question is how do we handle these challenges? do we rise to the occasion? do we pull together? do we make smart decisions? and what s been happening over the last six months, and a little bit longer than that if we are honest with ourselves, is that we have a political culture that doesn t seem willing to make the tough choices to move america forward. we ve got a willingness to play partisan games, and engage in brinkmanship that not only costs us in terms of the economy now, but also is going to place a burden on future generations. and the question is, can we break out of that pattern? can we break out of that pattern? think about it, we just went through this debacle with the debt ceiling, an entirely self-inflicted wound. it wasn t something that was necessary. we had put forward a plan that would have stabilized our debt and our deficits for years to come, but because we ve got a politics in which some folks in congress, not the folks who are here, but some in congress
we ve got a willingness to play partisan games, and engage in brinkmanship that not only costs us in terms of the economy now, but also is going to place a burden on future generations. and the question is, can we break out of that pattern? can we break out of that pattern? think about it, we just went through this debacle with the debt ceiling, an entirely self-inflicted wound. it wasn t something that was necessary. we had put forward a plan that would have stabilized our debt and our deficits for years to come, but because we ve got a politics in which some folks in congress, not the folks who are here, but some in congress would rather see their opponents lose than america win, we ended up creating more uncertainty and more damage to an economy that was already weak. now, we can t have patients with that kind of behavior any more. i know you re frustrated, and i m frustrated too. we ve got to focus on growing this economy, putting people back to work and making sure that