Christopher Shays: “You know, I just would want to say that as we talk, people like the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Kasich, budget chairman in…”

“You know, I just would want to say that as we talk, people like the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Kasich, budget chairman in the House, and Pete Domenici in the Senate are meeting with representatives from the minority in this Congress as well as the White House, and one thing that is quite clear in this Congress is that it is still a Republican controlled Congress, be it only by a margin of 10 votes, and the White House is a Democrat White House, but we all have to be Americans first and Republicans and Democrats second, and I just hope and pray that the talks that have taken place with the White House are yielding fruit. I think they are. I know what our ultimate objective is. We want to balance the Federal budget and get our country's financial house in order. We want to save our trust funds, particularly Medicare, not just for future generations, but for the generations that exist now, and we want to transform this caretaking social and corporate and agricultural welfare state into what some call caring opportunity society.”