Barack Obama Quotes

What got us out of the depression was capitalism, and we would have gotten out a lot quicker had the government not intervened.

Asking the government to fix our economy is like asking an editor to fix a movie, but in this case, the editor's not even of one mind.

If the government can't get the economy moving again, they have a lot of fundamental problems.

I think there is need for economic stimulus... and government can help make that up in a very difficult time.

What the president announced yesterday, is that somehow magically, if we just continue to prime the pump of taxpayer dollars, we're going to see magically an economic recovery.

There was endless controversy as to whether the acts of the New Deal did actually move recovery or retard it, and nothing final could ever come of that bitter debate because it is forever impossible to prove what might have happened in place of what did.

The public is upset. If they haven't lost their job, they know somebody that has. If they haven't lost their house, they know somebody that has. What do you do? When something's wrong, it's government's job to fix it, it must be government that's responsible for causing it.

I supported the stimulus package.

Certainly, the job of a U.S. senator is to create a climate conducive to creating jobs, which is lower taxes and less government regulation. What Harry Reid has been doing is putting forward those policies that actually put more regulation on business.

I was criticized at some level within the Republican Party by those who say government should not be in the economic development business at all. My response is that the only country I know that doesn't have an economic development plan is Papa New Guinea.

Why don't we stop the stimulus spending? There's still about $400 billion or $500 billion of the stimulus plan that has not been spent. Why don't we stop it? It's not working.

It has become fashionable to rail against government intervention in the economy, and the FHA is a favorite example by those trying to show the government's overreach. In reality, the FHA shows how government action during the Great Recession forestalled a much worse economic fate.

And taking more money out of the private economy and having the government perform as it has poorly done with the stimulus I don't think is the right way to go.

Obama's explanation for the slowdown in economic growth is that the public sector is hurting, and that's where Washington must step in and act.

Government does not create jobs. It only helps create the conditions that make jobs more or less likely.

The army did more to shape the pattern and direction of economic development than did any other federal agency, any state government, or any private agency.

The government playing entrepreneur is not a good role for the government.

I have a lot of sympathy for every ailing economy …. The question is not whether you have sympathy. The question is what would be the right measure to help alleviate the situation.

These Republican governors who say that government can’t create jobs---well government certainly created their jobs..

I was secretary of the Treasury in 2008. In that role, I had the privilege to work with many talented men and women in government and the private sector who labored to pull our nation back from the brink of disaster.

The anti-New Deal line is wrong as a matter of economics. F.D.R.'s spending programs did help the economy and created millions of new jobs.

The whole New Deal was in a sense just a series of public options, some more optional than others, that offered government as an alternative to the often-flawed private market.

The economy is most important. It is off track.

I don't think it would be crazy to have a model or an entity model on the Reconstruction Finance Corp.

[Obama White House] rescued the economy from the worst recession.