Orrin Hatch: “during the debt limit impasse in 2006, then-Senator Obama stated: The fact that we are here today to debate raising…”

“during the debt limit impasse in 2006, then-Senator Obama stated: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership, and Americans deserve better. That was former Senator Barack Obama. At that time our gross debt was $8.3 trillion. It is now well above twice that, currently standing at $17.1 trillion, which is over 100 percent of the size of our economy. During that same 2006 debt limit debate, then-Senator Biden said: My vote against the debt limit increase cannot change the fact that we have incurred this debt already and will no doubt incur more. It is a statement that I refuse to be associated with the policies that brought us to this point. That was then-Senator Biden. Things have certainly changed since 2006. Now President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden preside over an administration which tells us that raising the debt limit is merely a matter of paying our bills and is a reflection of decisions made in Congress. Yet while it is ostensibly true that the Congress has the power to raise the debt limit, it is not true that Congress makes spending decisions unilaterally, with no role being played by the executive branch.…”