JEFF FLAKE

If we can't have the courage to tell our constituents, hey, we've got to cut back, then if we can point to something and say, I would like to vote for more benefits for you, but this balanced budget amendment or statutory spending cap or whatever the device is, is preventing me from doing it.

Many of the earmark request forms are actually filled out by lobbyists and then just turned in by the member's staff to the appropriations committee.

Our government shouldn't tell us where to travel and where not to travel.

The country is facing a fiscal crisis, and the United States Senate is at the center of the debate about how to bring federal spending under control.

Senator Jon Kyl has given all of the eventual candidates in this race an excellent model of how to best serve Arizona and the country. He's set the bar extremely high, and I'll do my best to meet that standard.

There are some Republicans who say that any time you raise new revenue, you have to have a tax cut to match it. I am not one of those Republicans.

For one, I think as a missionary you gotta be stubborn. And you gotta try to be persuasive.

I feel at some point that the farm state politics will overwhelm the Florida politics.

Trump pivots, but then he pivots right back. It's a 360 degree pivot.

The reason that lobbyists are so corrupt is that government is too big.

Please veto this bill. Mr. President, the Congress is out of control and needs adult supervision.

The Republican Party has lost its way. We have given in to nativism and protectionism. It is not enough to be a conservative any more.... You have to be viscious. We have away the limited government mantle when we spent like crazy when we had the majority ...

We are only 5 percent of the world's population and 20 percent of the world's economy. We have to be able to trade in order to grow.

If we can accept this [immoral, unethical, irrational, inconsistent, and non-presidential] behavor from a politican [President Donald Trump], then perhaps we should not be politicians.

The modern media culture favors those who yell the loudest.

I am retiring from the Senate because I am far from my party on many issues. It would be very hard for me to win the Republican primary election for teh Senate. I don't think I have changed much. The Republican party has changed a great deal.

I have not ruled out running for the presidency. I hope some people will run against the President [Donald Trump] in the Republican presidential primary so that Republicans can see what it means to be a decent Republican again.

Somebody needs to stand up [to Donald Trump] and say "This is not our party. This is not OK. This is not normal."

Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy.

Enhancing long term national security requires that we have a clear-eyed view of radical Islamic terrorism without ascribing radical Islamic terrorist views to all Muslims.

I do think that the Republican Party is in a crisis right now, a crisis of confidence about who we are.

The impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican Party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.

You can't always say what's popular and you ought to go with it. I think that's why the founders were concerned about direct democracy. That's why we have a republic and that's why we have representatives who who are supposed to look at the issues and to look out for the next generation as well.

American leadership looks to the world and just as Lincoln did sees the family of man. Humanity is not a zero-sum game.

These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life. We've got to have a secure border. But we've also, we've got to act compassionately and recognize labor markets as well. ... I've never thought that it's [path to citizenship] a bad thing. If somebody is going to be here for 20, 30 years, to give them some skin in the game, if you will, to hold out the prospect of citizenship.