Joe Manchin

The 800-pound gorilla in the room on deficit reduction is health care. Unless we do something about the cost of health care, reining that in, we are doomed.

I do not mind paying more taxes. I do not want you to waste my money.

I believe we need to have a combination of spending reductions as well as revenue to get to the numbers.

If we do not do something real and substantial on figuring out how to get better health care results for less money or the same amount of money in Medicare, we are doomed.

Find out what works and do more of that.

The law we have on the books right now is just not working.

I would hope that the Congress and the Administration would work together to possibly, if we need to, go in and rewrite the Budget Act.

I have started referring to it as 'executive branch Swiss cheese.'

It is not only possible but imperative for the Congress and the President to reach a bipartisan agreement.

I just hope that you would be understanding where we're coming from and what needs to be done to balance this out with some parity.

The only thing I've asked for is a level playing field. I want all. I want wind. I want solar.

Our little states produce an awful lot of energy for this country. We want to continue to do it in the best fashion we can.

If this is what this country is going to be demanding then we can't just villianize.

It's going to take everything that we have in this great country to become independent.

I'm greatly encouraged by our leadership of our committee that we will have an all in energy policy.

As you know coming from the State of West Virginia, it's very important. But also it's important to the Nation.

It's flatly unacceptable that the Department still has no viable plan for cleaning up hazardous waste on the bank of the Columbia River half a century after the contamination occurred.

It just doesn't make sense in a business model that this would work.

Dr. Moniz has a deep understanding of our Nation's energy challenges.

I think Senator Wyden has laid out some of those contours clearly.

I'm hopeful we'll have a proposal in the coming weeks that builds on the work, that fine work, done by the previous chairman, Jeff Bingaman, and the President's Blue Ribbon Commission.

In recent years I've become concerned that DOE is not clearly and unambiguously working to keep energy abundant, affordable, diverse and secure.

Understanding our energy challenges includes understanding how well designed public policies can help to meet those challenges.

If confirmed I trust that you will continue to tell us what you really think, no matter what the issue may be.

In Ernie Moniz we have a nominee for Secretary of Energy with outstanding qualifications in each of these 5 areas.