Angus King

If we cut all those other areas and do not do something about the overall health care expenditure, we are never going to solve this problem.

Well, I guess if we took the corporate rate to zero, it would establish the fact once and for all that corporations are not people.

I would point out that revenues right now are about a point below the 40-year average in terms of percent of GDP.

All Federal spending is not created equal, and that there are areas that certainly need to be cut and restrained, and there are other areas that are legitimate investments.

If we insist on maintaining that system and if we insist on maintaining a system that allows people to buy their health care with other people's money, we are going to face a set of unpleasant choices.

I think the most stimulative thing we could do is make a deal, a long-term, sustainable deal.

The irony about the sequester is that it is aimed at the areas of the budget which, if you look historically, are flat or actually declining.

As a former Governor, I still believe in States rights, but I think this is one where the States ought to act with alacrity.

Are you satisfied with the Department of Defense's work on transitioning soldiers and sailors and marines into the private sector economy?

I commend you on that project and hope you will give it the highest priority.

But it is not interoperable with the Department of Defense?

I do not understand why Government agencies have so much trouble getting systems running.

And, of course, we ought to have one for the whole country.

I would urge a research project, if you will, to see what the certification requirements are and how we can work with the individual States.

The VA hospital in Togus is a gem. It is the oldest VA hospital.

I think there is one person that can help us resolve this and that is the President of the United States.

It is certainly going to kill the confidence of the economy in this institution of the U.S. Government.

It is a disaster, and it is a self-imposed disaster that we do not have to do.

This whole thing is dumb. It is an arbitrary date. It means nothing.

The sequester has nothing to do with that whatsoever, and we have to be having that discussion.

It appears that as of today the greatest threat to American national security is the U.S. Congress.

I find this question of chain of command and sexual assault a very difficult one.

The strategy of trying to kill these people one at a time is like dealing with the Hydra.

We are going to look back and say what happened, why did we not have a ship available to go to the Gulf or whatever it was.

The most serious threat to national security right now is the U.S. Congress, and it is shocking that we cannot do this.