The five or six now is significantly jeopardized by sequester. It would drop it down to zero or one potentially?

the optimal situation would be for our national security strategy to drive our budget.

My concern about Syria right now is this, that it looks more and more sectarian, that Assad is an Alawite and with a military that is--about 70 percent of the military leadership is Alawite.

They have been magnificent in serving as an operational and even strategic shock absorber for us.

budgetary indecision driving national security decisions, and that's very dangerous.

it is an honor to stand here for my first speech on the Senate floor. I am honored to be part of this body and to speak where hundreds have spoken before and thousands will speak after me. A normal first speech for a Senator is usually a…

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business and that the time count against the nomination. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

We are not going to repeal the Affordable Care Act, because if we did, we would be saying to all of those kids, hey, you are back at the mercy of this heartless preexisting insurance company practice that we are putting in the rearview…

the Congress agreed, the President signed off on, that we would have this mechanism that would reduce spending by $2.1 trillion.

we are not going to repeal the Affordable Care Act and we should not repeal the Affordable Care Act.

They held the economy hostage over the debt ceiling in 2011 in an effort to create enough chaos to force their ideological agenda through Congress.

Recent Republican budgets have moved away from these critical national investments.

Look, I think it is reasonable to have debates about lots of things, but the one thing we cannot debate, that is sacrosanct, is we pay our debt on time.

I just believe we owe it to the American people to come together around some solutions that help our economy grow.

There is, quote, 'no discernible impact of this legislation' on aggregate health care spending trends.

I believe smart Federal investments will create jobs and help the middle class right now.

We had a February vote in the Senate to avoid the sequester completely.

We spend more than historic averages. We are taking in less than historic averages.

Right now, we are seeing how the indiscriminate and irresponsible cuts from sequestration are hurting our economy.

I think Senator Sessions was in those hearings--and I was really struck and impressed by the bipartisan spirit of those hearings.

Tax reform has to be fair to the middle class, and that means we will need more revenue from those who can most afford it.

The Federal Government, and particularly the IRS, should maintain the highest ethical standards and should be held fully accountable for any failure to do so.

Strong Federal investments played a key role in the broad-based economic growth that carried millions of families into the middle class in the 20th century.

It seems to me that if history teaches anything, it is that those who carry the view that their end justifies extreme means are usually on the wrong side of history.

The role of the Congress in appropriating money, it is a congressional role.