Thank you for all the support you've given your Marine Corps Reserve because without it, we wouldn't be the ready and relevant fighting force that we are today.

I believe increasing our debt limit was the last thing we should do.

President Calderon has been very courageous in taking on these drug cartels. We've got to also take some steps. Even as he is doing more to deal with the drug cartels sending drugs into the United States, we need to do more to make sure…

The majority of Iraqis have embraced the electoral process as the best means for peaceful political change.

It is ultimately up to the people and Government of Iraq to take up the task of securing the gains made.

I don't want to face that.

I have seen some numbers that concern me about what is going to happen to my postal employees in 2017.

If that is the future here, if that is the future next year, do you think you deserve a bonus for that performance?

Will there be any attempt to offer any incentive to get people out the door?

I understand the idea of comparable salary. However, I don't agree with the premise that just because AIG or Merrill Lynch is giving people bonuses for driving the company into the ground that we should emulate that.

If you are going to ask the American people to absorb pain and closings and increased debt, there needs to be some type of reflection in the management team that acknowledges we are in some tough times.

I compared the practice of giving bonuses in the financial services industry to people who were losing money to the practice of giving bonuses to executives at the Post Office at a time when they are losing money.

I hope that this hearing will give us an opportunity to thoroughly explore the problems and difficulties being faced by what I considered to be one of our great national treasures, that is the Postal Service.

their local clerk is a very familiar face around town

we are going to have to decide on a course of action and we are going to have to get to it

the Postal Service is one of the most respected Government institutions in this country

There is unequivocally no doubt in my mind that some serious reevaluation of our Postal Service must take place.

I think there is a certain loss of market share when you become a 5-day delivery post office instead of a 7-day delivery post office.