We have to have a robust discussion about what it is going to take to save the country.

We ought to have work requirements. There is no question about it.

Believe it or not, I am 65 years old. Congress has passed timely budget and appropriation bills four times in 65 years. That is an F minus.

I think the American -- we need to have a discussion with the American people about how much universal health care is appropriate, affordable and sustainable.

I think they'll reconcile. I mean, the fact is the Speaker has a role to play and oversee the convention and he has an obligation to support the Republican nominee whoever that is.

If the overhead was 25 percent lower in the Pentagon, we'd be 50 percent more productive.

I think frankly what the president ought to think about doing with regard to the Affordable Care Act is that he ought to use executive powers to not enforce the penalties associated with the individual mandate for a year.

It's time to get real.

Let's learn from history. Let's learn from others.

I think we can get there without going to a parliamentary system, but I do think that we need political reforms as well as policy reforms.

The power resides with the Congress of the United States and the President of the United States.

I would respectfully suggest that for the benefit of the United States and for the benefit of the American people the answer is yes.

We need civil service reform. You need budget reform.

We created a United States Congress to do exactly these things, and at some point aren't we selling our Republic short...

Ladies and gentlemen, this is America. We can't have roads and bridges falling apart. We're better than that.

This is not a collective bargaining problem. I mean, people ought to have the right to bargain, and we're not proposing to touch that at all.

If we cannot be effective and efficient in what we're doing, we might as well go and play golf.

A hundred years ago the Federal Government was 2 percent of GDP. Now it's 23 percent.

I believe that there is an opportunity that you can get administration support for something along these lines.

the single greatest threat to our Nation's security is our own fiscal irresponsibility and mounting debt burdens.

I think they're way too involved in partisan politics, not enough listening to the American people.

There is only one kind of mandate that occurred in the election in November, because the public returned the Republicans to the House, the Democrats to the Senate, and President Obama to the White House.

I think there's a way to bridge this and for both sides to save face. We ought to be trying to get a credible down payment and a one-year extension to get a grand bargain.

What keeps me up at night is the deteriorating financial condition of the country, escalating deficits and debt, and what it could mean to our future as our country and my grandchildren.