Howard Dean says the only way you're ever going to control healthcare costs in this country is to get rid of the "perverse incentive that we [doctors] have to do as much as we possibly can." Howard Dean, a doctor, says government health care beneficiaries should be given a "set amount and tell them 'this is what you get.'" Dean says government h

"Our total debt is about to reach the size of our entire economy. That's kind of the framework in which we're operating in when we discuss this. Now, I actually think we're closer to some sort of agreement on this, Sen. Ayotte, than a lot of people realize. "I've heard the term thrown around in the last couple days, a 'balanced approach' to dea

Freshman Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) lashed out at both political parties this afternoon on the Senate floor. Sen. Johnson said the bipartisan talks with senior members "behind closed doors" is "disgusting." Key part of his remarks below: "I think the phrase I have been using, the Senate has been fiddling while America's going

GOP Utah Senator Orrin Hatch Says, "The decision to spend lasts only a moment. But the debt incurred to pay for these government programs lasts forever." WASHINGTON -- As the President continues to push for tax increases for deficit reduction, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, warned of its dangers

President Obama said he had a "constructive" meeting with congressional leaders about the debt limit on Thursday. He said staffs will work throughout the weekend in an effort to reach a deal. Obama will meet again with the leaders on Sunday, when he said he hopes both sides can begin "engaging in the hard bargaining that's necessary to get a deal d

White House press secretary Jay Carney on what the White House's target is for debt and deficit reduction. Carney tells the press that we shouldn't "get hung up on a specific number" because the processes is like a "jigsaw puzzle." "What we're looking for here is a significant deal that goes significantly beyond the lower dollar figures that we'

"Social Security actually is not contributing to the deficit. Social Security loans us money. And so, at the end of the day, all this discussion about how we are going to cut Social Security is very distressing to me. Again, because I don't think Social Security is the problem. If we do want to have reform there, why not just raise the cap a little

"There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the voter Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit a franchise that we see today," Former President Bill Clinton said at Campus Progress conference in Washington, D.C. Jim Crow laws, enacted after the Civil War until the mid-1960s, suppressed the bla

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) encouraged President Obama and his administration to "explore" the validity of using the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling, rather than seek Congressional approval every time. According to the 14th amendment, section 4 (what Schumer is talking about): "the validity of the public debt of the United States, auth

"The loudest guy or woman in a bar usually isn’t the toughest ... and heck, you know, I’m an old hockey player and I’ve probably been in more fights than all these candidates combined," GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty told "Radio Iowa" on Thursday.

"This president is looking to usurp congressional oversight to find a way to get it done without us. My position is that is an impeachable act from my perspective. There are a lot of things people say, 'Are you going to impeach the president over that?' — No. But this? This is catastrophic. This jeopardizes the credibility of our nation if one ma

Ed Schultz: Republicans have been on a "non-stop, thirty-year mission to murder the American dream by protecting only the rich."

"As a descendant of generations of Iowans, I was born and raised in Waterloo. As a mom of five, a foster parent and a former tax lawyer and now a small business job creator, I know we can’t keep spending money that we don’t have," GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (Minn.) says in his first advertisement. "That's why I fought agains

"I do think the deficit problem is real and in the next ten years we have to get a handle on it." However, Schumer says we need "spending on infrastructure" that would normally be created by the private sector that is not being created now. "I'd like to see some spending on infrastructure," he said.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) reacts to President Obama saying Republicans are using the debt ceiling as a "gun against the heads of the American people to extrac

Pat Buchanan on President Obama's "gun to the head" analogy: "I think it's the President of the United States engaged in the act of extortion. What

“What I'm advocating here is let's use this as a point of leverage, give the president an increase, but don't come away without real cuts from real caps and spending, and without a balanced budget,” DeMint said on Fox Business News Wednesday night. “We're at the point where there would have to be some, you know, some serious disruptions in

Washington Post columnist and MSNBC policy analyst Ezra Klein: "To put it in political perspective, I know the bailout is unpopular, I know the stimulus is unpopular. If we hadn't had the two of them, if we had just done nothing and not spent anymore money as Representative Bachmann is arguing, we would have had 16 or 17-percent unemployment in thi