This Week's Best Quotes: 'The Private Sector Is Doing Fine'

The week's strangest, funniest quotes.

ByABC News
June 10, 2012, 2:19 PM

June 10, 2012— -- intro: Check out this week's funniest, craziest and buzziest quotes from around the world.

quicklist: 1title: 'The Private Sector Is Doing Fine.'text: Making the case that the areas of the U.S. economy that need help are state and local government and construction, President Obama said Friday that "the private sector is doing fine."

"We've created 4.3 million jobs over the last ... 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone," the president said, "the private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same kind of flexibility of the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in."

Obama later tried to clarify his remarks.

"It's absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine," the president said while sitting alongside Philippines President Benigno Aquino in the Oval Office. "That's the reason I had a press conference. That's why I spent yesterday, the day before yesterday, this past week, this past month and this past year talking about how we can make the economy stronger. The economy is not doing fine. There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak, too many homes underwater and that's precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference."

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quicklist: 2title: 'I Have a Good Idea of How Kids and Teenagers Act.'text: Sho Yano says that even though the reference to the popular '90s show "Doogie Howser M.D." amuses him and makes him feel "pretty good," he doesn't want to known as a "whiz kid."

"I kind of want to be the doctor," he said. "I got through training early [but] my dream is to have a real achievement. Finding anything that would be helpful to people in general. Just knowing that I'm going to help someone. That would be great."

On June 2, Shano 21-year-old became the youngest student to attain an M.D. from the University of Chicago.

"I was pretty sure that I could handle it," he said of his academic career. "I thought it was safe for me. I wanted to try it. I was able to make that choice for myself. ... I could've gone to school at a normal pace. I don't think I would've been happy."

Yano is also an accomplished pianist with a black belt in tae kwon do. He said for fun, he played the piano and worked with computer and electronic hardware, calling himself a "hand-radio enthusiast."

Next up for Sho Yano? A five-year residency in pediatric neurology.

"I really don't regret anything I did," he told ABC News. "I have a good idea of how kids and teenagers act. I'm not sure that I would've enjoyed that. I don't think I missed all that much. "

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quicklist: 3title: 'I Couldn't Get a Disease Named After Me, So I Settled for a Tax.'text: Billionaire Warren Buffett joked about being the poster child for President Obama's tax plan to members of Washington, D.C.'s Economic Club Tuesday night.

"I couldn't get a disease named after me so I settled for a tax," Buffett joked.

President Obama dubbed his plan to institute a minimum 30 percent tax rate on millionaires the "Buffett Rule" after the billionaire lamented that his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he does.

While Buffett has long supported increasing the current income tax rate for the wealthy, he said Tuesday that historically speaking, "our country works" despite the ever-fluctuating tax rates.

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quicklist: 4title: 'There Is One Social Graph. We Are All Members of It.'text: Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, the two tech titans who met at in their teens, launched Napster in 1999, and then took on the record labels in federal court, seemed nervous talking to ABC News about Airtime, their upcoming video chat site which links to Facebook.

It's certainly not what you'd expect from Parker, who is worth more than a billion dollars since Facebook went public because of his early involvement with the company.

But Parker and Fanning were rightfully nervous. They've been building Airtime for two years, raised more than $33 million in venture capital, and they're about to take on a fairly established industry of video chatting. But they're doing it, as you might expect, with a very big twist. Oh, and with a whole lot of passion.

"There is one social graph," Parker said. "We are all members of it. It's called real life." Click here to read the full story

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quicklist: 5title: 'I Love The Idea That If You Are Walking Toward The World That The World Will Take Some Steps Toward You.'text: A young Regina Spektor, who moved to the United States at age 9 was introduced to Sonia Vargas, a piano teacher.

Vargas, a well-known professor who taught piano, took Spektor under her wing and trained her for years, at no cost. Spektor said Vargas' husband also adopted her family as his own.

"I remember talking to Sonia," Spektor said. "She said that there's an old proverb that says that when a student is ready, a teacher appears. So she said that I must have been ready to study piano, and so that's why she came into my life."

Much later, while playing her own music and selling a CD that she'd created, Spektor caught the attention of a music producer. The rest is history, complete with concerts around the world and a performance in front of the Obamas at the White House.

She said she greatly appreciated her parents, piano teachers and friends and family for helping her become the musician she is.

"Sometimes, I get really overwhelmed. ... I've always been really amazed at the amount of incredible people that I've met in my life and amount of people that have so selflessly given to me," she said. "I love the idea that if you are walking toward the world that the world will take some steps toward you."

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quicklist: 6title: 'She Suffers From a Thing Called 'Loser's Remorse.' She Lost.' text: Donald Trump plans to sue the Miss USA contestant who called his Miss Universe Organization "fraudulent" and "trashy" and said the woman suffers from nothing more than "loser's remorse."

"She made a very false charge and she knows it was a false charge," the business magnate said of Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin. "I think that, frankly, she should apologize but we will be bringing a law suit against her."

Monnin resigned her Miss Pennsylvania title and quit the Miss Universe Organization this week after charging that the 2012 Miss USA pageant was rigged.

"Effective immediately I have voluntarily, completely, and utterly removed myself from the Miss Universe Organization," the 27-year-old beauty queen posted on her Facebook page Monday. "In good conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy."

Trump said, "It's absolutely ridiculous. She lost and if you look at her compared to the people who were in the top 15, you would understand why she's not in the top 15. It's a very, very sad situation."

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quicklist: 7title: 'We Have Learned From This.'text: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker celebrated his big victory in his state's recall election.

Walker acknowledged that he would have handled his budget crisis differently if he had a chance to do it all over again. For starters, he said, he would have explained to the public what he was going to do before doing it.

"My problem was I was so eager to fix it I didn't talk about it. I just fixed it," Walker said. "Most politicians talk about it but never fix it in the future. We have learned from this. We are going to both talk about, get people engaged, work on solutions together and then fix it."

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