I was elected to come to an incredibly dysfunctional capital and make the government work better and that's what I'm doing.

The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil that there must be opposition between its various branches and between political parties for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment.

The government's desire to expand global trade may be understandable but we mustn't give away too much. We must tell our elected representatives to at least delay the Canada-China FIPA until it has been examined more thoroughly and to reconsider the inclusion of investor-state arbitration mechanisms in all trade deals.

In any crass political calculation drilling for oil will always win more votes than putting a price on carbon. But if I recall what I was taught in fifth-grade American government class we elect presidents to do more than crass political calculations.

What the world needs is a small compact flexible fusion technology that could make electricity where and when it is needed. The existing fusion program is leading to a huge source of centralized power at a price that nobody except a government can afford.

Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them.

A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.

Making recess appointments when the Senate isn't in recess is neither rational nor moderate. It's a raw misuse of executive power by a president whose love of government is his most vulnerable spot with the electorate.

President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.

People know something has gone terribly wrong with our government and it has gotten so far off track. But people also know that there is nothing wrong in America that a good old-fashioned election can't fix.