"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."
"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."
"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."
"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 most stimulative thing we could do is make a deal, a long-term, sustainable deal."
"To me, it is competition between providers. That is... there are only two ways to regulate price in our society."
"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."
"the math around our entitlement programs is fundamentally flawed."