we have to step up the military--our military effort against Assad in some ways

I view that as the next Pearl Harbor risk.

One of the potential cures, if you will, or at least ameliorations, is greater flexibility to DOD in terms of how it's going to be achieved.

It seems to me that the key to the situation is our relationship with China, which has come out over and over.

I will try to be very brief.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for having this hearing.

there is no way to run this Government without reforms to the entitlement programs.

the letters I am getting from people all across the Commonwealth of Virginia... who feel like that basic trust has been broken.

this is the most complex and dangerous world that any of our experts in the intelligence community and the military have seen in their careers.

the primary goal there is to reduce the deficit by about $2.1 trillion.

Is there any straightface argument for Medicare not bargaining for drugs?

the math around our entitlement programs is fundamentally flawed.

We have got this, to me, amazing law that says the biggest purchaser in the society cannot bargain, and I do not understand why we do that.

I realize I am almost out of time, but my only disagreement with that would be if we only focus on the entitlement Medicare, then all we are going to do is shift the growing health care cost to somebody else.

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.

My concern is that by using this explosion of Federal expenditures based on health care to cut things like defense and nondefense discretionary spending is like attacking Brazil after Pearl Harbor.

I think the government could be a lot better consumer and could help with a lot of these delivery processes.

cutting spending generally without dealing with the health care cost is like invading Brazil after Pearl Harbor.

We need entitlement reform, we need some revenues, we need cuts.

Attacking Head Start when the real problem is health care is like invading Brazil after Pearl Harbor.

I just--I think if you buy something in bulk, you can usually get a better deal.

What is the appropriate role for Government in these areas? And I just do not see that, again, paying for everybody's retirement is an appropriate goal.

This whole situation as a newcomer is extraordinary.

We need to talk about, fundamentally, how to lower health care costs, and to say it cannot be done is ridiculous.

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