I am interested in improvement, not elimination.

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.

I will try to be very brief.

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

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.

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.

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.

the sequester was designed to be stupid. It was designed to be unacceptable as an alternative, therefore forcing the Super Committee and the Congress to come to a more reasonable alternative.

The problem with the debts and the deficits is not Head Start. It is not Pell grants. It is not the national parks. It is health care, period.

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.

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

It is as if after Pearl Harbor we invaded Brazil. It is the wrong target.

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.

The problem with the Federal budget is health care costs--Medicare, Medicaid, pensions, health care costs across the board.

It seems to me that a way to discuss this is to try to identify what is the sweet spot in terms of percentage of GDP for both revenues and expenditures.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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