumer confidence and slowed the pace of recovery.
这并不是说我们没有问题。事实是，我们并不需要评级机构告诉我们，降低赤字必须采取平衡、长期的做法。上个星期是这样，去年是这样，在我就职的时候就是这样。我们并不需要评级机构告诉我们，华盛顿过去几个月的僵持局面至少谈不上具有建设性。我们从一开始就知道围绕债务上限问题的长时间争论——以债务违约相威胁作为筹码——可能对美国经济和世界经济带来巨大的破坏。这种威胁紧随欧洲、日本和中东一系列经济混乱之后，现在已经造成市场的不安，降低了消费者的信心，减缓了经济复苏的步伐。
So all of this is a legitimate source of concern. But here’s the good news: Our problems are imminently [eminently] solvable. And we know what we have to do to solve them. With respect to debt, our problem is not confidence in our credit — the markets continue to reaffirm our credit as among the world’s safest. Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term.
因此，这些情况都是引发忧虑的合理根源。但有一条好消息：很明显，我们面临的各种问题完全是可以解决的。我们知道，为了解决这些问题，我们必须做些什么。在债务问题上，我们面临的问题并非对我们信用的信心——市场继续确认我们的信用属全世界最安全之列。我们面临的挑战是需要长期解决我们的赤字问题。
Last week, we reached an agreement that will make historic cuts to defense and domestic spending. But there’s not much further we can cut in either of those categories. What we need to do now is combine those spending cuts with two additional steps: tax reform that will ask those who can afford it to pay their fair share and modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare.
上星期，我们达成了一项协议，对我们的防务和国内开支实施历史性的削减。但这两个方面已经没有多少可削减的余地了。我们现在需要做的是，把这些方面的开支削减与另外两个步骤相结合：税务改革，要求有能力承担税负的人公平地分担自己的一份责任;以及对联邦医疗照顾计划之类的医保项目作出适度的调整。
Making these reforms doesn’t require any radical steps. What it does require is common sense and compromise. There are plenty of good ideas about how to achieve long-term deficit reduction that doesn’t hamper economic growth right now. Republicans and Democrats on the bipartisan fiscal commission that I set up put forth good proposals. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate’s Gang of Six came up with some good proposals. John Boehner and I came up with some good proposals when we came close to agreeing on a grand bargain.
进行这些改革不要求采取任何激进的步骤。所要求的是常识和妥协。对于如何在不妨碍目前经济增长的情况下长期降低赤字的问题，有很多好的设想。我建立的两党财政委员会的共和党人和民主党人提出了良好的建议。参议院“六人帮”的共和党人和民主党人提出了一些良好的建议。在我们接近达成重大协议时，约翰·博纳和我提出了一些良好的建议。
（责任编辑:allen）
