I must admit, I was--there were times when I was grumbling about the role of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee.

Mr. President, returning to the Senate is in many ways like having a chance to relive part of one's life; yet doing so with the benefit of experience, experience that I gained in serving in this body before and also from service in the…

The reality is that, probably, we're not going to get to the numbers the administration has proposed.

High-speed rail makes sense in some very dense corridor areas. It doesn't make sense in the middle of America.

Politicians like to divide up the pie. They don't want New Jersey and New York to get all of it.

We're going to be able to deal with the deficits and the debt and the need for infrastructure and high-speed rail.

We all know that we're focusing exclusively on about 15 percent of the total budget.

It seems to me there's a priority there. We're not going to be able to do No. 2 unless we can do No. 1.

I assume some of our allies have come to the same conclusion, that it's in their interest, both from an energy standpoint, immigration standpoint, social-economic standpoint, political standpoint to be engaged.

I could not agree more. But there just are fiscal realities that we have to deal with.

Doing as much or more with less is something, again, that all of America has had to do in these last 2 years.