This marketplace where people can buy insurance who don't have it today, a competitive marketplace - that's an idea that both sides embrace.

The truth is that as we move forward, if one side says we can't raise any taxes on anybody or any interest, and the other side says we can't cut anything, we're obviously not going to make progress on this. And our interest is in making progress on this.

I think the millions of people who had been able to renegotiate their mortgages so they are paying lower interest rates are better off.

Two years before the last election you nor anyone else would have predicted that Barack Obama was going to get elected president of the United States.

I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in January of 2009. And it's going to take some time to work through it.

I have never believed in the Wizard of Oz theory of consulting, that I am all-knowing and all-seeing, and that everyone around me is kind of a backbencher

If you look at the themes that he struck from the minute he started running for president through today, there is a very high level of consistency, and there is a sense that he is who he is. Obama's governing is completely consistent with the way he campaigned and the themes on which he campaigned, the issues he highlighted, the vision he shared.

I'm a kibitzer with a broad portfolio.