Joe Lieberman

I would just say to those members, I respect the jurisdiction of your committees, but even more than that, I believe the threat posed by the debt crisis in this country supercedes any commitment to the jurisdiction of any specific…

Our country will not be what it has been for the generations before, including the one privileged to live in this country and to be Americans today.

The American people have reached a tipping point on this. They are getting it.

I will unofficially designate you as leaders of the rebellion against our national debt.

I have also argued before Senator Schumer's subcommittee that there is a very unusual pattern of our immigration...

We do not have that luxury anymore.

I want to make clear when I said you were leading a rebellion that it is a patriotic rebellion to help the government do what it should do.

Higher, right, it is a vicious cycle.

The range of error that the number can hide is very large.

We need a special commission that will engage the American people with the facts and the truth and the tough choices.

I will say that as I listen to you and think about this, that it is clear that the preferable course is a statutory commission because then we really create a process.

I believe that you are exactly right, that a special process is required.

I think we have a reasonable opportunity here, a reasonable chance to begin the process.

We do not know where that actual borrowing capacity, it is essential that we take actions well in advance.

That is very nice of you to say.

I like being an independent, so that is definitely a possibility, but I would say that all options are open.

You can -- you can try to do so much, that you end up doing nothing.

Would you really, because you couldn't get everything you want, stop this extraordinary reform? I mean, it -- it will provide, by all the experts' estimates, insurance to 30 million people who don't have it now.

In this very polarized time in our politics, if you take a stand, a bunch of people will think you have done something great, and a bunch of people will think you have done something awful.

Well, that is just poppycock. I mean, this is all about what I think health care reform should be.

Well, that's just poppycock. I mean, this is all about what I think health care reform should be.

Senator Joe Lieberman has almost single handedly forced Senate Democrats to scrap their hard won compromise of one of their key components of health reform.

Would you really, because you couldn't get everything you want, stop this extraordinary reform?

You know, you can try to do so much that you end up doing nothing.

I don't enjoy the personal vendetta. I certainly don't enjoy people attacking my wife which is outrageous.