But just as we have individual responsibilities, at the dawn of the 21st century we also have a collective responsibility to strengthen that safety net, put the rungs back on that ladder to the middle-class, and give every family the…

It's a plan that would remove some of the financial penalties the government currently imposes on married couples, cut out the red tape to ensure that every dime of child support goes directly to children instead of bureaucrats, and…

Over the last few decades, fundamental changes in the way we work and live have trapped too many American families between an economy that's gone global and a government that's gone AWOL.

And instead of waiting every ten years for Congress to fight over raising the minimum wage, I will finally make the minimum wage a living wage by permanently indexing it to inflation so that it actually pays the bills.

But he told us that of everything that's out there, his biggest dream is to someday stand in the front yard of his own home with his wife and kids, who will hug him and say, 'I love you, Daddy.'

He began to find comfort in his faith, and when he left jail, he moved in with an aunt who expected him to behave well and study hard. And he did. He is now at Benedict College and will be president of the student council there next year.

We know that to fill these jobs, we'll also have to get serious about educating our workforce for the 21st century.

None of this agenda will happen overnight, nor will it be easy to get done. But then again, America's story hasn't been all that easy itself.

The jobs that remain pay less and offer fewer benefits, as employers have succeeded in busting up unions and cutting back on health care and pensions to stay competitive with the companies abroad that are paying their workers next to…

My plan would also support families with children by expanding the Child Tax Credit to an additional 600,000 more Americans, who would receive $1,000 per child.

And when we get distracted by those kinds of question, I think we do a disservice to the American people.

we will soon begin consideration of legislation to educate America's students, with Head Start, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the Higher Education Act all slated for reauthorization. One of the most important aspects of…

this Nation has witnessed dramatic improvements in public health and health care technology and practice over the last century. Diseases that were once life-threatening are now curable; conditions that once devastated are now treatable…

I have a very simple response to what we just heard. I think it is important to consider the actual amendment before us as opposed to what appeared to be a broad-based discussion of the bill overall. What this amendment specifically does…

I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper.

And nothing really changes except the news coverage quiets down and Anderson Cooper is on to something else.

Much of what we saw on our television screens 15 years ago was Los Angeles expressing a lingering, ongoing, pervasive legacy—a tragic legacy out of the tragic history this country has never fully come to terms with.

Look at what happened in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast when Katrina hit. People ask me whether I thought race was the reason the response was so slow. I said, 'No. This Administration was colorblind in its incompetence.'

If we want to stop the cycle of poverty, then we need to start with our families.

If we have more black men in prison than are in our colleges and universities, then it's time to take the bullet out.

So what's stopping us? What's stopping us from taking these bullets out and rebuilding our families, our communities, our nation and our faith in one another? What's stopping us from seeing the light and the way and the faith that unites…

Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths. They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates.

Our God is calling on us to do that.

But in the middle of that desperate time, there was a miracle: a baby born with a bullet in its arm. We need to hear about these miracles in these desperate times because they are the blessings that can unite us when some in the world try…

And it made me think about our cities and communities all around this country, how not only do we still have scars from that riot and the 'quiet riots' that happen every day—but how in too many places we haven't even taken the bullet out.