Every day is a crossroads. Every day is a chance to change your life and our world for the better.

We have health insurance companies playing a major role in the provision of healthcare, both to the employed whose employers provide health insurance, and to those who are working but on their own are not able to afford it and their employers either don't provide it, or don't provide it at an affordable price. We are still struggling. We've made a lot of progress. Ten million Americans now have insurance who didn't have it before the Affordable Care Act, and that is a great step forward.

...but we also know that to be educated, the goal of it must be human liberation-liberation enabling each of us to fulfill our capacity so as to be free to create within and around ourselves.

Our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part.

I learned some valuable lessons about the legislative process, the importance of bipartisan cooperation and the wisdom of taking small steps to get a big job done.

We Democrats believe in an America where no matter who you are or where you come from, you should have an equal shot at success.

I used to sit on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and wonder why the Senate was always going into recess, until in my first year I realized how intense the pressure was.