On the recordJuly 14, 2010
I think you're absolutely right. The idea, though, that we can bring the level of spending that we've got going on under control by just trying to get efficiency, I think that's probably optimistic. I think what we have to do is decide that there are some things that Washington, D.C. should not be doing in the first place. We shouldn't cut it; we should just totally eliminate it. It should just stop. None. We need to take a good look at our Federal spending and say, What are the things the Federal Government has to do? We have to defend our Nation. We know that much. Because the States aren't going to do that. We have to make sure there's no pirates on the high seas. There used to be a law, it was one of the few Federal laws against piracy on the high seas. There was a Federal law when America started that was against counterfeiting, because that was not a State job; that had to be a Federal job. There are very few jobs that originally started at the Federal level. And then everything else, we have to push them back to the States. I would be happy to say, look, if the people of California, or Massachusetts, or Tennessee want to have socialized medicine, let them try it and see how it works. They could learn from Massachusetts. It didn't work well. They could learn from Tennessee. They about shut down medicine in Tennessee. If States want to try these things, let the experiments begin at the State level. But at the Federal level, we have got to basically stop a lot of stuff.
