Obama, Biden on the Record: National Conference of State Legislatures

before. They expect to see their hard-earned money spent efficiently. And this extraordinary moment requires extraordinary responsibilities on all our part. There’s little room for error here — especially in a time for crisis.

During World War II, a largely unknown senator grew concerned that waste, corruption and scandal threatened to choke off our nation’s war efforts before they’d truly begun. Congress didn’t think a whole lot of the matter and granted him far less money than he’d asked for. But this little-known member of Congress named Harry Truman had the courage of his convictions. So he traveled all across the country, gathered information, holding hundreds of hearings and issuing dozens of reports. And when it was all over, he had saved billions of dollars and deterred corruption and bolstered America’s confidence in the conduct of the war.

What Harry Truman understood was that spending tax dollars wisely isn’t just about keeping our books straight, it’s about fulfilling our obligations as keepers of the public trust. And while I do not know how long the road to recovery will be, I do know that we’re in a fight right now to get this economy back on track. And if we act with the same sense of responsibility that Harry Truman showed during wartime all those years ago, and if we build a partnership that stretches from the statehouse to the White House, then we’ll turn this economy around and the American people will emerge from this crisis stronger than we were before.

So thank you very much. I’m looking forward to working with you. Thank you, guys. (Applause.)

(Source: White House)