We all agree that public policies need to support strong economic growth that benefits all Americans--middle-class Americans, working Americans--whose incomes have not kept up, whose unemployment rates are persistently high, who have…

It appears that the White House has been using numbers of high-cost States.

We in the Congress are a bit intimidated by the Fed. We tend to accept everything.

The matters that we are facing today have been made substantially worse by the fact that the President has blocked defense planning to make this happen.

I thank you, and Governors Warner and Kaine and King work hard to deal with the budget issues that they face.

Well, thank you, and thank you, Sakhia, for your testimony, and I am glad you are doing well in school.

It provides an important opportunity to address the economic harm that is caused by excessive Federal spending and debt.

we need to take another opportunity now, since 1996, to review our safety net programs and see how they are working

Eliminating that deduction would be a major tax increase, Dr. Roberts, would it not, on middle-class America?

I would just say that is a fundamental question of value, because the United States is not able to have an open border and allow everybody that would like to come to this country come.

the greatest threat to our national security is our debt

Thank you for your insightful report and comments. They are very important to us.

And it also increases the risk, as Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson told us, of a fiscal crisis that might occur.

They said it was inevitable if we do not change this unsustainable path. Would you agree with that?

This budget request is one that, in a time where sequestration is affecting many programs, including our defense budget, the defense budget is getting cut significantly.

We just had a $616 billion tax increase, averaging about $60 billion a year extra income, and we are having recovery from the recession, the slowest in a decade but some recovery, and that results in a lower deficit, as you have reported…

I do not believe that is the right approach.

The disability backlog needs to be dealt with.

Well, we really need recommendations.

We cannot continue on this course. Bowles and Simpson told us in this very room that this Nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis.

So, to my colleagues, this is the reason I think it is accurate to say we have fundamentally a spending problem rather than a tax problem.

the administration has not indicated willingness to compromise, but as they have released with this budget, they slam the door on compromise.

I read your budget, it increases taxes in plain numbers by over $1 trillion, and it increases spending by almost that same amount, virtually having no deficit reduction.

So the plan that would cut $130 billion more than the President's request would still allow you to meet the strategic requirements that you believe the Nation must meet?

Right, well, fundamentally, is it not true that the deficits continue to rise and rise steadily because they are increasing faster than economic growth?