I definitely think we ought to listen to the VSOs. I hope they will listen closely to all of us, too.

Well, thank you very much, Ms. Mason, and thank you very much on your openness on the suicide experience with your father and your brother.

Is it not true that every time we have ever had anything like Choice, which was, of course, a huge challenge that we all met, that we used it as a force multiplier for benefits to the veterans, not a replacement for the VA services…

If we have a crisis it needs to be a real crisis, not one manufactured for the purpose of making us think we had to act quickly.

It is important that we listen to them but it is also important for them to listen to us.

We have had manufactured crises of running out of money when, in fact, we really were not running out of money at all.

Transition is critical.

That tax rate that a business pays is going to have the greatest effect on the middle class.

Are we at the point where we really have to take a look at our competitiveness as a Nation and look specifically at the tax code to make that differential more fair?

If they will leave it to us, we will fix it up good.

There is a point at which you run out of those benefits when you are talking about so much of your income being paid in taxation.

I thank the distinguished Senator from Oregon, Senator Merkley, for allowing me a few extra minutes of his time ahead of his speech. I appreciate his courtesy, and I will pay him back. Ironically, I am thanking him for giving me time to…