If we are truly, truly committed to providing for the men and women who serve us and providing for our national security, then we absolutely have to be willing to raise the revenue to pay for that.

We can't hold hostage steps that will do that to the notion that we have to have a balanced budget right now or even in the next 3, 4, 5, 6 years.

The burden, the real burden of this committee, this House, and the Senate, and the President is to get rid of it one way or the other, to make sure that it doesn't happen.

It is, you know, a sort of mindless across-the-board cut in all discretionary spending. So education, transportation, infrastructure, on down the line--it would have a devastating impact.

It definitely needs to be avoided.

It was only that sort of blind notion that somehow not raising the debt ceiling was a solution to our fiscal problems that forced us into this awful, awful decision.

I hope this committee can begin to be part of the process of starting a realistic debate that can avoid the truly awful outcome that would come with sequestration.

Those numbers don't add up.

I think, frankly, looking back, it was a mistake for Congress to give the authorization to President Bush about the Iraq war so early in the debate.

It is our policy to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon and to put all options on the table, including the option of military action if that is necessary.

I think where Iran is at right now is that, as you said, Mr. Albright, they would like to be nuclear-weapons-capable because of the credibility it gives them.

The difficulty, of course, is that the military option is costly and risky, and there is not even a guarantee that it would necessarily stop Iran from developing the nuclear weapon.