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We've got to take some drastic steps in this country. We can't keep spending and spending.

We need to stop spending money we don't have.

We simply can't spend our way out of a recession.

It's time to stop spending money we don't have and balance the budget.

We need to end permanently the tax that punishes American values of savings and investment and of building small businesses and family farms and ranches.

The American people want us to stop spending. And so let's just give them some certainty. Let's extend the tax - the existing tax cuts. And then let's give some more tax breaks to small businesses and large. And then maybe the American people will have some confidence.

The U.S. has been living in a situation of excesses for too long. Consumers were out spending more than their income and the country was spending more than its income, running up large current-account deficits. Now we have to tighten our belts and save more.

When you're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that you spend, that can't continue much longer. I think everybody really does understand that, and it's going to require all of us - those who are the most fortunate among us - but it's really going to require every American to contribute to a solution.

Regardless of my legislation, spending has to be stopped.

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.