It is the American way to reward ability.

We can all agree that no American should lose their life savings or their home because of illness or injury and that the rising cost of health care severely burdens individuals, families and businesses.

Most people get their politics, obviously, from TV shows about senators or movies about them or... all the day-to-day press and the talk shows.

You can't make a representation and then claim you didn't make it. You know, it just shouldn't work that way.

Derivatives are a huge, complex issue.

You have safety and soundness as primary purpose of the Federal Reserve, the OCC, and the other agencies which control banking regulation.

I have never been opposed to earmarks.

I don't think the American people want unilateral government control over the entire health-care system.

If we don't get this economy going, the numbers that represent this stimulus package are going to be small compared to the loss of revenue to the federal government for our economy.

Recent action in Syria and Palestine also tell us that the awakening voices of democracy in those regions are occurring, and that those in that region are able to pursue it without being stifled by terrorists that are despotic.

I've always been a strong supporter of environmental protection and initiatives in that area. But I'm willing to set priorities. If we have to make reductions in one place, we'll have to-in order to increase another place, I'm willing to do that.

Whether or not you have good consumer protection has a big effect on safety and soundness of the banking community, especially smaller banks.

Well, the senators I've enjoyed working with the most would be Ted Kennedy and Kent Conrad, because they were both either chairman or ranking member of the committee I was chairman or ranking member of. And in both instances they were just great people to work with.

You know, the taxing authority of the United States is our most powerful weapon. You know, the reason we separated from England was because the British were using it abusively.

I don't rule out anything in my future.

Actually, I have been very supportive of a very robust stimulus package from day one. I think this economy has to have a major stimulus initiative because the only group with liquidity is the federal government.

When a company gets into trouble, it should basically have to be resolved, in other words, stockholders lose their money, unsecured bondholders lose their money.

You know the way Washington works. Once you start floating ideas, they are immediately attacked by all the different interest groups before the ideas can be brought to fruition.

Social Security was always supposed to be basically in theory an insurance program where you pay in and then you get out.

There are people who wish to do us harm in the most heinous way. They want to kill Americans simply because they are Americans. They wish to destroy our culture and Nation because they don't like our freedoms, they don't like the fact that we are prosperous.