Mark Warner

Why would anybody go innovate anymore? Why would anybody go and be an entrepreneur?

It would be money that would only be spent if jobs were added to the marketplace.

I do appreciate and concur with my colleague from Florida, Senator Nelson, that the real value of these research facilities and their economic development potential.

A group of Senators, including Senator Mark Warner, has suggested that a portion of the TARP money that has come back, that has gone to mega-businesses, be devoted to getting the credit market flowing in small businesses again.

We need to make sure that all Americans, not just the folks who happen to work on Wall Street, feel that we are digging ourselves out of the hole.

My hope would be that there could be some level of financial support still given to the State and local areas...

TSA promised them a reimbursement of close to $4 million--$4 million. They're still hanging out, waiting for this reimbursement.

What we need to start doing is breaking down these contracts into smaller chunks and moving more toward fixed price contracts.

I mean, clearly, the first round of reporting on the Recovery Act, to say the least, caused some consternation.

I'd like to see, now that this information is out into the public, have the laggard offices picked up that, has that seen any improvement?

My only hope would be that...everything truly is on the table, that no program is sacred.

I think there is a real occasion here for a grand bargain with the American people.

If you can lead the Senate to finally do something about our fiscally irresponsible ways and the skyrocketing national debt, you will have done the greatest service that anybody could do to our country today to protect our future

Thank you. I am very intrigued. I am not sure how we could translate that, although maybe the Budget Committee would be the place.

I would hope that might include... some oversight in that process, so a look-back in that process.

So what's next in the queue? If you've got CIS, and I know you've also received some attention on the G.I. Bill, but are there other areas that we can expect to see soon?

I still got a lot of folks knocking on my Senate office door saying, you know, we're in the midst of kind of this opaque area in the Immigration Service?

Got to get the technology right. Where's the IT guy?

We have proven ourselves as an institution--Congress, political leadership, President--incapable of dealing with this problem of stopping the indebtedness.

I guess I will take it as kind of a left-handed compliment that Congress is not-- what did you say?-- 'a performance wasteland.'

We are looking for other areas at the VA, Education, Treasury, and elsewhere, where there are these customer-facing services.

$12 trillion of debt today, commitments that are in law already that will add $9 trillion to that in the next 10 years, $21 trillion. It is, as we say, unsustainable.

I want to make sure every member--you know, one thing I have learned as a new member, if you make sure everybody gets involved, they actually come back.

I had inherited a $6 billion deficit on a $34 billion base.

I thought it was pretty cool, this notion of the competition between offices.