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There's no reason why fiscal responsibility is a Democrat or a Republican point of view. It ought to be all of our points of view.

I sometimes think that I didn't leave the Republican Party, as much as it left me.

In Congress, I was a relentless advocate for fiscal responsibility.

My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.

Sometimes, people forget my record of fiscal conservatism on major issues in the state legislature. The greatest example is my voting against the pension borrowing scheme in 1997.

I am a Republican. I'm loyal to the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. And I believe that my party, in some ways, has strayed from those principles, particularly on the issue of fiscal discipline.

I'm still a fiscal conservative, and I'm inclined to pay down debt.

I came to Congress to help reduce spending.

Historically, the responsibility for voting on the debt limit has gone to the party in the majority.