Barack Obama

“ The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking. You start engaging in groupthink. And those who serve in Washington don't always have a ground-level sense of which programs and policies are working for people and businesses, and which aren't.
This board will provide that fresh perspective to me and my administration with an infusion of ideas from across the country and from all sectors of our economy, input that will be informed by members' firsthand observations of how our efforts are impacting the daily lives of our families. ”

“ It expresses frustration about our inability to tackle some of the long-term problems that we've been facing and have been talking about for decades, whether it's health care, energy, an education system that's been slipping behind in critical areas like math or science and, most of all, I think, frustration with the incapacity of Washington to take bold, clear, decisive steps to deal with our economic problems. ”

“ We continue to have the most innovation in the world. We continue to be in possession of extraordinary resources that, if we harness properly, will get this economy moving over the next couple of years but also over the next two decades or three decades. ”

“ I'll announce the particular members in the future – but I just want to be clear that this is going to be designed to make sure that everybody – that businesses across the board, whether it's high-tech or manufacturing, old or new economy, labor, innovative thinkers who may not always subscribe to the conventional wisdom, that they are there to challenge some of our assumptions, to make sure that we are not just doing the same old thing all the time. I can't think of better people than Paul and Austan to help lead that advisory board. ”

“ We want ideas from everybody. But what I don't want to do is to somehow suggest that because you served in the last Democratic administration that you're somehow barred from serving again, because we need people who are going to be able to hit the ground running. ”

“ I – look, I think families understandably are nervous and concerned about their economic situation. We've seen job loss. We've seen flat-lining wages and incomes. The economic statistics have been bad and people are watching television and understandably are nervous about their future. ”

“ President-elect, as we all know, we're – as we all know, we're two days away from the biggest shopping day of the year. And a lot of retailers are worrying that this year it could be a disaster that this economy can ill afford. ”

“ And the expectation is, is that we will identify those programs that are not working, make sure that those are eliminated, and put money into programs that do work, around things like health care modernization, making sure that we've got the first-class schools that our kids need in order to compete in the 21st century, start putting a downpayment on a new energy economy. ”

“ This is the third news conference you've done on the economy this week. And I'm wondering: when you say that there needs to be a new way of thinking and the old way of thinking won't do anymore, does this suggest a bit of a frustration or disappointment with the way the Bush administration and Secretary Paulson is handling the crisis to this point? ”

“ So people should – should understand that help is on the way. And as they think about this Thanksgiving shopping weekend, and as they think about the Christmas season that is coming up, I hope that everybody understands that – that we are going to be able to get through these difficult times, but we're just going to have make some good choices. ”