I would say to you that Americans of Hispanic descent want desperately to give their children the chances they never had.

I tell people all the time that I was born and raised in Ronald Reagan's America.

Americans believe with all their heart, the vast majority of them, and the vast majority of Floridians, that the United States of America is simply the single greatest nation in all of human history.

But those who believe that what our people desire is big government are living in a state of delusion.

A sense that with the blessings that God bestowed upon this land, came the responsibility to make the world a better place.

I don't ever remember them telling us or teaching us that the only way we could be more successful is if other people were less successful. They never inculcated the belief that somehow, in order for us to climb the ladder, other people have to come down from the ladder.

We've never been people that go around and confront people that have been financially successful and say, 'We hate you. We envy you because of how well you're doing.'

It's not in our nature. Americans have never been a people that drive through a nice neighborhood and say, 'Oh, I hate the people who live in these nice houses.'

And I can tell you that history will back up what I'm about to say and that is that there is no government run by conservatives, Republicans, put whoever you want there, if you give government the opportunity to spend more money than it has, it will do it. It will do it every time.

Let me start by saying that I do not enjoy nor relish the partisan role of attack dog. I never found any fun in that. I don't think it's constructive. I don't intend to become that here in the Senate.

I would love nothing more than compromise. But I would say to you that compromise that's not a solution is a waste of time.

If I were running to be somebody, there are a lot of easier sombodies to be. After all, running against the incumbent governor of your own party in your home state is not the next logical step in a political life.

People have a right to be a Democrat. People have a right to be wrong. I know they're the same thing.

You cannot do anything without God. It's a profound and elemental truth. Not, you cannot do most things without God. You will not be able to do anything that you want, truly, in fulfillment, without God.

I'm going to be working the next 25 or 30 years. People like me, if we want, number one, for no benefit reductions for our parents and our grandparents, number two, for the system to survive and exist for us, and, more importantly, number three, for the system to exist for us children, we are going to have to make reforms to that system.

When you talk about entitlement programs, it's not just about - it's not about cutting those programs. It is about saving those programs. Those programs are on a path of fiscal unsustainability.

And here's the fact: the fact is it doesn't solve the problem. First of all, if you taxed these people at 100 percent, basically next year you said, 'Look, every penny you make next year the government's going to take it from you,' it still doesn't solve the debt.

For many of us who were born and raised in this country, including me, it's sometimes easy to forget how special America really is.

The problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same.

The U.S. Senate already has one Arlen Specter too many.

Leaders at the highest levels of our government are undertaking a deliberate and systematic effort to redefine our government, our economy and our country.

I've seen how the left has used it to accuse opponents of their version of reform of being bigots and racists.

Let's stop talking about new taxes and start talking about creating new taxpayers, which basically means jobs.

The way to turn our economy around is not by making rich people poorer, it's by making poor people richer.