Government is taking 40 percent of the GDP. And that's at the state local and federal level. President Obama has taken government spending at the federal level from 20 percent to 25 percent. Look at some point you cease being a free economy and you become a government economy. And we've got to stop that.

The real goal should be reduced government spending rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

The discussion in Washington has changed dramatically. I mean it's no longer a question of should we address entitlements - it's no longer a question of do we need to reduce spending in the future.

The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument.

President Obama has offered a plan with 4 trillion dollars in debt reduction over a decade with two and a half dollars of spending reductions for every one dollar of revenue increases and tight controls on future spending. It's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.

Deficits mean future tax increases pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

It's a funny thing - when I'm crazed with work spending time with my children relaxes me. Yet at the end of a long weekend with them the very thing I need to relax is a little work and time away from them!

You know being relevant or coming up with something interesting funny to say about what's current is just as hard as it might ever be depending on the serendipity of it all.

French Yemeni relations are strong and good they are relations depending on friendship and cooperation my relationship with the president Chiraq are old and real.

Forgiveness is not a feeling - it's a decision we make because we want to do what's right before God. It's a quality decision that won't be easy and it may take time to get through the process depending on the severity of the offense.

When I pair food and wine I start with the food. If I have a beautiful roasted bird I might choose a Cabernet or Pinot Noir or maybe a Syrah depending on the sauce and what is in my cellar.

Somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the food you eat has been touched by immigrant hands and it is fair to say some of them are not here as they should be here. But if you didn't have these folks you would be spending a lot more - three four or five times more - for food or we would have to import food and have all the food security risks.

People see you onstage and the glamorous side but they don't see you traveling 600 miles a night eating truck stop food and spending by yourself staring at walls.

I don't like food that's too carefully arranged it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting.

My weight fluctuates depending on my mood and my current devotion to my fitness routine.

The confidence is really driven by the woman - whether she can have the confidence that there will be enough earning or income to finance all the domestic spending - but also by the middle-income class which for many Asian countries has become the growth power for the economy.

It is a sound principle of finance and a still sounder principle of government that those who have the duty of expending the revenue of a country should also be saddled with the responsibility of levying and providing it.