Quotes from Sunday news shows

 On what the election results mean:

         "I do think that many voters still remember being disappointed by Republican majorities. And I think this has not been a huge embrace of the Republican Party or the Republican brand. But it clearly was a repudiation of an agenda that's not working and agenda in which the government has overreached dramatically in many, many areas, and in which the spending has been wildly excessive." -- Republican Sen.-elect Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, CNN's "State of the Union"

         "It's not so much that people re-embraced Republicans. It's that they didn't like the direction President Obama and Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress was taking the nation, and now they're at least opening the door to reconsidering supporting Republicans. And now we have to govern and lead and produce results. And if we don't, we'll be thrown out in two years." -- Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, "State of the Union"

         "I don't think anyone thinks that the American people were fooled. I think what the American people were saying loud and clear is that the pace of the economic recovery, the continued large rate of joblessness is just unacceptable. And it is unacceptable." -- Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, "State of the Union"

         On President Obama's agenda:

         "When you hear the president say things like, you know, 'We did a poor job of explaining what we were trying to do,' I think that that's indicative of his not getting it, because the voters have had enough of the Obama agenda." -- Republican Whip Eric Cantor, "Fox News Sunday"

         "It is time for him to try and come meet us and say, 'Fine, let's get back to the kind of things that Americans are about.' It is living within our means. It is making the tough decisions so that we can see America prosper and lead again." -- Cantor, "Fox News Sunday"

         "I think the president believes that somehow he didn't -- his product was good but he just didn't sell it well. I think he's a good salesman. I think his problem was not his sales job. It was the product." -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, CBS' "Face the Nation"

         On fiscal policy:

         "My hope is to be on the [Senate] Budget Committee and to go through all of these numbers and, by January, to have a balanced budget that I will introduce. I want there to be a Republican alternative -- whether it wins or not, I want the Republican message to be one of balanced budgets. If they won't do it in a year, we'll say, how about two years? If they won't do it in two years, how about three years? But someone has to believe it." -- Republican Sen.-elect Rand Paul, ABC's "This Week"

         "The way we're going to put our fiscal house in order is you have to cut spending now. Everything has to be on the table." -- Republican Rep. Mike Pence, "This Week"

         On Nancy Pelosi:

         "If Democratic members in the House elect Nancy Pelosi as their leader, it's almost as if they just didn't get the message from the voters this election. I mean, the voters outright rejected the agenda that she's been about. And here they're going to put her back in charge." -- Cantor, "Fox News Sunday"

         "Nancy Pelosi has been fighting for middle-class America for the last 24 months. Together we've worked to rein in some of the special interests on Wall Street to give consumers a fighting chance. We've worked to make sure that patients get health care when they've been paying their premiums day in and day out and when they need it the most." -- Van Hollen, "State of the Union"

         On health care legislation:

         "So people are looking at it from the standpoint of, well, does everybody need to have coverage? And I think intuitively folks say yes, but they haven't thought about the cost. You know, is this a great product to buy? Yes, but you don't know what the real cost is. Once you see the cost, it's kind of like, you know what, we can't afford that, so let's look at something else." -- Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, "State of the Union"

         "I think Obamacare is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in the modern history of the country. I'm doing everything I can in Minnesota to stop, delay or avoid its implementation in my state, including signing an executive order saying we're not going to participate unless required by law or approved by me." -- Pawlenty, "State of the Union"

         "You can't fully repeal and replace this law until you have a new president and a better Senate. And that's probably in 2013, but that's before the law fully kicks in in 2014. In the meantime, this bill is such a fiscal and economic train wreck for our country and for the health care system itself. We're going to do everything we can to try and repeal and replace this thing. And ultimately, I think 2013 is when it will be done the right way." -- Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, "Fox News Sunday"

         "A vast majority of Americans feel very, very uncomfortable with this new bill. People who supported us, political independents, want it repealed and replaced with something else. I think we owe it to them to try." -- McConnell, "Face the Nation"

         "When you get into what we really did, and the American people understand what we really did, I think this health care plan is going to be with us for a long, long time, and it's something we'll build upon." -- Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, "Face the Nation"

         On 2012 aspirations:

         "I don't know for sure what I'm going to do after I'm done being governor. I'll decide that early next year." -- Pawlenty, "State of the Union"

         "We're intent on taking the coming weeks to really prayerfully consider that, to wait on the Lord, to seek counsel. And after the first of the year, we'll make a decision." -- Pence, "This Week"

         On his plans for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:

         "If you can go down-ticket to the bureaucrat and take care of the problem, you shouldn't bring in the politician or the political appointee. And I think that's going to be a change. We're going to look for the person most knowledgeable of a problem and have them before our committee. And in many cases we're going to do it outside the public glare, through depositions, with Republicans and Democrats both sitting there, because I think we need to do investigations in a less partisan way." -- Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, poised to become chairman of the oversight committee, "Fox News Sunday"