"We cannot afford to keep these cuts around for 10 more years."
"The families we represent are looking to us to end the constant artificial crises."
"There is bipartisan agreement that sequestration is the wrong way to cut spending."
"But there is no way that the world is going to stay the same if the United States plays a lesser role in the world."
"we need to be strong as a Nation and we need to have that national defense that is both strategic and funded at an appropriate level."
"It is squarely on the shoulders of Congress."
"The Senate wants to go into a budget conference, to sit down at a conference table."
"It would be comforting to say that the President and the administration is to blame for this."
"We are the first of the three branches in the Constitution."
"The role of the Congress in appropriating money, it is a congressional role."
"We had a February vote in the Senate to avoid the sequester completely."
"There has got to be a solution here."