Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from California for hosting us out there recently at the Reagan library. What an inspiration it was to be at the Reagan library and to understand what President Reagan did and the man, Ronald…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a modern-day forefather who rekindled the foundational beliefs of our country, a leader who earnestly believed in American exceptionalism and the durable power of individual…

You can't, can you?

I have heard some discussion today that suggests that we don't have a spending problem, that we have a spending problem and a revenue problem.

When parents are empowered in that way, they become more involved.

I hope you will look at everything.

I think it is very important to address the deficit, but I hope that rather than doing a one-off kind of thing, that you will look at a longer term window.

I think there would be a lot of agreement that our tax code is very complex, and is not conducive to the most productive activities in many cases.

We do have to live within our means.

It is very important to have a good education system, and we are not doing well on that count.

I think it is very important, for individuals and for businesses and for investment.

Chairman Bernanke was referring to this view when he cautioned against large and immediate spending cuts.

Monetization would involve a permanent increase in the money supply to basically pay the government's bills through money creation.

We have to have a budget that will be reasonably in balance.

I hope that in addressing our long-term fiscal challenges, the Congress and the Administration will undertake reforms to the Government's tax policies and spending priorities.

However, it is clear that DOD has correctly crossed over into a new era of austerity marked by an increased fiscal scrutiny of all programs in an unrelenting pursuit of increased budget efficiency.

One thing, I think, to note is that we have to be much more sharply focused on what families and service members want.

I believe that vibrant MWR programs are critical to the health of the military community they support.