[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 20, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              IS CONGRESS IRRESPONSIBLE? YOU BE THE JUDGE

  Mr. HELMS. Madam President, the incredibly enormous Federal debt is 
like the weather--everybody talks about it but nobody does anything 
about it. Congress talks a good game about bringing Federal deficits 
and the Federal debt under control, but there are too many Senators and 
Members of the House of Representatives who unfailingly find all sorts 
of excuses for voting to defeat proposals for a constitutional 
amendment to require a balanced Federal budget.
  As of Tuesday, July 19, at the close of business, the Federal debt 
stood--down to the penny--at exactly $4,625,471,848,736.48. This debt, 
mind you, was run up by the Congress of the United States--the big-
spending bureaucrats in the executive branch of the U.S. Government 
cannot spend a dime that has not first been authorized and appropriated 
by the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Constitution is quite specific about 
that, as every school boy is supposed to know.
  And pay no attention to the declarations by politicians that the 
Federal debt was run up by one President or another, depending on party 
affiliation. Sometimes they say Ronald Reagan ran it up; sometimes they 
say George Bush. I even heard that Jimmy Carter helped run it up. All 
three suggestions are wrong. They are false because the Congress of the 
United States is the culprit.
  Most people cannot conceive of a billion of anything, let alone a 
trillion. It may provide a bit of perspective to bear in mind that a 
billion seconds ago, Mr. President, the Cuban missile crisis was going 
on. A billion minutes ago, not many years had elapsed since Christ was 
crucified.
  That sort of puts it in perspective, does it not, that Congress has 
run up a Federal debt of 4,625 of those billions--of dollars. In other 
words, the Federal debt, as I said earlier, stands today at 4 trillion, 
625 billion, 471 million, 848 thousand, 736 dollars, and 48 cents.

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