The central question is whether Medicare and Medicaid should remain entitlement programs guaranteeing a certain amount of care, as Democrats believe, or become defined contribution programs in which federal spending is capped, as Republicans suggest.

Christina Romer

As a native of Parsons, Kansas, a small town near the Oklahoma border, I have a deep respect for tribal nations in Oklahoma. But this federal spending in Oklahoma is outrageous. And excessive subsidies have made the state a playground for Lifeline fraud.

Ajit Pai

Californians are worried about whether they will have a job along with ballooning federal spending and deficits.

Carly Fiorina

The central question is whether Medicare and Medicaid should remain entitlement programs guaranteeing a certain amount of care, as Democrats believe, or become defined contribution programs in which federal spending is capped, as Republicans suggest.

Christina Romer

We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and protect against those ills that destabilized our economy - like predatory lending, over-leveraged financial institutions and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense. Our platform calls for significant cuts in federal spending.

Cory Booker

You know, it doesn't take a genius in the private sector to know that you can save literally hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending if you can make it more responsive. That's the main job.

Darrell Issa

The Congressional Budget Office tells us that Medicare spending has increased fivefold in the past 42 years, dramatically more than all other categories of federal spending.

David Limbaugh

Every generation has an obligation to leave its children in a better position than it inherited. Our representatives in Washington are breaking faith with that covenant. America must reduce its federal spending and accumulation of debt for the sake of generations to come.

David Malpass

For small businesses, you need less taxes, less federal spending, and you need less regulation that blocks their growth.

David Malpass

There's no reason to continue including language in the federal spending bill to prohibit the CDC and NIH from studying the causes or effects of gun violence on public health.

Elizabeth Esty

President Obama has shelled out more in federal spending than the five presidents that came before him.

Elizabeth Flock

Federal spending is atrocious.

Jason Chaffetz

The country is facing a fiscal crisis, and the United States Senate is at the center of the debate about how to bring federal spending under control.

Jeff Flake

In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.

Jim Ryun

Federal spending is like a massive ship that takes a very long time to turn.

John Delaney

Mr. Obama plans to boost federal spending 25 percent while nearly tripling the national debt over 10 years. Americans know that this kind of spending will have economic consequences, including new taxes being imposed by the new progressives.

Karl Rove

We must cut federal spending - every wasted dollar, every low priority program, and every unconstitutional overreach - every day.

Kevin Brady

Now, 'the fiscal cliff' is a name that the media came up with, but some of us have been saying for years, 'You have got to stop the out of control federal spending, or you will end up at this point.' We're there.

Marsha Blackburn

As a Main Street businessman, I believe we need to reduce runaway federal spending and address our national debt and the MAP Act provides Congress with the tools to accomplish this goal.

Mike Braun

After almost 50 years in which federal spending averaged about 20 percent of GDP, Joe Sestak and Nancy Pelosi took federal spending to 25 percent. You know, that's a 25 percent increase in the size of the government overnight. That's what we - that's what we've got to rein in.

Pat Toomey

I refuse to go along with the status quo of more wasteful federal spending, and I refuse to let the Obama Administration continue to force their misguided ideology through regulatory overreach.

Paul Gosar