Our Founding Fathers would shudder to see how easily forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push some Senate read more

Our Founding Fathers would shudder to see how easily forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push some Senate leaders toward conduct the American people don't want from their elected leaders: Abusing power. Inserting the government into our private lives. Injecting religion into debates about public policy. Jumping through hoops to ingratiate themselves to their party’s base, while step by step, day by day, real problems that keep American families up at night fall by the wayside here in Washington.

[There] is an increasing sense of what can be called "legal pollution."

[There] is an increasing sense of what can be called "legal pollution."

Our government has a simple task: recognize our nation’s real problems, and address them in a manner that reflects the read more

Our government has a simple task: recognize our nation’s real problems, and address them in a manner that reflects the priorities of the American people. It sounds simple, but it’s not happening today, and I know you’re as frustrated with Washington as I am

It would be hard to blame you for having trouble taking much of what is said in Washington seriously. You read more

It would be hard to blame you for having trouble taking much of what is said in Washington seriously. You heard about the Medicare actuary who was forced to fudge the numbers and lie to Congress to keep his job. You heard the falsified numbers in Iraq on everything from the cost of the war to the number of trained Iraqi troops to a slam dunk case for weapons of mass destruction. You heard about the administration sponsored fake newscasts to mislead people all across America.

The Administration’s willingness to consistently abandon the truth has done great damage. Americans are less willing to listen – less read more

The Administration’s willingness to consistently abandon the truth has done great damage. Americans are less willing to listen – less likely to trust or take anything that is said in Washington seriously.

You cannot afford to hire an attorney at $200 to $300 an hour to fight over your $12,000 car and read more

You cannot afford to hire an attorney at $200 to $300 an hour to fight over your $12,000 car and have to pay those bills. People need to become aware that they have some rights, even when going up against these giant companies that try to intimidate.

The economic and technological triumphs of the past few years have not solved as many problems as we thought they read more

The economic and technological triumphs of the past few years have not solved as many problems as we thought they would, and, in fact, have brought us new problems we did not foresee.

There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to read more

There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.

And I’ll tell you, few things make me more angry than some out of touch Washington politician saying that Head read more

And I’ll tell you, few things make me more angry than some out of touch Washington politician saying that Head Start doesn’t work. That’s a flat out lie and it’s disrespectful to you and the tens of thousands of Americans who make this program work for children every single day.