the battles ahead, the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell. he joins me now. leader mcconnell, happy new year. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, david. >> let me talk about a preview of coming attractions and the fights ahead, including the debt ceiling that was so bitterly contested back in the summer of 2011. here is something you said in august of 2011 that i wanted to show our viewers and have you respond to. you said then, i think some of our members may have thought the default on paying america's bills issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. most of us don't think that. what we did learn is this. it's a hostage that's worth ransoming. is that the strategy for the coming fight over the debt ceiling? >> well, first, these last-minute deals are no way to run the government. i can tell you that. we know what the problem is. you're going to have al simpson and erskine bowles on. they have talked about this for a couple of years now. we...

size of our economy, which makes us look a lot like greece. this administration has driven spending as a percentage of our economy from 21% up to almost 25%. we've resolved the tax issue