what does "The buck will stop with me." mean?
i heard in the radio, Mr president-elect said "I'm a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that's how the best decision to make, but I understand I will be setting policy as president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out and I expect them to implement that once decisions are made. So as Harry Truman said, The buck will stop with me. "

Question

what does "The buck will stop with me." mean?
i heard in the radio, Mr president-elect said "I'm a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that's how the best decision to make, but I understand I will be setting policy as  president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out and I expect them to implement that once decisions are made. So as Harry Truman said, The buck will stop with me. "

Answer

This means - "I accept responsibility for my actions and the actions of my staff."

Whether he will stand by what he says is an entirely different matter.

Answer

It means that the circumstances that have been going on until now will be changed/stopped by what I am doing.  It can also mean that the passing of responsibility will stop with me, meaning that I will accept the responisibility.

It is more commonly used as "The buck stops here."

See more about it here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-buck-stops-here.html

Answer

Hi Heather
Mr President-elect is saying that because he is involved in the main policy-making processes, advising and appointing all the big decision makers how he wants things done, he will be the person who is responsible if something goes wrong.  You can blame him; he will accept this responsibility and not try to pass it (the buck/responsibility for what has happened) on to someone else.

Answers · 3

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