Obama listens to Lawrence Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council, in a briefing on the economy, in the Roosevelt Room on January 19, 2010.
On passing health care reform
Health care was going to be hard in any environment with any Congress. There's a reason why seven Presidents and seven Congresses have failed to do it. It is a massive undertaking. It involves every special interest imaginable. The American people know that the status quo isn't working, and yet sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. So it is very easy to caricature any efforts at reform as negative.
On bringing change to Washington
When I promised change, I didn't promise that somehow members of Congress weren't going to be...
