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It's difficult for democracy to function properly under the most favorable circumstances, but it has no chance at all when millions of voters are divorced from objective reality and incapable of understanding what is going on in Washington.

Our government has failed us. From the billion-dollar bailouts to the 'stimulus' package that failed to stimulate to the government takeover of health care, you cried 'Stop!'... but the Democratic Majority in Washington has refused to listen.

The country has moved off track. The people in Washington don't have the hard-nosed business experience needed to get the economy up and running.

Washington is paralyzed by extreme political rhetoric that creates powerful sound bites but poor policy.

I have worked in every - every Democratic administration since the Kennedy administration, and I know dysfunctionality when I see it.

I think the Democratic Party has the chronic problem of appearing to be weak, of not standing and fighting for what it believes in, not fighting for its own.

The failure of the White House and Congress to seriously address the nation's fiscal situation is certain to broaden the belief among many voters that the U.S. political system is broken.

Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.

Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.

Washington is horribly broken. We are encountering a day of reckoning and this movement, this Tea Party movement, is a message to Washington that we're unhappy and that we want things done differently.