Ron Johnson

The cost/benefit ratio is unbelievable to us as taxpayers.

The burden and the taxation both are negatives for innovation and capital formation.

We have an efficient regulatory process that encourages rather than discourages the development.

That is only going to work if people have the freedom to access that, and we reformed the broken model of the gatekeeper, the FDA, a completely risk adverse process.

As a fiscal conservative, I think it is money really well spent to try and cure diseases.

The Trust Fund is a fiction. By and large, the Trust Fund is a fiction.

I think right now, as Senator Enzi was saying, I think our total borrowing cost is about under 2 percent.

Congress is very difficult to predict other than we will continue to be somewhat dysfunctional.

We brought that money in. We spent it. And in its place, we issued a U.S. Government bond.

That is what politicians from both parties are telling the American people, looking them straight in the eye and lying to them.

If we are going to change tax policy, we really do need to understand the dynamic effect of those tax policies on people's behavior.

At some point in time, America's creditors are going to run out of patience.

We can take a look at projections and we can compare those to previous history.

I look at that and I go, that is probably not realistic that we are going to be able to get away with spending only 2.6 or only 3.4 when historically we spent about 4.2 percent.

That is not leadership. That is an abdication of leadership.

Let us start working. Let us try and find those areas of agreement

I would ask unanimous consent to enter my opening statement into the record.

Dollars are more relevant.

We should dramatically increase what we are spending on infrastructure for a 21st Century economy.

I would say you dramatically increase the disincentives for people to take the kind of risk taking that actually helps grow our economy.

For every one percent increase in interest rates, that is $180 billion more that is added to our interest payments.

We have to step up to the plate and admit that

If you want a 21st Century economy, there are some pretty easy elements that we need to concentrate on.

We are all witnessing pretty much the collapse of Greece's welfare system, how unsustainable that model is.

Ron, we cannot show the American public numbers that big. If we do, they will get scared. They will give up hope.