在全国范围内，早在选举日之前，人们就能感受到愤怒和沮丧的情绪正在积聚。迹象表明，民众已对混乱和互相攻击感到厌倦。他们对共和党表现出的恶毒感到反感。他们希望经济好转，许多人希望结束与伊朗的战争。
Across the country, you could feel the anger and frustration bubbling up long before Election Day. There were signs people were tired of the chaos and the name-calling. They were disgusted by the meanness they saw coming from the Republican Party. They wanted the economy to get better, and many wanted an end to the war with Iran.
华盛顿的太多共和党人在民众最关心的问题上几乎拿不出什么对策。选民看到的只是对唐纳德·特朗普总统的盲目忠诚。当共和党失去众议院和参议院的控制权时，这是一次毁灭性的打击，也是他们自找的。
Too many Republicans in Washington had little to offer on the issues that concerned people most. What voters saw instead was blind loyalty to President Donald Trump. When Republicans lost the House and the Senate, it was a devastating blow, and they earned it.
但尽管有这一切，这实际上可能是成为共和党人的一个激动人心的时刻。一个在该国拥有悠久且重要历史的政党，有机会围绕曾经吸引人们的理念和价值观进行重建。我在这里指的是财政责任，它有助于创造经济增长的条件。
But for all that, this could actually be an exciting time to be a Republican. A party with a long and important history in this country has a chance to rebuild around the ideas and values that once drew people to it. I’m talking here about fiscal responsibility, which helps create the conditions for economic growth.
为此，该党最好为近年来抛在身后的一些忠诚共和党人腾出空间。我自己就属于他们之中。
And to do that, the party had better make room for some of the loyal Republicans it left behind in recent years. I count myself among them.
我想到的是那些毕生大部分时间都在为他们所理解的保守派共和党原则而努力、但在某个时刻发现自己被置于自己帮助建立的党之外的人。这些人，包括前新泽西州州长克里斯汀·托德·惠特曼等领袖，她曾公开批评特朗普和共和党对他的忠诚，他们能提供的远不止下一次选举中的选票。他们对政府该做什么——以及该在哪些方面保持克制——有自己的想法。
I’m thinking of people who spent much of their lives working for what they understood to be conservative Republican principles and who, somewhere along the way, found themselves on the outside of a party they had helped build. These folks, including leaders like former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who has publicly criticized Trump and the Republican Party’s loyalty to him, have more to offer than their votes in the next election. They have ideas about what government ought to do — and where it ought to exercise some restraint.
如果共和党认真想要找到回归根本的道路，这些人理应在决定未来走向上发挥作用。
If Republicans are serious about finding their way back to their roots, those people ought to have a hand in deciding what comes next.
至于民主党，我们知道他们即将控制的国会委员会将展开调查。是的，他们可以调查，但他们能治理吗？我认为这个问题取决于他们与刚刚击败的政党能否良好合作。民主党赢得了多数席位，现在领导是他们的责任。但他们在探寻解决问题的办法时，应当把共和党人拉进来。而从这次失败中感到痛苦的共和党人，必须愿意放下这种屈辱，去做他们当选要做的工作。
As for the Democrats, we know there will be investigations coming from the congressional committees they’ll soon control. Yes, they can investigate, but can they govern? I believe that question comes down to how well they can collaborate with the party they just defeated. Democrats won the majority, now it’s their job to lead. But they ought to bring Republicans in while they’re still figuring out how to solve a problem. And Republicans who are smarting from this defeat have to be willing to put that humiliation aside and do the work they were elected to do.
国会早就该通过一项既保护边境、又为合法来美者留出空间的移民法案了。合法移民是这个国家的命脉之一。肯定有足够多的民主党人和共和党人同时相信这两点，能够坐下来共同起草法案。
It’s high time Congress passed an immigration bill that protects our border makes room for people to come here legally. Legal immigration is part of the lifeblood of this country. Surely there are enough Democrats and Republicans who believe in both of those things to sit down and write a bill together.
在可负担性问题上，我将首先终止将关税作为政治武器的做法。我也希望看到国会深究医疗费用持续上涨的根源。两党议员在回选区时都听到了很多关于这些费用的抱怨。他们本应能够合作降低这些费用。
On affordability, I would begin by putting an end to the use of tariffs as a political weapon. I’d also like to see Congress get to the root of why healthcare keeps getting more expensive. Members of both parties heard a lot about those costs back home. They ought to be able to work together on bringing them down.
国会也有责任收回多年来让行政部门积累的一些权力。这意味着议员们必须愿意做出艰难决定、投下票，然后回选区向选民解释。这正是代表民众的部分含义。
Congress also has a responsibility to take back some of the authority it has allowed to accumulate in the executive branch over the years. That means members have to be willing to make a tough decision, cast a vote and then go home to explain it. That’s part of what it means to represent people.
最后，哪个党派愿意就即将逼近 41 万亿美元的国家债务敲响警钟？在中期竞选期间我们几乎没听到关于它的讨论，但我们的子孙后代将不得不承担后果。
Finally, is either party willing to sound the alarm about a national debt approaching $41 trillion? We heard very little about it during midterm campaigning, but our children and grandchildren will have to live with the consequences.
1997年，作为众议院预算委员会主席，我与民主党总统比尔·克林顿合作达成了一项协议，帮助实现了联邦预算连续四年的盈余。我们双方都没有得到想要的一切。我们一致认为，平衡预算至关重要，值得我们继续为此努力。
In 1997, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, I worked with a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, on an agreement that helped produce four straight years of federal budget surpluses. Neither of us got everything we wanted. We agreed that balancing the budget mattered enough to keep working at it.
去年，我曾敦促特朗普支持一项平衡预算的宪法修正案。没有人比他拥有更大的扩音器，来解释如果我们继续借债偿付当下的账单，将面临什么风险。一项修正案可以给国会时间使预算实现平衡，并保留在国家紧急情况下举借债务的灵活性。总统若能为这一主张站台，将为下一代做一件实事。当然，他是否会这么做，又是完全另一回事。
Last year, I urged Trump to get behind a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. No one has a bigger megaphone to explain what’s at stake if we keep borrowing to pay today’s bills. An amendment could give Congress time to bring the budget into balance and the flexibility to borrow in a national emergency. The president could do the next generation a real service by making that case. Whether he does, of course, is a whole different matter.
我热爱这个国家的原因之一在于：当美国人民挺身而出、发出自己的声音时，他们给了我们一个真正的自我更新的机会。我依然相信，我们能够不负“美利坚合众国”这个名号。
One of the things I love about this country is that when Americans get to their feet and make their voices heard, they give us a real opportunity to renew ourselves. I still believe we can live up to our name, the United States of America.