Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we've got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

I'm the president of the United States. I'm not the emperor of the United States.

There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.

Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted.

Indeed, it's not a stretch to say that most voters no longer choose their representatives; instead, representatives choose their voters.