In His Own Words

“Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

U.S. Senator Barack Obama
March 16, 2006,
preparing to vote against raising the debt ceiling

In His Own Words

"Today I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. Now, this will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."

President Barack Obama
Feb. 23, 2009,
following a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit

In His Own Words

“By the way, yes, my plan will reduce the carbon pollution that is eating our planet because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and hurricanes and wildfires, that’s not a joke. That’s a threat to our children’s future, and we can do something about it.”

President Barack Obama
University Of Miami Oct. 11, 2012

In His Own Words

"If you like your plan you can keep your Plan. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor."

President Barack Obama
Town hall meeting in New Hampshire
Aug. 11, 2009,

In His Own Words

“We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs. We should be investing in minority-owned business, in our neighborhoods”

Senator Barack Obama
June 2007 at Hampton University

In His Own Words

"I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but rich people are all for nonviolence. Why wouldn’t they be? They’ve got what they want. They want to make sure people don’t take their stuff."

State Senator Barack Obama
University of Chicago
Jan. 21, 2002 (Martin Luther King Day)

In His Own Words

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."

Senator Barack Obama to SF Chronicle Editorial Board
January 2008

In His Own Words

"I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

President Barack Obama
Cairo Egypt
June 4, 2009

In His Own Words

"When I'm president, we'll put in place a system where 40 million Americans with a job and a bank account who take the standard deduction can do their taxes in less than five minutes."

Senator Barack Obama
JUNE 12, 2008 
 Kaukauna, Wis.

In His Own Words

"There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

President Barack Obama
March 2009

In His Own Words

"I will always be a strong advocate for a market that is free and open."

Senator Barack Obama
New York City
SEPTEMBER 17, 2007

In His Own Words

"And I can make a firm pledge: Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase -- not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Senator Barack Obama
Dover, N.H.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

In His Own Words

“When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as President, you will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.”

Senator Barack Obama
Manchester, N.H.
JUNE 22, 2007

In His Own Words

“We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again, but over the last six months we’ve had a run of bad luck.”

President Barack Obama
August 5 2011 Decorah, Iowa

In His Own Words

"I'm always worried about using the word ‘victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."

President Barack Obama to ABC News about Afghanistan
July 2009

In His Own Words

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."

President Barack Obama, January 27 2009
in an interview with Al Arabiya,

In His Own Words

"I'm going to listen to everybody. We'll have the doctors and the nurses and the members of Congress and patient advocates. I'll have the insurance and drug companies at the table. They just won't be able to buy every chair. And we will... And I'll be at the table. I'll have the biggest chair, because I'm president. If people have other ideas and I don't assume that I've got every single idea. It can be improved and I want input. We're going to have to make some compromises.

But here's the thing. We're going to do all these negotiations on C-SPAN.

The American people will be able to watch these negotiations so if they start seeing a member of Congress who is carrying the water for the drug companies instead of for their constituents and says, 'Oh, you no. we can't negotiate for the cheapest available price on drugs because the drug companies need these profits to invest in research and development', I'll say, 'OK, let me bring my health care expert in here'. And on TV, we'll ask my health care expert, 'What do you think about what the drug companies are saying?'
And what that drug expert will undoubtedly say is 'Well, drug companies do need some profits to invest in research and development but a lot of what they're calling research and development is actually marketing costs for some of these TV ads you see' ... where everybody is, you have all these people dancing in fields, looking all happy. You don't know what the drug is for. Right? Except for that one drug, you know what that's for. You know what that one is for.

Anyway, you get my point. Open this. Transparency. You will hold me accountable, you will hold Congress accountable. That's how we'll get welfare... uh health care reform passed."

Senator Barack Obama
Panama, Ohio 
March 4,2008

In his own words

"I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

Senator Barack Obama Narch 29,2008
Town Hall meeting Johnstown, Pennsylvania