“We right now give $15 billion every year as subsidies to private insurers under the Medicare system. Doesn’t work any better through the private insurers. They just skim off $15 billion.”

“Here’s what I can tell the American people: 95 percent of you will get a tax cut. And if you make less than $250,000, less than a quarter-million dollars a year, then you will not see one dime’s worth of tax increase.”

“We’re going to focus on what’s required to make sure that credit is flowing to consumers and businesses to create jobs in the United States and this is going to be part and parcel of a broader financial strategy that involves strengthening the regulations on Wall Street and in our financial sector and our banking sector so that we’re not seeing the kinds of systemic crises that led us into this situation in the first place.”

“There is a devastating economic crisis that will become more and more difficult to contain with time. For the sake of our economy and our people, this is the moment to act, and to act without delay. There are American dreams that are being deferred and that are being denied because of the current economic climate. Behind each and every one of those millions of jobs lost there are workers and families who are counting on us as they struggle to pay the bills or stay in their homes.”

“We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike we have seen in our lifetime.”

“Our resources may be finite, but our will is infinite, and I am confident that if we come together and summon that great American spirit once again, we will meet the challenges of our time and write the next great chapter in our American story.”

“Families across America are feeling the pinch as they watch debts mount, bills pile up and savings disappear.”

“Let’s not only provide a jumpstart to the economy and immediately or save 3 million jobs, but let’s also put a down payment on some of the structural problems that we have in our economy.”

“We are spending a lot of money subsidizing the insurance companies around something called Medicare Advantage, a program that gives them subsidies to accept Medicare recipients but doesn’t necessarily make people on Medicare healthier. And if we eliminate that and other programs, we can potentially save $200 billion out of the health care system that we’re currently spending and take that money and use it in ways that are actually going to make people healthier and improve quality. So what our challenge is going to be is identifying what works and putting more money into that, eliminating things that don’t work, and making things that we have more efficient.”

“Over the last decade or so, that more than half of the economic growth has been captured by the top 1% of US citizens. That means the other 99% have seen their effective incomes go down. That is not a recipe for long term economic growth. So if we, in fact are putting more money into the pockets of the middle class, if consumers feel some confidence because their bills are actually adding up at the end of the month and they can pay for them, that’s going to, over the long term be good for business, that’s going to be good for the markets, that’s going to be good for Wall Street. I think that we’ve had an economy that’s been out of balance for too long. So the general principle of raising taxes on higher income Americans, like myself, and providing relief to those who haven’t benefited as much from this new global economy, I think is a sound one. And keep in mind that on all of these proposals, what I’ve said is, let’s make sure that we define the well-off, so that we’re not hitting the middle class. I generally define well-off as people who are making $250,000 dollars a year or more and that means for example if we raise the capital gains tax, I would exempt people who are essentially small investors and really capture those who have done very, very well over the last two decades.”

“524,000 jobs were lost in December across nearly all major American Industries. That means that our economy lost jobs in all twelve months of 2008, and that nearly 2.6 million jobs, lost last year, amount to the single worst year of job loss since World War II. The unemployment rate is now well over seven percent. In addition, we have nearly 3.4 million people who want full time work, but are only able to get part time work.”

“Is this money well spent? This is taxpayer money, it is going to be adding to the deficit short term and if we can’t justify it, then we’re not going to spend tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, just to make somebody happy, if it’s not good for the economy.”

“For years, too many Wall Street executives made imprudent and dangerous decisions seeking profits with too little regard for risk, too little regulatory scrutiny, and too little accountability. Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them, and some borrowers took advantage of cheap credit to take on debt they couldn’t afford. Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of problems they were sent here to solve. The result has been a devastating loss of trust and confidence in our economy, our financial markets and our government.”

“Insist that the first question each of us asks, isn’t ‘what’s good for me’ but ‘what’s good for the country my children will inherit'”

“That’s why the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won’t just throw money at our problems, we’ll invest in what works”

"I don’t take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House."

"I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody."

"This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many."

"We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible."

“Instead of having a set of policies that are equipping people for the globalization of the economy, we have policies that are accelerating the most destructive trends of the global economy.”

"To the extent that we’ve got a fiscal crisis right now, part of it is prompted by a bullheaded insistence on the part of the president, for example, that we should extend all of his tax cuts, make all of them permanent."

“Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.”

“When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually. When George Bush came into office, our national debt was around $5 trillion. It’s now over $10 trillion. We’ve almost doubled it.”

“I don’t think that any economist disputes that we’re in the worst economic crisis since the great depression. The good news is that we’re getting a consensus around what needs to be done.”