Mark Warner

The idea that we are ever going to go back to a sustainable fiscal circumstance with anything around the 18.6 or even 19 percent is just not in the realm of reality

This is not as much an immediate problem, but an intermediate problem and needs to have phase-ins.

I would point out to all my colleagues that actually the President's budget is the only one of the three budgets between the Senate budget or the House budget that at least starts to take on the challenges around Social Security.

I would rather it get lower than that, but it is in the right direction.

We cannot cut our way or we cannot tax our way simply to prosperity. We also have to have a growth agenda.

The fact that it includes a mix of spending cuts and new revenue reflects the values and principles of balance and fairness that the vast majority of Americans have clearly stated they support.

Deficit reduction needs to be done in a balanced way, and includes a responsible mix of spending cuts and new revenue from those who can afford it the most.

We are going to be under tight fiscal constraints for as far as the eye can see, and we just do not have room for inefficient programs in this Federal Government

I actually think the overwhelming majority of Americans would believe, if rather than looking at the dramatic fall off the cliff that Social Security is going to hit--and I actually believe earlier than 2033--you know, I commend you for…

I do believe an investment component in a budget is a responsible and reasonable thing.

A critical component of a balanced approach is ensuring that the burden of deficit reduction is not borne solely by the middle class, seniors, and most vulnerable families.

One of the reasons why we need to make sure sequestration----

As the President said, the imperative to secure the nation must not come at the sacrifice of our laws or ideals.

I would also make mention of the fact, very briefly, since we don't get this many opportunities in front of this kind of public audience, to recognize an action that Senator Mikulski and I took last Congress that many of you joined with us…

It's my honor to introduce John Brennan as the President's nominee to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Are we also making sure that the kind of unique aspect of our regional banks are getting their voices heard?

I think that if it ends up floating into best practices, we need to consider, obviously, plus with a large economy, but lots of regional economies that may or may not track national data.

But as we know, what oftentimes happens with regulators is something that is legally applied for a big bank up here, by default becomes kind of best practice standards and trickles down then oftentimes into very small institutions that…

We are clearly unique in terms of the number of community-based banks.

Well, Mr. Chairman, one of the things may be that many of these entities I think works, do self-police.

This would be something I think we ought to look into a bit more to make sure that I could just see some systemically risky action being caught up inside an investigation

I wholeheartedly believe the former Chairman of the Joint Chief, Admiral Mullen, when he said the greatest single threat to our country is not the threat of terrorism but the threat of our debt and deficit.

I'm very much in favor of that. And I think that could help improve U.S. competitiveness for the entire American industry.

I hope that vote in the House will mean that we'll recognize that on sequestration--that to continue to punt on these issues, that maybe this will mean we can see the kind of bipartisan consensus that we've got to generate some additional…

My hope would be, since we have dramatically upgraded our wind tunnel investments in the United States, that Boeing would no longer do that testing on the European wind tunnels.