When you look at the state of the economy right now, you have to set a priority. And my top priority is the deficit of jobs and economic growth, and especially this perception that the United States could be falling behind especially Asian economies.

The decision to go to war is the most important decision that I can make as a representative in Congress. As a veteran, I see any potential military action first through the eyes of the young men and women who volunteered to wear the uniform and would carry out such a mission.

When you look at the state of the economy right now, you have to set a priority. And my top priority is the deficit of jobs and economic growth, and especially this perception that the United States could be falling behind especially Asian economies.

I've got a chart here that shows our debt-to-GDP ratio. And while we did run deficits in the past, we now number our debt in trillions rather than in billions. And I think that represents a long-term danger, especially to the, the American dream.

And taking more money out of the private economy and having the government perform as it has poorly done with the stimulus I don't think is the right way to go.

Secretary Rumsfeld used to represent parts of our district in the 1960s. I think that he and his team have done a masterful job in defeating Iraqi forces quickly and decisively.

Over time, the federal government should move the nation to a single standard, clean-burning gasoline.

Every American born today owes $43,000 to the federal government the day she or he is born. And we are transferring a tremendous amount of debt to the new generation, much of it owed to overseas creditors who expect to be repaid by our children with interest.

Donald Trump is kind of a riverboat gamble. He won the Illinois primary; in this case, we have seen the Republican vote up and the Democratic vote down, so it looks like it's a net benefit.

For Tammy Duckworth to blame the junior senator from Illinois for Islamic terror shows that she is a naive fool not fit for office in the Senate.

For those of us who want to accomplish something for the country, we need to come up with a list ... of anti-spending reforms which are locked into place so we are dramatically lowering the appetite of the federal government over the future.

I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community.

I would say the difference between 'old Mark' and post-stroke Mark ... is that pre-stroke Mark was a major micromanager. I just don't have the time or inclination to micromanage as much as I used to.

I'm pretty disappointed in Sony Pictures' decision to pull 'The Interview' under pressure from North Korea.

I'm still a reservist. We have three drilling reservists in the Senate. Senator Graham serves in the Air Force, Senator Brown serves in the Army, and I serve in the Navy.

I've always backed energy independence policies, but I've heard from people on this issue like no other. The energy interests of Illinois are far broader and deeper than my North Shore district.

It's okay to take the food out of the mouths of the citizens from a government that's plotting an attack directly on American soil.

It's the only way that Democrats can win in Illinois, is to say, 'Oh, Kirk has health problems, he's going to retire.' For Democrats looking at a minority life and seeing that they cannot win in Illinois is so frustrating that they will just assume away any issue. They'll just say to willing reporters, 'I think Kirk is going to retire.'

The Spending Control Act. It would recreate President Reagan's grace commission to have a bipartisan commission on how we reduce spending.

The biggest challenge I have with Washingtonians is they think Illinois is exclusively a Democratic state.

The key lesson of the 1930s is that appeasement leads directly to war.

The tough thing about these senatorial jobs is you get 'yes' or 'no' votes. Your whole job is to either say 'yes' or 'no' and explain why.

There was a lot of feeling that with an African-American president, life on the South Side of Chicago would be radically different.

There's a new role that I see for myself with the new Republican majority running the Senate. I am now the premiere ambassador for the state from the Republican majority.

We need to focus on issues where we all agree, which is spending discipline and control and making sure that government, both in Springfield and in Washington, doesn't take more from your family budget.

We should all be neo-abolitionists here to make sure that there is no right in America to enslave others using the Internet.

With all this rehab, for me just to walk was a huge effort. I had to re-learn how to walk again after the stroke. And all the rehab and all the effort shows the mental determination times 10 to keep serving.

If the economy becomes disembodied from society it can only lead to disaster.

I don't know where the stock market is going, but I will say this, that if it continues higher, this will do more to stimulate the economy than anything we've been talking about today or anything anybody else was talking about.

I take great pride in having been able to overcome the Asian financial crisis and seeking the opportunities available to bring about an unprecedented growth in the economy.

What we've proven is that you can protect the environment, use it wisely and grow the economy and that there is no conflict between the two.

The time has come for the American government to recognize the damage that has occurred to our economy, and to take firm action to curtail what I believe is both unfair and illegal foreign competition.

We have stabilized our economy. We took over a very sick economy, and we were hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month. We have stopped the hemorrhaging. In fact, we had 140,000 job growth last month. And that's what I call progress.

Conservatism has had from its inception vigorously positive, intellectually rigorous agenda and thinking. That agenda should have in my three pillars: strengthen the economy, strengthen our security, and strengthen our families.

The entire economy, of course, is locked in a down cycle right now. Last time we weathered this was during another Bush presidency in '90. We were locked in it for a year and a half and everyone came out of it.

Every time in this century we've lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down.

I mean, the reality is unemployment today - over 14 million Americans are unemployed. That's exactly what it was a year ago. I mean, this - the American people know we can't borrow and spend and bail our way back to a growing economy.

We have the most flexible and adaptive economy. Making sure we sustain the ability of the American economy to perform well is really the priority of economic policy.

We don't have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.

Our country, like every modern state, needs profound democratic reforms. It needs political and ideological pluralism, a mixed economy and protection of human rights and the opening up of society.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.

My vision is to have an independent Kosovo, democratic, with a politically tolerant society and with a solid economy, integrated into the EU, the NATO and to continue with our good relations with the USA.

Scientists at MIT and engineering schools all across America say that they could improve the fuel economy standards for the existing set of vehicles by 10 miles per gallon using existing technology, without compromising safety or comfort at all.

We must ensure our system of higher education offers world-class quality for a world-class economy.

According to various polls conducted, the single most important issue in last week's election was not the Iraq War, not the War on Terror, not even the economy. It was the cultural war.

Democrats have laid out a program that, if adopted, would make us independent of Middle Eastern oil in ten years, and create a new economy especially for those in rural America. Our program invests in clean energy alternatives and provides energy assistance for those in need.

We are particularly poor at the open economy issues.

It's a market economy. Apparently the demand for great coaches exceeds the supply, so of course the price of good coaches is going to be high.

The success of our economy shouldn't determine the success of our schools.