On the recordFebruary 4, 2010
It's time for a little bit of truth-telling about their side and about our side. Truth-telling about our side is that back when we were in charge, we didn't do so well on controlling runaway Federal spending. My colleagues who know me well know that I many times found myself at cross purposes in fighting the President of my own party and some leadership in my own party in some of those big spending fights. But under the last administration, we doubled the national debt. I want to stipulate that. But frankly, that's no excuse for what's happening today, Madam Speaker. Over the last 3 years, the Democratic majority has literally broken the ceiling on fiscal responsibility, and, as I just admitted, that ceiling was pretty high. Since Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, the national debt has increased by $3.96 trillion, a 42 percent increase in 3 years. To keep up with this spending binge, Congress has increased the debt limit five times over the last 3 years, three times since the current administration took office 1 year ago. The statutory debt increase that comes before us today, $1.9 trillion, is the largest one-time debt increase in U.S. history. This is the fifth increase, as I mentioned, in the last 19 months. This one-time increase in the debt limit of $1.9 trillion is actually larger than the entire GDP of almost every country in the world.
