President Obama delivered remarks at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, NC on Monday morning. Read the full transcript below:

Hello Asheville! It is good to be back in Asheville, North Carolina. You know I love Asheville. I may join the tourism promotion bureau of Asheville! You know every time I meet somebody I say, ‘have you guys gone down to Asheville? That’s a nice place to be.’ So, it is wonderful to be back in one my favorite parts of the country. Our family has great memories of staying here, and it’s always nice to get out of Washington, and breathe some of that mountain air.

I want to recognize a couple people that are here. First of all, one of the outstanding senators in the United States Senate, your senator Kay Hagen is in the house. Kay’s daughter just got married this weekend! So, congratulations to Kay’s daughter; we are so thrilled by that.

We also have our lovely and intelligent Mayor of Asheville, Terry Bellamy. The last time I was here Terry said she wanted to play basketball, and so we went out, and it turns out she was a cheerleader and not as basketball player, but she’s doing an outstanding job overall. Thank you both for coming, and now as you may have noticed here, I came here on a plane … a pretty nice plane. But, I’m leaving on a bus.

The bus is pretty hard to miss, and over the next few days we are going to take this bus through North Carolina and Virginia, and I’m gonna get a chance to hear from folks [on] how they are doing, what direction they want to take the country in, and I’ll be doing a little bit of talking. But mostly, I’m going to do a whole lot of listening, ’cause there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of listening in Washington these days. People don’t [seem to] be paying attention to the folks that sent them there in the first place. And that’s a shame, ’cause once you escape the partisanship and political point scoring in Washington, once you start really listening to the American people, it’s pretty clear what the country and our leaders should be spending our time on.

We should be talking about jobs. When you hear what is going on in the country, when you take the time to listen, you understand a lot of people are hurt out there. Too many people are looking for work, too many people are looking for that sense of security that’s been slipping away for the past decade now, here in North Carolina you have thousands of construction workers who were out of jobs once the housing bubble burst.

Some of those construction workers are here today, they have experience, they have skills, all they want is to be back on the job site, doing what they do best. And there is plenty of work to go around, in this airport, right here in Asheville, you have an airport that needs to be widened and repaired. You’ve got a taxi way in the wrong spot, which means that planes sometimes get too close together.

So, we could be doing some work right here at the Asheville airport that would help boost tourism, help boost the economy here, and put people to work right now. And it’s not just here in Asheville; it’s all across the state. You’ve got highways that need to be repaired, you’ve got bridges that need to be fixed. You’ve got schools that need to be modernized, and that’s what America used to do best – we used to build things. We built the Transcontinental Railroad, built the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, Grand Central Station. There is no reason why we should sit here and see the best highways and the best airports be built in China. We should be building them right here in the United States of America.

Now, our problem for the long time in the making we are not going to solve them overnight, but things we can do right now to put people back to work. Right now. There are things we should do right now to give the economy the jolt that it needs. So, that is why I sent to Congress the American Job Act.

Keep in mind, Asheville, this is the kind of bill containing the kinds of proposals that in the past have received support from Democrats and Republicans. It’s completely paid for by asking our wealthiest citizens – folks making more than a million dollars a year – to pay their fare share. {Cheers and Applause}

In the pending Economist, not my economist but the pending Economist, I said this jobs bill would create 2 million jobs. That’s not my opinion for folks who work for me; it’s the opinion of people who evaluate these kinds of things for a living. It says this bill will help put people back to work and give our economy a boost right away, but apparently none of this matters to the Republicans in the Senate, because last week they got together to block this bill. They said ‘no’ to putting teachers and construction workers back on the job. They said ‘no’ to rebuilding our roads, and our bridges, and our airports. They said ‘no’ to cutting taxes for middle class families and small businesses when all they have been doing is cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans. {Cheers and Applause}

They said ‘no’ to helping Veterans find jobs. Essentially they said ‘no’ to you. Because it turns out that one poll found 63 percent of Americans support the ideas in this Jobs Bill. {Cheers and Applause}

So, 63 percent of Americans support the jobs bill that I’ve put forward. One hundred percent of the Republicans in the Senate voted against it. That doesn’t make any sense does it? {Cheers } No, it does not.

