First of all, what we [in USA] need to understand is the middle class is what makes us different and exceptional. Every country has rich people, but what has made us different throughout history is that we have this broad-based vibrant middle class.

My dad was a bartender that worked banquets. So that meant holidays, weekends, nights.

I think future generations will look back at this history of our country and call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies who we never gave a chance to live.

70% of children born into poverty will never make it to the middle class. The uncomfortable truth is that there are now a number of other countries with as much or more opportunity than ours. In fact, more people in Canada go on to surpass the income of their parents than in the United States.

And here's the fact: the fact is it doesn't solve the problem. First of all, if you taxed these people at 100 percent, basically next year you said, 'Look, every penny you make next year the government's going to take it from you,' it still doesn't solve the debt.

Our country has a lot of problems. When the world looks at how bad the United States is and then we go talk about civil liberties, I do not think we are a very good messenger. I don't know that we have a right to lecture. We are not in a position to be more aggressive. We have to fix our own mess.

We're special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, come true here. That's not just my story. That's your story. That's our story.