Ron Johnson

As you said in your testimony, the insurance industry has a unique capacity to provide that discipline.

Do you think people would build $1 million, $2 million homes right on the beach if they had to pay the full cost of the risk on their insurance?

Well, we have that interference, correct?

If the Federal Government is the 800-pound gorilla... is that a real disincentive to do the resiliency?

Well, let us talk--because you are using the word I wanted to get to next is 'incentivize.'

The economics of inaction are very clear to folks; and then also, kind of toughening up a little bit

Thank you all for your testimony.

And that is not happening right now with the National Flood Insurance Program, correct?

They were correct, weren't they?

We can argue over it all we want. But in my State, we see it every single day.

We should be either rewarded or incentivized in some ways. And the other States that do not take those actions should be penalized in some ways.

Do you agree with CBO's assessment that an increase to the minimum wage, the one proposed, would cost us jobs?

The trust fund really has--to the Government as a whole, has no value.

Social Security will pay out $15 trillion in benefits over the next 30 years more than it takes in in payroll tax.

Well, one of the reasons I go to dollar deficits is it is something I think people can understand a little better.

We are looking at between $13 and $15 trillion more in benefits being paid over the next 30 years versus payroll taxes being collected.

The latest alternate fiscal scenario of CBO...shows a 30-year deficit, a total of about $127 trillion.

Can you point to one thing that is actually causing health care spending to decline because of the Affordable Care Act, which just kicked in?

We want a prosperous America, and that is really what we have to talk about.

We are getting really heart-wrenching e-mails and letters from our constituents. Their premiums are doubling and tripling.

2.5 million people will remove themselves from the labor force.

We all want a strong social safety net to help people like that.

I challenge that assumption.

I just want to reinforce what Senator Sessions said.

I was able to get Mr. Elmendorf to admit that the Social Security Trust Fund nets to zero when you consolidate the books of the Federal Government.