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Without a doubt, first thing we should do is clean up our fiscal house, and that starts with balancing our budgets and digging out of this red ink. We cannot expect to continue in this fashion and remain the leader of the free world.

The government has made $44 trillion in promises we can't afford to keep. We must get serious now about our long-term budgetary problems, recognizing that the sooner we act, the less painful the choices will be.

Obamacare's a disaster. But the answer is not to simply return to the way things were before. The answer is to repeal and replace Obamacare with modern, market-centered reforms.

We've got to have major health care reform because that is the 800-pound gorilla. That is the thing that can swamp the boat fiscally for the United States.

There is a problem in Washington, and the problem is bigger than a continuing resolution. It is bigger than Obamacare. It is even bigger than the budget. The most fundamental problem and the frustration is that the men and women in Washington aren't listening.

We need to work to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of health care choices that the American people want. That doesn't include government-run health care.

And again, President Obama's health care plan really is another drag on the economy. Until we get Washington out of the way, this president's recovery is going to continue to rank dead last.

I say we need to repeal Obamacare as fast as we can.

And so our goal on health care is, if we can get, instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year, it's going up at the level of inflation, maybe just slightly above inflation, we've made huge progress. And by the way, that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That's why we did it.

Increased revenues, meaning higher taxes, will be a central element of any successful long-term budget plan, and President Obama is right to insist that the wealthy - the slice of America that has come through the recession in by far the best financial health - should provide those funds.