I just think we have got to do something about this, and we have got to do it in a comprehensive way.

we have to look at the structural health care costs.

the debt and the deficit is a serious problem, and to me, lowering the deficit is progress, but it is not an answer because the hole is still getting deeper.

The arithmetic does not work. And, I think of the No Tax Pledge as a kind of ratchet that only works in one direction.

I am touched by your faith in bipartisanship to solve difficult problems, but not fully confident.

If you cut taxes when you are in a deficit situation and borrow to make up the difference, all you are really doing is shifting that tax to the next generation.

the best way to get out of this mess is through economic growth, and there are several strategies for economic growth that involve spending money.

If you put a balanced budget amendment on top of that situation, with the mandatory rise caused mostly by health care and demographics, and that is all you do, you squeeze the shortfall down into the discretionary budget and essentially…

Problems put off rarely get easier to solve with the passage of time.

The biggest economic stimulus program of the Federal Government in the history of the United States was the G.I. Bill after World War II.

Poverty, because of good work of people like Senator Sanders, has dramatically decreased among seniors over the last 50 years.

We have to get control of health care costs, which we spend twice as much per capita than anybody else in the world.

I do not in any way, shape, or form want to see cuts in disability benefits.

I think long-term debt and deficits are unsustainable and are, in fact, burdening future generations and the interest rate.

I think if Tom Brokaw wrote a book about our generation, it would be called 'The Great Skedaddle' after the first Battle of Bull Run.

It is much easier to spend than it is to tax. So, deficits are almost hard-wired into the system unless there is a discipline.

Americans' lives are being put at risk by this policy.

sequestration was designed to be stupid.

You cannot turn on and off the industrial base.

the sequester is like invading Brazil after Pearl Harbor.

When you have to delay a multiyear procurement, for example, you end up paying more in the end.

first, as an original cosponsor of the good Senator's bill, I compliment him for taking the leadership position he has on this issue, for bringing it forward and so eloquently expressing his support for it. This is an important bill. I…

I do not consider the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] a social program or the Department of Homeland Security or NIH [National Institutes of Health] or the infrastructure of our country, law enforcement across the country.

Well, particularly when we finally have a leader in the country that we can work with and has some hope of real political leadership in the country.

Talking about history. Would you all agree--and I don't need lengthy answers--that leaving Afghanistan prematurely would be a major strategic mistake for this country?