These things contribute to the economic strength of the country or the depletion of our strength.

It would be a profound mistake not to have a plan to deal with this longer-term debt challenge.

There is going to have to be serious money spent there so that the energy needs of the country can be met efficiently.

We have got to--our first obligation is to defend this Nation, and we have got to provide the resources to do that.

I have just gone through an exercise to get the deficit down to 3 percent of GDP by the fifth year of the budget period and to balance by the end of a 10-year budget window.

Spending has got to be adjusted, and yes, that means Social Security and Medicare have to get on a lower growth trend.

I can't speak for Senator Gregg, but he and I have gone on this effort to have a commission, because we have been convinced you have got to have an overall plan for the longer term.

I wish we had been more successful in persuading our colleagues to have a bigger package.

We have got the lowest revenue as a share of the economy in 60 years, the highest spending as a share of GDP in 60 years.

I believe the risk to Medicare and Social Security recipients is a failure to act in a timely way to deal with the long-term debt trajectory that virtually every expert that has come before this Committee says is unsustainable.

My calculus tells me that me that this year we will hit gross debt to GDP of just over 90 percent.

We are also a major energy State.

If you take on too much debt, it affects the rate of economic growth in a country adversely.

We can't have a circumstance in which dollars, precious dollars that are being allocated for the nation's defense are wasted.

It is really hard to find something, I think, that works better than these Build America Bonds.

Nobody believes that that is sustainable.

I believe we were perilously close to that.

In the longer term, we have got to pivot and we have got to deal with this debt threat.