You and Senator Boxer have done an excellent job. I know the commitment you both have to improving our highway program and our infrastructure.

There's a great deal of frustration, Secretary Carter, and concern that we're drifting and reacting and not in--don't have the kind of plan that will lead to success, number one.

I believe the Defense Department is underestimating the significance of the refugee crisis, the impact it's having in Europe, the impact it's having in the United States.

this is a total failure. It's just a failure. I wish it weren't so, but that's the fact.

this refugee crisis is the greatest threat to Europe since World War II.

I believe we are carrying out a strategy that the President has, and I do not believe it has sufficient respect for the use of military force necessary to be successful.

this is a humanitarian catastrophe. We need to deal with it in an honest way.

I would think if we started having some wins, ISIS would have fewer recruits and we would have better morale with the Iraqi recruits too.

One victory here doesn't mean it's a total victory. There'll be another problem somewhere else as long as this ideology is out there.

If they had that confidence, you would get more recruits.

We've gotten a spasm of extremism that witnesses have told us may be going on for 50 years.

I just believe, Ms. Wormuth, that we need a strategy, an understood strategy, bipartisan, in this Congress, with our allies around the world, to confront this long-term, multi-decade threat to the western democratic order and to try to…

I think that Secretary Bob Gates was correct to say we need an overarching strategy for this whole deal with Islamic extremism in maybe 20, 30, 50 years.

A prompt, decisive action to create safe zones in Syria, where people don't have to flee their home country, can be kept safe there, would be positive as a matter of humanity and as a military possibility.

Well, you need to--we need to understand this. This is huge, because we have a unified budget.

You cannot spend the same money twice.

I appreciate both of you and your thoughts on the 2-year budget.

The debt, as a practical political matter, can be blamed on the President because he is advocating more spending.

Higher public debt leads to lower investment, slower transitional growth or recovery from a recession, and a lower long-term level of output. Debt is bad for growth.

At the bottom line, we are responsible for spending.

What good is a budget if we do not follow it?

I think Congress is timid to challenge the Executive, which I have expressed concern about for some time.

Gross debt in excess of 90 percent of GDP has typically been associated with mean growth of 1.7 percent versus 3.7 percent growth when debt is low, under 30 percent.

I think Dr. Elmendorf did a pretty good job, and a lot of times he was under intense political pressure, and I think in general he produced reports that were objective and respected on both sides.

I am concerned about that.