As a son of an airman who was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, it is my honor to nominate young people to our military academies.

In nominating young women and men to our service academies, it must only be about who you are, not who you know.

Having grown up in a military family, I know that politics should have no role in determining who is best qualified to lead our armed forces.

There is a reason why conservatives talk about 'government' and not 'self-government,' because to refer to the latter is to concede that 'the government' is really the most basic product of our political commonwealth, that it is what we produce among ourselves so as to order the production of everything else that we do together.

I've lived in Washington now for 44 years, and that's a lot of folly to witness up close. Whatever confidence and optimism I felt towards the central government when I got here on January 1, 1970 has pretty much dissipated at the hands of the government.

The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other.

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.