I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

The goal is to reduce the size and scope of government spending, not to focus on the deficit. The deficit is the symptom of the disease.

We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals, and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.

Every time you cut programs, you take away a person who has a vested interest in high taxes and you put him on the tax rolls and make him a taxpayer. A farmer on subsidies is part welfare bum, whereas a free-market farmer is a small businessman with a gun.

Alexander Hamilton has been on the $10 since 1928, he's been well honored by the country, he was a great Secretary of the Treasury. But of all the people on the currency, the only one who isn't a president.

Could I ask if there’s anything in between Step One and Step Two? ‘Oh ye of little faith.’

We want [government] down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to.