Obama: I Don't Believe in 'Kicking Poor Kids'

President Obama said at a campaign event that he’s going to make the argument for investment spending “to make sure that we’re not kicking poor kids.”

Obama was in New York for the event with Ricky Martin, Eva Longoria and others at the Rubin Museum of Art.

“We admire his courage, like the courage he showed last week in affirming his belief in marriage equality. That is the kind of courage we expect from our president and that is why we support him,” Martin said in introducing Obama. “He knows we’re in this together and that together we’re stronger than divided. We elected the right president at the right time.”

Obama plugged Martin’s role in the Broadway revival of “Evita.”

“You know that he’s going to be spectacular in it,” the president said. “And I’m so grateful for him stepping out and being willing to support me in this way.”

Obama struck standard chords about taxing the rich to achieve fairness for the middle class.

“And one of the big arguments we’re going to have over the next four or five months is, how do we pay for stuff?” he said. “And I happen to believe that it makes sense for us to make these investments, to make sure that Social Security and Medicare are still there for the next generation; to make sure that we’re not kicking poor kids and people with disabilities, and seniors who don’t have any other means off of Medicaid just to balance our budgets.”

“I think that I can afford to pay a little bit more and, frankly, some of the people in this room can afford to pay a little bit more, so that we can bring down our debts in a responsible way — cutting out waste, cutting out programs that don’t work anymore, but also making sure that everybody is paying their fair share,” the president added.

Obama said that this year would be a more important fight for Democrats than in 2008, since Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had a “sense of independence” and wouldn’t “rubber-stamp a Republican Congress” like Mitt Romney.

“Nobody should be taking this for granted, especially when I come to New York sometimes people go around and say, I don’t know anybody who is not supporting you, Barack,” Obama said. “I say, you live in Manhattan, man.”