Jeff Sessions

We cannot continue business as usual.

You quoted earlier that somebody said during the Bush administration, deficits do not matter.

I am not in favor of precipitous, immediate fiscal austerity of the kind the British Government is now embarked on.

It would be good progress.

My firm belief is right now there is an opportunity to go further than Wall Street thinks is possible in reducing spending and put us on a sound path.

The TARP bailout has not cost the taxpayers a lot, but the stimulus bill cost $900 billion at 4 percent interest.

He said--I quoted him as being 100 percent certain that he could pull back and not allow inflation to take off.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think that is a psychological, political question for us to ask.

It absolutely increases the internal debt, and I think any fair reading would suggest it increases the overall debt exposure of the United States.

I have to say in my view it is not accurate, because we know that Medicare will be going into deficit.

I think a fundamental question is: Are they taking their medicine now that will put them in the longer term on a healthy growth path?

A $1.5 trillion deficit is a huge thing, and we will pay interest on that forever.

I criticize the Debt Commission and their work on one point.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said recently that we have almost a 50-50 chance of a bond market crisis in the next 2 years.

It increases the internal debt, the gross debt of the United States.

It increased the internal debt of the U.S. Treasury because the money expended for the health care program is borrowed from Medicare, at least a substantial portion of it.

I felt that. Thank you.

You are a great Chairman, and I thank you.

A permanent tax policy is better than an uncertainty, and we have too much uncertainty in our economy.

I hope I would have been willing to support the Commission's recommendations. It is about as good as anything we have seen.

But I have just got to tell you, places like California have been living beyond their means for a very long time.

I just think this whole bailout mentality has far more ramifications than a lot of us think.

I do believe we have an opportunity to limit waste and spending right now, and it would not damage the economy.

You think, well, we can...just ask the Congress to spend money, and then when they get to a certain point, we can tell Congress to stop.