– Spent last year “breaking the back of the recession . . . putting people back to work.”

– “It’s critical that we look at some fundamental, structural problems” in the economy. “It is for that reason, that last year . . . I hosted a health-care summit.” Calls health-care a “big drag” on the economy.

– Obama says between two and five of the ten letters from Americans he reads every night are on health-care.

– “I’m telling all of you all things you already know.”

– “I now have about as good health-care as anybody could have. I got a doctor right downstairs . . . “

– Talking about rushing his daughters to the emergency room with meningitis, asthma, how they reflect his concern with health-care quality.

– This became a very ideological battle. “Politics end up trumping practical commonsense.” But there “actually is significant agreement on a host of issues.” “There is overlap. It’s not perfect overlap, it’s not 100 percent overlap, but there is overlap.”

– Goes through big bullets in his HCR proposal; Medicare cuts, exchanges, insurance reforms. (No mention of massive subsidies).

– “I hope that this isn’t political theater, where we’re just playing to the cameras.”