The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.

If you believe one of the biggest problems confronting the country is overregulation by this administration, the single most effective way to begin to rein in the aggressive regulators, who in my view have done great damage to this economy, is in the bills that fund the regulators.

It's important to remember that some of our best sources in the war against radical Islamic terrorism are Muslims, both in America and overseas.

I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this - it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.

It's a shame that the president doesn't embrace the effort to reduce spending. None of us like using situations like the sequester or the debt ceiling or the operation of government to try to engage the president to deal with this.

I honestly thought we wouldn't hold the U.S. Senate. I thought we'd come up short and I didn't think President Donald Trump had a chance of winning. Given my expectations, doubly exciting because I thought we'd come up short on the Senate. We had a lot of exposure. That was really something. But it never occurred to me that he might be able to win as well.

It just doesn't occur to an American that someone else will solve their problems. Americans take pride in solving problems for themselves. And if we fail, we get back up and try again. It's what we do. It's who we are.