White House Press Secretaries

Presidents always do best when they lead the most. And if you even if you don't like what they're saying, presidents get credit for leadership if they take the initiative.

Something about the president's policies is not working.

When Barack Obama came into office, there were 11.9 million Americans were unemployed. Today there are 13.9 million Americans are unemployed.

The stimulus was a failure.

Presidents can make things a lot worse.

The fact is that in four years of Barack Obama he will increase the debt by more than George Bush did in eight years of George Bush.

He never took the debt seriously until April of this year.

In four years of Barack Obama, he will increase the debt by more than George Bush did in eight years of George Bush.

The big issue, though, is it doesn't matter what area you serve in, a crisis is going to arise on every president's watch.

The President is going to have to show leadership to really take on entitlement spending.

I have been very public about saying that anybody who wants to default this nation is making a big mistake.

I hope so. I think the Tea Party deserves it. I think they're the ones who have made this whole debate and this whole fact, now that we're actually trying to cut spending in Washington, reality.

The problem President Obama has with the country is, they don't want the blame. He's the leader. They want a solution.

If the Boehner plan fails in the House of Representatives tomorrow, it's going to be a political calamity for Republicans.

If it passes in the House tomorrow, I think it's going to be a political calamity for the Democrats because at that point the Democrats are going to have to realize that the only way the debt gets increased is with Democratic votes.

Members of the Tea Party came to Washington to educate Washington. They didn't come there so Washington could educate them on how things were going to get done.

What was interesting to me was the Tea Party freshman said that he can see some type of accommodation for a short-term solution so long as they know they're going to get the structural reforms at the end of the day.

the only way that the tax cuts for the upper income tier expires is if Barack Obama is willing to put on the table the individual mandate.

I think there's no alternative.

Here's why the president is not the political winner in this. If he was the political winner, then why is the generic Republican candidate beating him by eight points in the recent Gallup poll?

It's kicking the can down the road so a grand bargain gets negotiated again later.

I think you're going to get some type of intermediate agreement made that's going to be of some modest level of spending cuts.

Well, I don't think it was symbolic at all, Sanjay. In fact the only institution in Washington of the House, the Senate and White House that has actually done its job and done anything meaningful on spending or debt is the House of…

If he was the political winner, then why is the generic Republican candidate beating him by eight points in the recent Gallup poll? And why is the President's job approval dropping now in several polls, including Gallup, into the low 40…