"Whether sold as ‘stimulus’ or repackaged as ‘investment,’ [Democrats'] actions show they want a federal government that controls too much; taxes too much; and spends too much in order to do too much.  And during the last two years, that is exactly what we have gotten – along with record deficits and debt – to the point where the President is now urging Congress to increase the debt limit.  We believe the days of business as usual must come to an end.  We hold to a couple of simple convictions: Endless borrowing is not a strategy; spending cuts have to come first." 

"Government does not make investments. History suggests that it is not especially successful when it tries to do so, and the Obama administration has been a singularly ineffective manager of our national finances, its incompetence rivaled in modern times only by that of the Johnson administration. 'Investing in America' is simply rhetorical camouflage deployed to avoid answering the simple questions: 'Is this proposed spending wise? Is it the best and most prudent use of our money? Is it undertaken in accordance with our constitutional order and the proper role of government?' President Obama would prefer not to debate those questions, instead asking us to judge present outlays against future returns that may or may not live up to his promises."

"As we enter the annual budget season, Washington will need to consider the kind of change this country has not accomplished since 1997 - when a strong Republican Congress passed a budget that converted soaring deficits into surpluses.

"We need a budget with a bold vision - like those unveiled in Britain and New Jersey; one that reduces both the size of the deficit and the size of the government. We need a budget that does not require tax increases as the price for spending cuts - because while the spending cuts may disappear, the economic drain of higher taxes will not. And we need a budget that turns us back from the cliff so we can head down a new road - toward leaner government, responsible spending and a thriving private sector.

"The goal is not an era of austerity but an era of prosperity. Good policy will get us there."

"I predict that 18 months from now the president himself will still be calling for a new civility in the manner of his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention — and will once again adopt the sorts of over-the-top metaphors, similes, allusions, and rough-stuff politics that got him elected senator in 2004 and president in 2008, and pushed his health-care legislation through in 2009. If anything, the language of division will be shriller even than in 2010, as  the administration grasps that loaded language, coupled with calls for an end to rancor, must now do what a record of unpopular governance cannot."

"Democrats are deriding last night's House vote to repeal ObamaCare as 'symbolic,' and it was, but that is not the same as meaningless. The stunning political reality is that a new entitlement that was supposed to be a landmark of liberal governance has been repudiated by a majority of one chamber of Congress only 10 months after it passed. This sort of thing never happens... 

"The GOP does need to craft a reform alternative based on competition and market incentives that is more than a return to the status quo ante. And while 'repeal and replace' can't happen as long as Mr. Obama wields veto power, yesterday's vote sent an important signal to voters that ObamaCare can't be fixed at the margins when it is so destructive at its core. Next up: defunding the law's implementation and repealing some of its more pernicious parts."

"President Barack Obama penned a witty Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, titled 'Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System.'

"In it, he extolled the virtues of a free market system. And to prove that his admiration of capitalism has nothing to do with naked political expediency, Obama signed an executive order that will 'root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb'... 

"When Obama was in a place of political comfort, the free market was a place of unhinged self-interest, unfairness and misery. Nearly all of our troubles were portrayed as a case of regulatory neglect -- and nearly every dilemma was met accordingly. 

"Nothing's changed but the political conditions."

"People are awakening to the seminal fact of left-wing success: The only way the left can succeed in America is by libeling the right. Only 20 percent of Americans label themselves liberal, let alone left. How, then, do Leftists get elected? And why don't more Americans call themselves conservative when, in fact, so many share conservatives' values? 

"The answer to both questions is that through its dominance of the news media, entertainment media and educational institutions, the left has been able to successfully demonize the right for at least half a century."

"Americans talk too much and think too little, especially when it comes to the sins and sorrows of others. There is 'a time to keep silence and a time to speak,' Ecclesiastes teaches. When a tragedy like the one in Tucson strikes, most of us would do well to keep silence, and leave the speaking for those with the humanity and wisdom to say something meaningful." 

"Illinois this week earned the honor of becoming the first state in 2011 to sock it to taxpayers, passing a tax hike the size of Lake Michigan. Citizens cried out, legislators deflected, but the most interesting response came from neighboring Wisconsin, where newly elected GOP Gov. Scott Walker had three words for Illinois businesses: 'Escape to Wisconsin.' 

"Across the country, dozens of new governors are taking office, fine-tuning state-of-the-state addresses, polishing budgets. With each event we are seeing a growing national divide.

"On one side are wide swathes of the country that this past midterm elected reformers intent on slashing spending and reviving growth. On the other are the holdout pockets—Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut—drifting further into the abyss of tax and spend. The chasm has huge implications, not just for local and regional politics but for Washington."

"Vivid political rhetoric is always in season, and has been for all the years of our republic. And military metaphors are part of the language of our politics -- metaphors that no serious person takes literally. We should not let it be otherwise, even as we wish for the full recovery of Gabby Giffords and the others stricken and mourn those lost."