Our growing national debt is a threat to our national defense and to our domestic priorities, including research and development, education, health care, and investments in our economic growth.

As a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus and a strong defender of a woman's right to choose, my bottom line here is this: women have a constitutional right to access abortion.

I voted against H.R. 4712, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which is nothing more than a shameless attempt to intimidate doctors, spread misinformation about abortion, and decrease women's access to healthcare.

Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy shared more than just being leaders during critical times and the misfortune of lives cut short. They shared a power of will to drive the nation, sometimes single-handedly, toward a destination that few but they realized was attainable.

I saw that the incorporation of Texas into this Union would be indispensable both to her safety and ours. I saw that it was impossible she could stand as an independent power between us and Mexico without becoming the scene of intrigue of foreign powers, alike destructive of the peace and security of both Texas and ourselves.

War triggers unforeseeable military dynamics and sets off massive political shocks, creating new problems as well as new opportunities.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

And if there was one title that could be applied to all my films, it would be 'Civil War' - not civil war in the way we know it, but the daily war that goes on between us all.