it is, I think, patently unfair to people who have all of their income exposed to taxation at whatever level of income, to have some who are avoiding everything that they owe through these kinds of tax dodges.

If we just use the historical average for revenues, at no time in the last 40 years would we have balanced the budget, not one time.

I did not see the kind of leadership I hoped for in the State of the Union.

That is not a realistic world.

But that is 19th century tax policy and energy policy at a time when we need to focus on the 21st.

I agree with the Chairman that our current deficits are not sustainable, and they are huge national security issue that needs to be dealt with on a bipartisan basis by having a credible plan to deal with the deficit.

The longer we wait, the higher Federal debt becomes.

the financial sector, without a surety that the financial sector was going to be reined in and regulated and controlled--they did not use exactly those words--financial stability would be the ruin of us all.

I believe that we are already in the early stages of a fiscal train wreck.

The dirty little truth in this town is that people do not want to deal with budget process disciplines.

We need a multi-year, comprehensive plan that reduces the debt over the next ten years by, I believe, at least $4 trillion.

I would put those four at the top of the list.

The plain fact is the budget doubles our gross national debt, never once produces an annual deficit of less than $600 billion in its 10 years.

We have a town that is about to be flooded on the west end of the lake, the little town of Minnewaukan.

My own belief is that we need to put in place a plan this year to get our fiscal house back in order.

All of us--all of us--have to be in on the solution.

That is a formula for failure.

I do believe we can move toward more of a consumption base by moving toward what you might call the traditional flat tax.