I think there's no higher calling in terms of a career than public service, which is a chance to make a difference in people's lives and improve the world.
Jack Lew
The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations.
The transition from tyranny to democracy is very hard. The Syrian people have to handle this in a way that works in Syria. And the brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable.
In the budget, the president will call for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending other than for national security. This will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade and bring this category of spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
I've never seen a constructive Social Security debate that started with one side digging in, in one place and another side digging into another.
I think that for the next short period of time, our No. 1 priority is Congress needs to do its work and extend the payroll tax cut.
Social Security is something that we need to deal with, because people who are working today, who will retire in the future, people who are retired today, they have a right - and it's part of the compact that they can depend on their benefits. We should fix the long-term funding problem of Social Security because that's the right thing to do.
I think there is a shared sense of urgency in Washington on fiscal issues.
Most Americans want health insurance.
Businesses make decisions based on what they are seeing in their order books.
If you have a student who graduates from college and they don't have a job, they are now able to stay on their family health plan.
We have to reduce the burden placed on our economy by years of deficits and debt.
Europe is trying to get its fiscal house in order.
It's going to be true that anything that reduces the federal deficit will have somebody unhappy.
We obviously would like to get unemployment as low as we possibly can.
Congress should get the job done.
I think the thing that the American people want is for the divisive debate on health care to stop.
If you don't define the problem you'll never reach a painful solution.
There's a lot of trust being built up. I think we have a lot of work ahead of us.
The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.
If you look at the cost of providing health insurance, it actually doesn't cost more to provide a plan with contraceptive coverage than it does without.
We cannot win the future, expand the economy and spur job creation if we are saddled with increasingly growing deficits. That is why the president's budget is a comprehensive and responsible plan that will put us on a path toward fiscal sustainability in the next few years - a down payment toward tackling our challenges in the long term.
Raising the debt limit on some levels is a ministerial act. It doesn't involve any new spending.
I've been really privileged to work for two presidents - President Obama and President Clinton - who are both people of faith, who value faith, and who respect that others have the same feelings in their own lives.
It is time for the general fund to pay the Social Security fund back.
Every president since George Washington has taken executive privilege seriously. Every Republican president has.
I can't speak to the differences within the Catholic Church.
There is a very serious fiscal-policy question of, 'Are we running our overall fiscal policy such that we as a government can pay our bills?'
Taxpayers can go online and find out more about the way their government works than ever before.
Historically, the responsibility for voting on the debt limit has gone to the party in the majority.
I think it's very important not to confuse the importance of dealing with Social Security in the long term with these short-term deficit reduction challenges. They're different issues.
There are lots of ways to work together.
