US Presidency
2011

That commitment to our citizens has also been the reason for our leadership in the world. And now, having come through a terrible recession, our challenge is to meet these obligations while ensuring that we're not consuming and hence consumed with a level of debt that could sap the strength and vitality of our economies. And that will require difficult choices and it will require different paths for both of our countries. But we have faced such challenges before, and have always been able to balance the need for fiscal responsibility with the responsibilities we have to one another. And I believe we can do this again. As we do, the successes and failures of our own past can serve as an example for emerging economies - â€“ that it's possible to grow without polluting; that lasting prosperity comes not from what a nation consumes, but from what it produces, and from the investments it makes in its people and its infrastructure.