Now, it turns out the Republicans have a plan too. I want to be fair. They put forward this plan last week, and they called it the Real Americans Job Act. The Real One, that’s what they called it. Just in case you were wondering. So, let’s take a look at what the Republican American Jobs Act looks like.

Turns out the Republican plan turns out a few basic ideas. They want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants. {People Booing } They want to drill more, and they want to repeal Health Care reform. That’s their jobs plan. So, let’s do a little comparison here. The Republican Plan says that what’s been standing in the way between us and full employment are laws that keep companies from polluting as much as they want. On the other hand, our plan puts teachers, construction workers, firefighters and police officers back on the job. {Cheers and Applause}

Their plan says the big problem we have is that we helped get 30 million Americans health insurance they figure we should through those folks off the health insurance roll and somehow that’s going to help people find jobs.

Our plan says we are better off if every small business and worker in America gets a tax cut … and that’s what is in my Jobs Bill. {Cheers and Applause}

Their plan says we should go back to the good ol’ days before the financial crisis when Wall Street was writing their own rules. They want to roll back all the reforms we put into place. {Crowd Boos}

Our plan says we need to make it easier for small businesses to grow and hire and push this economy forward. {Cheers and Applause}

Alright, so we got their plan and then we got my plan. My plan says we are going to put teachers back in the classroom, construction workers back to work rebuilding America {Cheers and Applause}, rebuilding our schools, tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for hiring Veterans, tax cuts if you give your worker a raise. {Cheers and Applause} That’s my plan.

And then you’ve got their plan – let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance. Alright, so, so far I feel better about my plan, but let’s admit I’m a little biased, so remember those independent economists who said our plan would create more jobs as many as almost 2 million jobs within a year and stimulate the economy by at least two percent? So, one of the same economists looked at our plan then looked at the Republicans’ plan, and he said this won’t help the economy in the short term, it could actually cost us jobs. We could actually lose jobs with their plan. So, I’ll let you decide, and that is the Real American jobs act.

{Crowd chants} Look I appreciate the “four more years,” but right now, I’m thinking about the next 13 months, because yes we’ve got an election coming up, but that is a long ways away, and a lot of folks can’t wait. A lot of folks are working paycheck to paycheck, a lot of folks are working week to week. You’ve got kids right who lost t heir teachers right now cause at the local level you ended up having layoffs. You’ve got bridges right now that are crumbling and deteriorating, so we don’t have time to wait and we have a choice right now. Right now, look I wanna work with Republicans on ways to create jobs right now, and where they have got a decent idea im happy to work with them.

Just last week we passed a new trade agreement with Korea that allows us to export more goods overseas and support almost 70,000 jobs here at home. Because my attitude is if we are buying some Hyundais and Kias, I want them buying some Fords and Chryslers and Chevys. So if they are serious about creating jobs, I’m ready to go.

I don’t think anyone doubts I have gone out of my way to try to find areas of cooperation with these Republicans, in fact some of you have been mad at me for trying so hard to cooperate, haven’t you? I get some of your letters and emails, you are all like ‘why are you cooperating with them all the time?’ because it can’t be all about politics, sometimes we have to get something done. And so I’m eager for them put [forth] a serious approach to getting people back to work.

It’s time to focus less on satisfying some wings of the party and more of common sense ideas where we can put people to work and help the middle class. And help people get into the middle class, cause there are a whole bunch of folks who are hurting out there and have never got an opportunity, so we’re gonna give members of Congress another chance to step up to the plate and do the right thing.

Kay and I decided, let’s see if they can do the right thing one more time. We’re gonna give them another chance at their jobs by giving you your jobs. So this week, I’m asking members of Congress this week … and the deal is … to break up my jobs bill. Maybe they couldn’t understand the whole thing at once. So, we’re gonna break it up into bite-size pieces, so they can take a thoughtful approach to this legislation.

