"I was very glad to see the President so warmly received tonight, and he has a good story to tell. The operations in Iraq are very impressive in terms of the safety and security that we are now seeing in the wake of the elections that were held there. The turnout of people was really quite phenomenal and I think speaks very strongly in support of the policies that the President has followed there to bring freedom and democracy to that country.

I think the funding he requests is going to be something we have to carefully consider. We do want to hold the line on unnecessary spending. We have a deficit problem. We need to control spending, as he points out. I think he is going to submit a very tough budget to the Congress. We have an obligation though to help ensure that the operations in Iraq are brought to a conclusion successfully, and I think supporting the President in his efforts to maintain the peace here at home and protect our security are very important indeed.

I'm going to help him try to save Social Security. I think that is a very important part of his message tonight. We have an opportunity, but we have an obligation to senior citizens and to the younger people who are entering the workforce today to help ensure that they are going to be able to trust the government to have a workable program that benefits them as well."