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We need to make people understand that there is a definite connection between what happens in their everyday lives and the decisions we make in Washington, D.C.

When you live in Washington, D.C., you do get a sense, in a very direct way, of the durability of our government and really, the greatness of the American system.

I've been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now, and I never get tired of the view.

Washington has become this place that people don't leave. It has become this permanent feudal class.

Everyone across America is tightening their belts. The only place it hasn't happened is D.C.

And, frankly, what happens out of Washington is, it creates a wind in my face, uncertainty over Obamacare, uncertainty over their tax policy, uncertainty over the regulatory policy.

At some point, the government expands into the private sphere so far that you live in a place with a whole lot less freedom. I didn't like that that was the direction of travel for our country, and decided to come to Washington to try and be a small part of bringing it back.

Place is so important to me. The Midwest is like a ghost in my life. It's present as I look out the window now. I see Texas, but if I close my eyes and look out the same window, I'm back in my hometown in Worthington, Minnesota, and I cherish those values and that diction.

Life inside the Beltway bubble dulls your thinking.

What strikes me when I leave Washington is the extent to which there's a huge disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country. The rest of the country is not hyper partisan.