The one thing our Founding Fathers could not foresee - they were farmers, professional men, businessmen giving of their time and effort to an idea that became a country - was a nation governed by professional politicians who had an interest in getting re-elected. They probably envisioned a fellow serving a couple of hitches and then eagerly looking forward to getting back to the farm.

We will never disarm any American who seeks to protect his or her family from fear and harm.

If there's one observation that rings true in today's changing world, it is that freedom and peace go hand in hand.

I was alarmed at my doctor's report: He said I was sound as a dollar.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

We must remove government's smothering hand from where it does harm; we must seek to revitalize the proper functions of government. We do these things to set loose again the energy and the ingenuity of the American people. We do these things to reinvigorate those social and economic institutions which serve as a buffer and a bridge between the individual and the state - and which remain the real source of our progress as a people.

Yes, deficits are a problem. I've been saying so for more than a quarter of a century now. But the problem is not the size of the deficit, it's the size of government's claim on our economy.