We now need to look beyond our immediate future and aim higher and farther.

I want to believe that those who have been appointed to accomplish this mission will be totally committed, devoting all their skills and determination to their work. I urge you to lend them your support so that, together, we can build that bright future worthy of our country.

Activity in politics also produces eager competition and sharp rivalry.

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box.

I may sound naive, since everyone's decided the next two years are going to be all about 2016, but I look at what's happened over the years when there's been divided government. That's when we've done tax reform, that's when we've done entitlement reform - to move this economy forward on these big issues.

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.