President Barack Obama has said the US, being the world leader, cannot afford to lag behind in clean energy technologies amid the fast growth of India, China and Germany in the field and sought efforts to prevent any country from "out-competing" America in future.
"We know that whoever leads the clean energy revolution is going to lead the 21st century economy... And we can't wait. Because China is not waiting. India is not waiting. Germany is not waiting. We can't afford to wait," he said at a grassroots fundraiser for Senator Michael Bennet in Denver, Colorado.
"We can't continue to spin our wheels in old education debates -- the stale debates, they pit teachers against reformers -- meanwhile kids are trailing their counterparts all around the world," Obama said and urged people to vote for Bennet, who is running for re-election later this year.
The President said there was a need to bring people together and build consensus around reforms.
"Because we know that the country that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow. And we don't want that future for our young people. We're not going to sentence them to a lifetime of lower wages and unfulfilled dreams," Obama said amidst applause.
"We can continue to ignore the growing burden of runaway health care costs. And we all know what will happen if we do -- it's already happening. Just the other week, one of California's largest insurers sent a letter to a million customers saying: 'Your premiums are going to go up by as much as 39 per cent'," he noted.
