Senator Kaine, as you experienced during your recent visit to Beirut, Sunni terrorist attacks in Lebanon are on the rise.

It was a very powerful thing. It was a very visible indication not only of American sacrifice but of the kinds of challenges that that very resilient Lebanese population has been dealing with on a daily basis.

One of the most powerful aspects of the trip was going to the memorial to U.S. men and women from our State Department, from our military, who lost their lives in Lebanon.

I gather the exploitation of that field would probably not just require a Lebanese non-caretaker government to decide to move forward, but possibly also some cooperation with the Israeli Government about making sure that those borders are…

I found it interesting, in the dialogue with the Lebanese Armed Forces, their take on the Saudi Arabian and French potential for receipt of Saudi Arabian assistance to purchase French military assets. They said they liked the U.S…

We are working on dismantling one of largest chemical weapons stockpiles in the world.

There is no substitute for those discussions, and even if the opportunity or the hope is just a flicker, we have got to do what we can to keep that ember alive.

If we hope to increase the support we provide to the Lebanese Armed Forces, how can we assure that any technological capacity or weapons systems or weaponry--that there are appropriate safeguards and accountability controls over…

It is important that we acknowledge that.

the Lebanese Armed Forces really is a model for how those different confessions are able to come together

I just report to you the opinion of the U.S. military leadership in Lebanon about the professionalism of the special forces is just as you suggest, Mr. Nerguizian.

This is an important role, and just to pick up on the introductory comments of the Chair and Ranking Member. There is no more important issue that we are wrestling with economically now than the skills of our workforce.

This is a huge disaster. This is really bad.

I believe what we have is not just a spending problem but a revenue problem.

The pace of the recovery has been a topic we have been discussing today, and something that I wanted to get into is uncertainty is affecting the recovery, congressional budgetary uncertainty.

Doing a 2-year budget deal, the Murray-Ryan budget deal in December, the first 2-year budget in Federal history to give people some certainty.

Government shutdown, continuing resolutions, which, as I describe to my constituents as spending by looking--it is like driving by looking in the rearview mirror rather than the windshield.

We have tried taxing, spending, and borrowing to jump-start our way to prosperity. The President proposed more of the same in his State of the Union. It has not worked. This will not work. We need a course correction.

The plan has proven to be one of the most costly, failed gambits in American history.

I do not see it, frankly.

If we are sort of using that as sort of our rough strategy to try to manage--did that and better to be trending toward the low 70s than the high 70s, does that set off, you know, red lights in your head like, no, that is probably the wrong…

When the interim deal was announced in November, it was timed in an interesting way.

That is not a cut in spending. That is an increase in taxes.

President Obama pushes more Government spending, more regulations, more investments, expansion of Government, and more welfare as the proper response to this crisis we are in.

the Federal Government has been disincentivizing work for a long time.