Barack Obama: “And Congress shouldn't shut down our government again, just because we disagree on this. Americans are tired of…”

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

It is a decision about how do we face and embrace this finite amount of time we have on the planet.

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.