It would be recklessly naive to go about our business in Washington pretending there won’t be severe consequences for the mountains of debt we are piling up.  Yet today it is evident that this kind of willful ignorance is sweeping across Washington. We are set to lift our Nation’s debt burden to $14 trillion.  I would ask my colleagues in this chamber if they know how many zeroes 14 trillion has. I would ask the American people if they know how many zeroes are in 14 trillion. It is 14 trillion. It is beyond comprehension to be talking about numbers this big. More precisely, the limit is 1, 4, 2, 9, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0. It is a travesty.  The writing is on the wall. Congress needs to wake up and realize that the future of American prosperity is in dire straits, mortal danger. As Americans hunker down to weather the economic storm, Democrats in Congress boosted Federal spending by 12 percent.

February 4, 2010, when the then-Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to lift the debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion, then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor