I am hoping that the process that we undertake through this task force will ultimately lead to having some confidence to add a savings number into the budget.

we are well over half a trillion dollars a year going down this pipe, so it is worth making sure we can track it to the end.

Clearly, Government contracting is an important area because, as you have pointed out, the extent of it and the hundreds of billions of dollars that flow through it just gets bigger every day.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan report identified in particular KBR, which collected nearly $32 billion since 2001...

the courts should defer to Congressional fact finding

And in that particular case, the institution of the jury lost, and the predictability for corporations won.

I understand that. That was the holding of the Court. But my focus is on this particular finding of fact that they made, which was, A, unusual and I think peculiar from a Supreme Court; B, factually wrong in everybody's experience who has…

Thank you for our time together. I wish you well. And I appreciate how well and with what good humor and how openly you have answered all of our questions through this long ordeal.

independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.

What is interesting, though, is that it threw out 96 years of precedent, and it did so 5-4.

So it concerns me that it is there, and I would hope that if you get to the Court you are more restrained in terms of making findings of fact at the Supreme Court level.

Should there be any desire or motivation on the part of that group of five to reach their scope a little bit more broadly?

Heller changed the law, creating for the first time in 220 years a private right to bear arms.

Your nomination to the Supreme Court has to be among the least surprising ever made.

I join my colleagues in condolence on this day of sorrow for the Senate and the Supreme Court alike.

You are the Solicitor General of the United States, the lawyer for the United States before the Supreme Court.

But for those of us who have been witness here to lengthy discussions about the importance of precedent and the danger of judicial activism...

So if a judge or judges had a particular agenda or motivation, say to serve the interests and reflect the values of a particular political party, that would be inappropriate?