Foreign Policy Debate - Financial Recovery: As president,...

SEN. OBAMA: Right.

MR. LEHRER: What are you going to have to give up, in terms of

the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States,

as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, there are a range things that are probably

going to have to be delayed. We don't yet know what our tax revenues

are going to be. The economy is slowing down.

So it's hard to anticipate right now what the budget's going to

look like next year. But there's no doubt that we're not going to be

able to do everything that, I think, needs to be done. There are some

things that, I think, have to be done.

We have to have energy independence. So I've put forward a plan

to make sure that in 10 years time, we have freed ourselves from

dependence on Middle Eastern oil, by increasing production at home but

most importantly by starting to invest in alternative energies --

solar, wind, biodiesel -- making sure that we're developing the fuel-

efficient cars of the future right here in the United States, in Ohio

and Michigan instead of Japan and South Korea.

We have to fix our health care system, which is putting an

enormous burden on families. Just -- a report just came out that the

average deductible went up 30 percent on American families. They are

getting crushed, and many of them are going bankrupt as a consequence

of health care. I'm meeting folks all over the country. We have to

do that now, because it'll actually make our businesses and our

families better off.

The third thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that

we're competing in educatio