In aggregate, OMB says this regulation will produce $12.4 billion in benefits for consumers for only $3.7 billion in costs, a 4 to 1 ratio.

Now, that same budget also, in many respects, eviscerated the ability of EPA to continue to regulate under the Clean Air Act.

Ultimately, slashing Medicaid is a shell game in which the House majority would shift costs to the States and localities and the families of America.

Empirical data repeatedly and consistently suggests that the benefits of Federal regulations outweigh the costs by considerable margins.

The consequences of failing to prevent global warming could be severe.

I just wanted to ask one followup to your line of questioning.

The cruelty and political toxicity of Chairman Ryan's proposed privatization of Medicare has received a great deal of attention in the press, but the evisceration of Medicaid would have a similar negative effect on individuals, and…

But presumably, again, we use that word externalities, but, I mean, the value of a human life, the prevention of the loss of it has to factor in to the decision about whether or not A, to enforce regulations and/or new regulations, I mean…

So I would urge OMB to look at No Child Left Behind in a timely fashion so the Congress can benefit from your analysis before we consider legislation later this year.

But you might agree that if a subsequent administration finds that, deliberately or inadvertently, there is in fact, by the issuance of a permit, the circumvention of existing statutory framework with respect to regulation, it is incumbent…

Well, if I could commend it to your review, as somebody who ran the eleventh largest school district in America, it costs a lot of money to implement No Child Left Behind, well in excess of $100 million.

It is indeed a false choice. And in terms of responsibility for our actions, I would point out to Dr. DesJarlais that EPA is responsible for the fact that air pollution is down 60 percent in this country over 40 years, while our GDP has…

So much for moratorium.

Now, also part of this narrative is that President Obama has just caused an absolute moratorium after the worst deepwater oil spill in American history and that there is this de facto moratorium on Gulf Coast oil drilling.

I think we all were surprised by these incidents, but I'm glad to see you've been working further together.

I hope you will actively participate, because, at some point, we're going to have to weigh the policy implications----

I think that we need to fix the law so that we measure the right things as we put these policies forward because it is causing a great deal of resentment among people who are otherwise our close friends.

I don't think I, in all my time in public service, had more of a frightening session kind of getting Air Traffic Control 101 in terms of the potential wave of retirees, the challenges of attracting new folks, the ability to get through…