Rob Portman

Well, I would say that you know, I've had a change of heart based upon a personal experience. That's certainly true.

I come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn't deny them the opportunity to get married.

The issue of same-sex marriage is personal from both their families.

It wasn't an issue I had given much thought to prior to that maybe I should have.

Instead of up 10 percent in the discretionary entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security alone go up 100 percent.

100 percent of our rising long-term debt is due to entitlement costs, to three entitlement programs--very important but unsustainable--and interest on the debt.

Waiting is dangerous, and not touching things is dangerous.

I think it is a wet blanket on the economy.

I think it is irresponsible for the administration to take this position that we are not even going to talk to Congress about dealing with raising the debt limit to historic levels.

If Congress were to raise the debt limit without--without--addressing the underlying problem of spending, doing nothing on it, which is what a lot of folks are recommending, including the President, would that make businesses more or less…

I would say to my colleague from Maine that, at the risk of getting him in trouble, it sounded like he was channeling Tom Coburn more than Bernie Sanders.

I think that if we are talking about reducing spending, which we should be, as well as raising revenues, that is where we should be focusing on.

I think you made a really good point that if we do not get our health care costs under control, it is unlikely that our fiscal condition can be saved.

I think to say that there is an exact number based on a historical norm kind of misses the fact that there is this large cohort moving through the system that we are going to have to make some tough choices about.

The President said not a dime in the deficit, which I guess means higher taxes.

Last night in the State of the Union address, the President said a lot of things.

I think a reformed tax system with a lower rate that encourages investment in the United States and the creation of jobs in the United States would be good for American workers who would fill those jobs.

CBO also made the point that you simply cannot cache that level of spending with new taxes, at least under the income tax code.

Having record deficits and debt does have a negative impact on the economy.

We do have the highest rate among our trading partners, the highest in the industrialized world.

I do think that is what the American people want us to do.

70 percent of the benefit of a lower rate on the corporate side is going to go to who? The workers.

I am glad you said in your budget for the first time that you ought to not use these preference reductions or loophole closures for the budget deficit generally but for revenue-neutral tax reform.

The notion that we can continue careening down this path of record debt... is really dangerous.

This is about those workers, again, middle-class Americans who are trying to keep their job or get a job and have decent pay when their pay has gone down almost 4,500 bucks over the past several years on average.