Barack Obama

This is not going to be a reward for people who were irresponsible or who were speculators.

We will make it possible for an estimated four million to five million currently ineligible homeowners who received their mortgages through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to refinance their mortgages at a lower rate.

Nothing's worse for a neighborhood, even for the good guy paying on time than to have foreclosures in their neighborhood. It's terrible for real estate values.

It will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell. And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.

This plan will not save every home. But it will give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy. And by…

We will make it possible for an estimated four to five million currently ineligible homeowners who receive their mortgages through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to refinance their mortgages at a lower rate.

I am absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means. We're going to have to use diplomacy. We're going to have to use development.

We know that, if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country.

The road to recovery will not be straight. We will make progress, and there may be some slippage along the way. It will demand courage and discipline.

Today does mark the beginning of the end; the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; the beginning of what we need to do to provide relief for families worried that they won't be…

We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes.

I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems, nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end.

Jim, the Head of Caterpillar said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off. And that's a story I'm confident will be repeated at companies across the country.

We have begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time. And that's why we're here today.

How's he doing with the stimulus plan and his early encounter with Washington politics?

We should be spending a lot more money trying to figure out how to get our energy policy right than we should on helicopters for the president.

We will do what works.

You know, I am an eternal optimist. That doesn't mean I'm a sap.

I realize I'm taking ownership of this economy. And if my plan that I'm pushing through Congress doesn't work, you're going to have a new president in four years.

I mean, I suppose what I could have done is started off with no tax cuts, knowing that I was going to want some and then let them take credit for all of them. And maybe that's the lesson I learned.

The goal at heart of this plan is to create jobs. Not just any jobs but jobs doing the work America needs done: repairing our infrastructure, modernizing our schools and our hospitals, promoting the clean alternative energy sources that…

And finally, we have to approach our budget in a responsible way. And that means investing in priorities like energy and health care and education that will grow our economy again, but it also means eliminating those programs that are…

To truly address this crisis, we will also need to address the crisis in our financial sector to get credit flowing again to families and businesses.

And the goal at the heart of this plan is to create jobs. Not just any jobs but jobs doing the work America needs done. Repairing our infrastructure, modernizing our schools and our hospitals, promoting the clean alternative energy sources…

The goal at the heart of this plan is to create jobs. Not just any jobs but jobs doing the work America needs done. Repairing our infrastructure, modernizing our schools and our hospitals, promoting the clean, alternative energy sources…