Angus King

It is at the heart of our democracy and our system, and public confidence is so important.

We've got to put out the fires, but we also have to be thinking long-term, it seems to me.

I remember from the fifties we had the containment strategy of George Kennan, that really worked with the Soviet Union.

ISIL has shown a pretty good capability with the Internet.

We cannot simply kill these people and call that the solution to the worldwide terrorism problem.

In my view, with the terrorist threat intelligence is the first line of defense.

There shouldn't be any doubt in our mind that there are nation states and groups out there that have the capability to forestall our ability to operate our basic infrastructure.

I believe, along with Senator Kaine, that stretching the AUMF from 2001 or 2002 to cover this situation renders the constitutional clause a nullity.

Senator King. General Shelton, during the hearing you mentioned that the SpaceX Falcon 9 will likely only be able to support 3 of the 10 configuration types that the Atlas V currently supports.

The short answer is that sequester would affect what we are talking about here today, whether it is planning for a new engine or the launches or the acquisition of various launch vehicles.

Senator, you mentioned this was a record-breaking hearing, and it is for me because it is the longest SASC hearing that I have been to where the word 'sequester' has not been mentioned.

Clearly in an ideal world, we would want to make our own engines and have control of that piece of the industrial base.

Are we not worried about that anymore, or is that no longer a factor?

I understand block buys are better than one off and you get a better price, and you have gotten that better price. But I think as a general principle, competition is where we ought to be heading.

I think having a sole supplier creates risks for the country, not necessarily national security risks, but certainly financial risks.

I believe that we need to move toward competition as rapidly and efficiently as possible just from the common sense competition is better than monopoly approach.

This strikes me as a low-risk, high-consequence kind of situation.

You see it as part of the appropriations process, in effect.

There may not be a short answer to this, but clearly one of the other things we have to ask about is the cost implications of developing our own engine.

I do not understand, Madam Chairman, why Medicare does not say, any hospital or provider that does not publish their data by July 1, 2014, we do not pay anymore.

Medicare ought to say, if you do not have Electronic Medical Records that are interoperable by, you know, July 1, 2014, we do not pay you anymore.

I am saddened that our veterans have been forced to wait for the healthcare they need and deserve, so until the VA can solve this problem I, like many other Texas veterans, want to help care for them.

You have got to be the guy that says no, and it is not--and I think that is an important--the President has to be the one that enforces budget constraint.

I am not taking the job to be popular, Senator.

We do not have the luxury of saying, 'oh, well, we will just add to the budget,' unless we are able to do something about sequestration.