I oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit. We now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.

Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.

We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.

For we have always understood that when times change, so must we, that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges, that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.

This is our moment. It is his moment for immigration. It is his moment for gun control. It is his moment for equality.

I said today at the lunch over at the Congress that some may dispute the quality of our president, but nobody disputes the quality of our first lady.

We will stand with you always, the members of the legendary Tuskegee airmen in the house and the recipients of our nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor.

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.

We the people declare today that the most evident of truth that all of us are created equal -- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men…

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

We, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths, that all of us are created equal, is the star that guides us still.

My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together.

I want to express the extraordinary gratitude, not just of me as your commander in chief, but more importantly, the thanks of all the American people.

It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began, for our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.

Know that we are going to be looking after and thinking about your families every single day.