Kay Bailey Hutchison: “we are today making a small downpayment toward getting runaway Federal spending under control. The spending bill we will…”

“we are today making a small downpayment toward getting runaway Federal spending under control. The spending bill we will vote on today represents a $78 billion spending cut from that proposed by President Obama for this year. It will be $38 billion from what the Federal Government spent last year. We must address the spending binge our country has been on for the last 2, 4, 6 years. Spending cuts have been actually ignored. We have increased spending in the name of stimulus. The problem is, that kind of spending didn't stimulate the economy in the private sector where the jobs are permanent. At the beginning of this year, the President proposed a budget that would spend $3.7 trillion next year, with a $1.6 trillion deficit. The national debt is now $14.29 trillion. Under President Obama's budget plan, the national debt would double since he took office and triple by 2020. We then embarked on a vigorous negotiation on this year's budget. Republicans insisted on cuts beginning now, which is the middle of a fiscal year, which makes it very difficult because the spending levels are already in place for half a year. But we said: No, we need to start right now, even if it is hard, even if it is in the middle of the fiscal year. There was a hard negotiation.…”