My role is not so much to lobby but be a sounding board for people. That's a more effective place for me to be.

If it took multiple debt ceiling hikes, I'd rather achieve the savings.

The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country.

It is not really our country so much is the problem, it's sort of the parasitic relationship that Canada, and France, and other countries have towards us.

We spend millions of hours doing taxes and spend so much money doing our taxes. It should be very simple.

There's a wider agenda that speaks to what the Democratic Party has historically stood for, which are economic rights for those who are struggling in the middle class, concern for the poor, for economic justice for those who are marginalized in our society.

Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.

At the age of 16 I started performing with a dance band in the evenings and began earning more money than my father, but he was pleased for me.