I want to say to all of you that what we have produced by way of a budget, a plan, should really be taken seriously by all of you.

the lower the tax, the better in terms of the economy and its capability to produce and grow.

It has fallen to me since I left the Senate, for almost half of the time that I have been gone, that I have devoted time and energy to trying to come up with ways and means to help this great Nation get out of the terrible dilemma that we…

I want to say to you first, as a former Republican Senator, remember that we put our plan together starting with bipartisan membership.

We are now talking about something different. We are talking about the ratio of debt-to-GDP.

To me, it does not [seem like a good tax].

Without the President we do not get it done ought to be the hue and cry from the Congress and the people of this country.

We may not know all the answers that you seek of us because we did not have a lot of time to study in detail the more intricate health care issues.

I am sure people are scratching their heads, as I am, wondering, why is the President not sitting down with top congressional leaders and saying, how do we avoid this, as opposed to, I am sad to say, the President does not seem very…

Unless you fix Medicare, you cannot fix this deficit.

Well, I would just say that, sometimes when we are working on trying to solve this fiscal problem, the recognition that a long-term fix is what is needed puts many people in the position that they do not know how you do that and do it now.

It falls on you to solve the Medicare problem, to solve the tax problem with a reform measure that will either be neutral in revenue or will gain revenue.