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If the Senate can't perform its most basic responsibilities, I worry about how we're going to make the tough decisions and do the hard work that will be necessary to get our country on a path to fiscal solvency.

It is past time for Congress to get serious about our spending crisis and impose fiscal restraint.

Our debt is out of control. What was a fiscal challenge is now a fiscal crisis. We cannot deny it; instead we must, as Americans, confront it responsibly. And that is exactly what Republicans pledge to do.

We're all concerned about the budget. We're all concerned about what's happening financially in our country. There's no question about it. Congress is working day and night. In fact, every time I go home the lights are on at the top of the Capitol.

We have major fiscal problems on our hand.

We're facing a natural disaster in the middle of an economic disaster. The federal government has to balance its budget the way our families do.

We have to deal with two issues. Spending and taxes.

We're going to have to control the spending of government.

But when I look at the fact that today is 1,000 days that we have not had a budget for the United States of America, you know, the House, one of the things we did, we passed a budget last year. But that is still sitting over there at the Senate. And so we have got to get this country back on track.

Fiscal crises often turn into financial crises, dealing a blow to the real economy.