So, this week I’m gonna ask members of Congress to vote on one component of the plan where we put hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the classroom and cops back on the street, and firefighters back to work. So, members of Congress will have a chance to decide, what kind of future do our kids deserve?

Should we stand up for men and women who are often digging their own pockets to buy school supplies? When we know that the education of our children is going to determine our future as a nation. {Crowd shouts ‘YOU’RE RIGHT THERE’} They are going to have a chance to decide, do they want to make sure that we are looking after the men and women who protect our communities every day? Our first responders, our firefighters, and police officers. And then, after they have taken that vote we are going to give the members of Congress a chance to vote on whether we are going to put construction workers back to work. Should they be just sitting around while our roads and bridges just fall apart? Or should we put them back to work doing the work that American needs done. {Cheers and Applause}

After that we will give them a chance to decide whether the unemployed American should continue to struggle or whether we should give the experience and support they need to get back in the work force, and build a better life.

And we will ask them to take a stand in whether we should ask people like me to pay a little more so middle class families and small businesses can pay a little less {Cheers and Applause} and end up creating the kinds of jobs we need in this economy. {More Cheers and Applause}

So, those are the choice that members of Congress are gonna face in the coming weeks. And if they vote against these proposals again; Like I said maybe they didn’t understand the whole thing. So we are breaking up into little pieces. If they vote against taking steps that we know will put Americans back to work right now. {Crowd shouts Right Now!} Right Now. {Crowd shouts louder RIGHT NOW} Then they are not going to have to answer to me; they are going to have to answer to you. {Cheers and Applause}

They are going to have to come down to North Carolina and tell kids why they can’t have their teachers back. They are going to have to come down to North Carolina and look at those construction workers in the eye and tell them why they can’t get to work doing the work that America needs done. They are going to have to come down here and explain to working families why their taxes are going up while the richest Americans and largest corporations keep getting sweet deals in the tax codes.

They are going to have to come down and explain to you why they don’t have an answer as to how we are putting Americans to work right now. {Cheers and Applause} And if they support the Republican plan, if they were to support the Republican Plan they will have to explain to you why [they'd] rather deny healthcare to millions of Americans and let corporations and banks write their own rules instead of supporting proposals that we know will create jobs right now.

So, that’s where all of you come in. Some of these folks are just not getting the message. So, I need you to send them a message. I need you to make your voices heard. I need you to give Congress a piece of your mind. {Crowd Cheers}

These members of Congress work for you. If they are not delivering, it’s time to let them know. It’s time to get on the phone or write them a letter, Tweet, pay a visit. Tell your elected leaders to do the right thing. Remind them what’s at stake; putting people back to work, restoring economic security in the middle class families and helping create a ladder for folks who aren’t middle class. You have to get in the middle class. Rebuilding an economy where hard work is valued and responsibility is rewarded … building an economy that lasts for the future and for our children. {Crowd Cheers}

If we want to actually lower the deficit and invest in our future, if we want the best roads, the best bridges, [and] the best airports here in the United States, if we want to continue to invest in our technology and our basic cancer research so we can continue to invent new drugs and make sure that the new cars of the future that are running on electricity are made right here in North Carolina, and made right here in America.

We want to do all those things; We’ve got to step up, we’ve got to get to work. {Crowd Cheers} We’ve got to get busy right now. We can’t do nothing; too many folks are hurting out there to do nothing. We need to act right now. {Crowd shouts RIGHT NOW}

We are not a people who sits down to do nothing when things aren’t right. We are Americans. If something is not working, we go out there to fix it. We stick with it ’til the problem is fixed. That’s the spirit we need to muster right now! {Crowd shouts RIGHT NOW!}

Let’s meet this moment; let’s get to work. Let’s show the world once again the United States is the greatest country on Earth. God Bless you! God Bless the United States, and thank you Ashville. Thank you, North Carolina. {CROWD CHEERS}