Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise because this week is going to be a very important week for voting on the President's request to raise our debt…”

“I rise because this week is going to be a very important week for voting on the President's request to raise our debt ceiling. Our debt is $15.2 trillion. The President is going to ask for a $1.2 trillion increase in that debt. These are astronomical numbers. Anyone looking at this can see we are spiraling out of control in very short order. To put it in perspective, the gross domestic product ratio to debt has been in the range of 40 percent debt to our gross domestic product. Today, we are surpassing 100 percent. We don't hear numbers such as these except in certain places in Europe. This is untenable. When President Obama was sworn into office, the Federal debt was $10.6 trillion. In just under 4 years, the United States has accumulated more than $5 trillion in new debt. Let's place the President's request in context. The $1.2 trillion he is asking to increase the debt ceiling will not even cover last year's deficit, which was $1.3 trillion. We are in an untenable situation and we must do something about it. I think most people who are focusing on this believe that. But instead, attempts to cut the deficit are met with proposals to do--what? Increase taxes, taxes to pay for current spending and even new spending on top of the current levels. In the coming weeks, the President will unveil his fiscal year 2013 budget.…”