I think on the capital budget side, yes, infrastructure improvement is critical in a lot of different areas.

Had it been actually a legislative vehicle versus a commission, we probably would be out of the woods right now on our deficit and debt issues.

I happen to believe that we need to restructure the Budget Committee completely.

I subscribe to Senator Gregg's emphasis on value-based reimbursement. I think we're making progress on Medicare. It's not hopeless.

But my view is that if you're going to do it, you should do it in a separate budget structure, and you should find sources to pay for it.

In the end, you have to pay the debt ceiling because otherwise the government can't function, and the effect of that would be catastrophic.

I happen to think that if you're going to do budgets and you're going to pass budgets on a partisan basis, the budget becomes irrelevant.

I have always been supportive of the balanced budget amendment. But you're talking about putting something by the next eon of life cycle, political life cycle.

To those still in denial, or even advocating steps that would make our debts even higher, please reconsider.

A lot of that economic growth was driven by a bubble, and I don't really think we want to revisit that.

the policies behind getting these numbers under control are extremely difficult politically, because they involve very tough decisions.