the Defense Department is more than paying its fair share.

In South Carolina, as I understand it, if the Medicaid eligibility is expanded and implemented in 2014 as envisioned by Obama healthcare, my State will be required to come up with close to $1 billion of new State funding over a 6- or…

the sequestration is just a really bad idea.

If we go down by 87,000, if there are any major land engagements sustained over a period of time, the Guard and Reserves are going to be asked to do more, not less.

The visa program has always had a wage calculation requirement.

This is a severe aberration and does not reflect who our men and women are, in terms of their behavior under stress.

Do we have the adequate infrastructure in this budget reduction environment to take care of issues that may arise down the road from the last 10 years of fighting?

How can you convince us that the current course on NGEN will be the best approach for the Navy and for the taxpayer?

You're having to make choices between the retired healthcare costs and fighting this war and future wars.

We want a visa program on the high-tech and low-tech end that actually meets employers' needs, is that correct?

What I would do is look at conditions for what we expect them to do.

I think there's a high risk.

It's not something I'm very proud of, and it's going to take bipartisanship to undo this.

Eighty-seven thousand people are going to be put out of work over the next 5 or 6 years.

Is there a growing will to use that capability by our enemies?

If you want to double that, you're going to destroy the best military we've ever had.

I guess my concern is that we are expanding Government healthcare programs, to me, that need to be reformed, not expanded.

But if you can't hire an American, do you agree with me we should have a visa program that works for American employers?

Would you agree that Medicare and Medicaid have grown in unsustainable ways, and without serious reform, those two programs alone are going to bankrupt the country?

I mean, I just wonder, I mean, if we have 8.3 percent unemployment, and maybe 15 percent of underemployed, and people have stopped working, how can it be that we need visa programs for the seafood industry, the landscaping industry, and…

If we do not change the sequestration dilemma, if we don't do something about it before the election as a Congress, when can we expect layoff notices to hit?

There's a Pearl Harbor in the making here.

I would urge you to do it sooner rather than later.

The longer it takes, the more you make. The more it costs, the longer it takes for the contractor, the more they make.

Not only did we meet with people who came back to Libya from the University of Alabama--if there had been anybody from North Dakota, I would have known about it, I assure you. We met a person who was detained at Gitmo--you talk about a…