Nobody ever said we were a sane institution, but we prove it, particularly in the early times.

So much of the actions that we are taking as a Congress and as an administration to support some of these entities have to do with the fact that we really do not have any way to unwind them in a logical way.

Do we have in our system the cord we can pull that is the safety valve that says, again, in effect, time out.

I certainly don't want to stall growth in this Nation. I mean, gosh, we are the greatest Nation on earth.

I think it is a real frustration for us here to be faced with these issues of, well, Mike, this is just way too big to allow it to fail, and, Mike, it is going to take taxpayers' money to unravel the risk that they have gotten themselves…

I have been an employee of government, I have been an employer or a manager within government...

good leadership skills, good people skills and good issue skills do not necessarily all go together

I did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation a couple of years ago that on just the roaded portion of the national forest we are adding roughly 4 billion cubic feet of wood a year...

I appreciate the portions of your testimony about clearing red tape associated with filling a growing number of open positions in public land management agencies.

Congress and the administration need to work together to ensure that adequate resources are available such as making sure that agencies are using all of the tools at their disposal.

But I have also spent a considerable amount of time in the private sector, and when I look at the economic challenges that are occurring now in our country they seem to be borne much more heavily by the private sector than the public…

If you wonder why we have a fire problem on the national forest, we are adding tremendous amount of fuel.

There are some real opportunities to use economic values of the excess and growing amount of wood on the public lands...

The AIG bonuses make the president subject to the charge that he's living above the store, but not minding it.

It is very disappointing that Secretary Geithner did not make it a priority to be here.

What is Treasury's strategy?

This lack of a clear strategy is also hampering our economic recovery.

The administration had expressed reservations about the amendment. They came to us and asked for modifications.