Jeff Sessions

I know the excuse is, well, it was an emergency so we do not care, we did something, and that is politically of value.

You all don't know what you are doing up there, do you?

I agree, and I talked to a businessman recently and was shocked to see how severe he got caught in a financial situation.

There is no free lunch. Debts have to be repaid.

President Obama is committed to thinking through and trying to find some new ways to deal with these problems.

$450 billion every year, Mr. Chairman, on the interest on the debt, is equivalent to almost an entire cost of the 5-year Iraq war.

The interest on the debt today, the $10 trillion or so that we have today? About $200 billion.

Those debts are burdens this economy is going to have to carry, and we should keep this thing as lean and as productive as absolutely possible.

I was very troubled, and President Bush was criticized greatly for a $412 billion deficit in fiscal year 2004.

I did not support the TARP program, but I know the reason it was passed, and it was a difficult decision to oppose it.

I did not support President Bush's 'send out the check' program, and I think the chart that was shown earlier indicated that it did not do much for the economy.

I have been working with Senator Kennedy on a plan to create a universal savings plan in addition to Social Security for every worker in America.

I can't fathom why they seem so obsessed to ram through this flawed bill that the American people overwhelmingly reject.

I think the president is wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard, after we have demonstrated the flaws that are in it. He needs to back off.

I don't think it was a small matter. And I think the attorney general -- I'm disappointed he didn't remember that in his statement.

I remember, early in the Bush administration, he talked about leaping-ahead technology.

I think Congress needs to do a better job of monitoring how we do it.

I have an understanding that, many times, in building highways, politicians are asked to build 10 highways when they only have enough money for 5.

Do you think it's a valid concern that we might do better if we delayed starting some of those projects?

I appreciated your enthusiastic, I would say, responses to the whole management of DOD because that's one of your big responsibilities.

Would you agree that it is an important thing for American people and this Congress to understand that there are principles of defeating an insurgency, and that sometimes it takes time?

I couldn't agree more. I say to General Cartwright, I think we do need to think about those soldiers out there.

A lot of the problems are, that we talk about, such as Senator Levin emphasizes the political solution is not primarily the military's responsibility.

I believe the military has done a really fine job in Iraq.

We've created this situation in which the military, in my way of thinking, is the one entity that works in Iraq.