Quotes from Evan Bayh

I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress.

While romanticizing the Senate of yore would be a mistake, it was certainly better in my father's time.

Filibusters should require 35 senators to... make a commitment to continually debate an issue in reality, not just in theory. The number of votes needed to overcome a filibuster should be reduced to 55 from 60.

I believe I would be a very strong general-election candidate.

If one of my boys was asking me if they should go into politics, I'd say there's only one reason to go into public life and that's to help people.

Families and businesses are tightening their belts to make ends meet - and Washington should too.

Filibusters have proliferated because under current rules just one or two determined senators can stop the Senate from functioning. Today, the mere threat of a filibuster is enough to stop a vote; senators are rarely asked to pull all-nighters like Jimmy Stewart in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'

Of course, the genesis of a good portion of the gridlock in Congress does not reside in Congress itself. Ultimate reform will require each of us, as voters and Americans, to take a long look in the mirror, because in many ways, our representatives in Washington reflect the people who have sent them there.

I find the world just too complex to embrace a single ideological point of view.

Massive debts owed to foreign creditors weaken our global influence and threaten high inflation and steep tax increases for our children and grandchildren.

The United States must not allow North Korea to exacerbate tensions between our key strategic allies in Asia. As the leader of the free world, the United States needs to support our regional allies who are standing up to a Stalinist regime that is intent on developing nuclear weapons.

Between being governor and part of the Senate, one of the things I did was I held a chair at the business school at my alma mater, Indiana University. And I'd go to lecture the graduates, and I loved that, answering their questions. It was real; it was tangible, and it was making a difference every day.

It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that something is wrong when it takes $30 or $40 to fill up the gas tank.

What is required from members of Congress and the public alike is a new spirit of devotion to the national welfare beyond party or self-interest.

Many good people serve in Congress. They are patriotic, hard-working, and devoted to the public good as they see it, but the institutional and cultural impediments to change frustrate the intentions of these well-meaning people as rarely before.

What matters is moving forward and focusing on practical results for the American people.

If, by demanding revolutionary change, I run the risk of accomplishing nothing on behalf of the public, then I'm not sure that's a responsible course of action.

It shouldn't take a constitutional crisis or an attack on the nation to create honest dialogue in the Senate.

As Indiana's governor, I balanced eight budgets, never raised taxes, and left the largest surplus in state history. It wasn't always easy. Cuts had to be made and some initiatives deferred. Occasionally I had to say 'no.'

Through our own hard work and ingenuity, America has spent much of its history as the world's dominant economic power. But our dominance is not pre-ordained - history does not roll along on the wheels of inevitability.

If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.

People come into public life for different reasons. None of us are ego-challenged, I think, or we probably wouldn't be doing what we're doing, so if anyone tells you that they don't like the sound of the applause and the ego gratification, I don't think they're being straight with you.

As Democrats, we have a patriotic duty and political imperative to lay out our ideas for protecting America.

Companies that are publicly held have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to try to maximize their profits within ethical reasons.