Pat Ryan

I don't believe we can learn more about nuclear waste storage that we don't already know.

The Administration has--for I think political reasons--determined that Yucca is not a workable option.

Safe and permanent storage of high-level and spent nuclear fuel waste is a critical element to our long-term energy strategy.

But we are leapfrogging the facts before us, which is how do we achieve that?

CBO is warning. They are telling us our deficit path is unsustainable.

We are raising taxes on businesses, we are raising tax rates on small businesses, we are raising taxes on capital

That 400 billion isn't going to the bottom line to the taxpayer, it is going to create a new benefit.

I think we all agree with these conclusions. That is really not the issue here.

Congress is a legislative body, and it is not enough for us to assume that health care reform will have a positive effect.

What I am more concerned about is how we slow the growth rate.

If we can achieve this goal, the economic benefits are vast.

Our economic future hinges on the results of this debate.

The question we ask today is not whether government is too big or too small but whether it works. And where the answer is no, programs will end.

But if you don't get control of the cost of health care, then the fiscal issues are very serious.

Is it a good idea from a fiscal standpoint to increase that by another 1.2, 1.3 trillion over the next 10 years?

I think a lot of us would question the efficacy or logic of it being passed through to the consumers, because it counts against the whole notion of the program.

But the targets will be the same. So the emission targets will be as aggressive.

The bill that is moving to the floor that is already out of the Commerce Committee on cap-and-trade auctions off 88 percent of the permits.

We are going to make two big fiscal policy decisions just this summer, talked about cap-and-trade briefly and then health care legislation.

However, that has in some ways blurred the distinction of the independence between the administration, the executive branch, and the Federal Reserve and its unique independent role.

What is the exit strategy of the Fed? And what kind of confidence do you have that you will be able to wind all this down when the moment comes?

So what matters is the trajectory. The path of the trajectory is really what kind of matters here in the long term; is that right?

But certainly we cannot allow ourselves to be in a situation where the debt continues to rise, that means more and more interest payments, which then swell the deficit, which leads to an unsustainable situation.

Are you concerned about these levels of deficits and debt? And is this a sustainable and prudent fiscal policy course?

It gives the alarming impression that the U.S. one day might begin to meet its financial obligations by simply printing money.