I want to thank our witnesses for highlighting the many promising Federal, State, and private delivery reforms that are underway.

I never want to forget the impact that some of these reforms have, not only on the immediate Medicare beneficiary.

Our budget is about choices, and it is about values.

We are cutting away at things like education and scientific research and innovation, which have previously provided a strong foundation for our economic growth.

We cannot have all stimulus or all austerity. We need to have a balanced approach.

It weakens an economic recovery that has already been weak and is not delivering for the people you are asking about.

I think on that point, especially as data becomes accessible to providers on a larger scale, it is not just about price, obviously.

These arbitrary and indiscriminate across-the-board cuts will reduce, according to many economists, expected GDP growth by as much as half.

This year alone, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that sequestration will cost our economy about three-quarters of a million jobs.

In my view, our country faces twin challenges, stabilizing our debt and deficit without shortchanging our future.

I think the uncertainty hurts so much in the current context because we have been through the wringer.

You are going to have to raise the debt limit and fund the government. There is no other option.