"I come from what a lot of people might seem to think is a foreign country.  We have a balanced budget, we have a surplus, we are creating more jobs than any other state in the union, and we're doing this with a part-time legislature that meets for only 140 days every other year.  Our legislators, they come in, they pass laws, and then they go home and live under the laws that they just passed.  So I've got to ask, if we had a part-time Congress in Washington would they really get less done?"

"Let's be clear about what is the crux of the debate in Washington.  It is whether Americans will surrender to the creation of a massive welfare state in the image of Western Europe.  Now my quarrel is not with the legitimate role of government, but the unlimited role of government...  We have turned the Constitution on its head and the federal government has inserted itself into every aspect of American society.  And instead of allowing states to become laboratories of reform, Washington's central planners are co-opting the responsibilities reserved to the states and individuals under the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

"[You] See a federal policy of fiscal coercion is now at the heart of debate of Medicaid expansion proposed under Obamacare.  And unfortunately some of our friends and allies in the conservative movement have folded in the face of federal bribery and mounting pressure from interest groups.  They tell us to take the money--in the case of Texas, $4 billion--because it's free.  But there is nothing free, there is nothing free that comes from Washington."  >