[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 83 (Thursday, May 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        IS CONGRESS IRRESPONSIBLE? THE VOTERS HAVE SAID ``YES''

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, the impression simply will not go away: The 
$4.8 trillion Federal debt is a grotesque parallel to the energizer 
bunny we see, and see, and see on television. The Federal debt keeps 
going and going and going--up, of course--always to the added misery of 
the American taxpayers.
  So many politicians talk a good game--when, that is, they go home to 
talk--and ``talk'' is the operative word--about bringing Federal 
deficits and the Federal debt under control.
  But, sad to say, so many of these very same politicians have 
regularly voted for one bloated spending bill after another during the 
103d Congress and before. Come to think about it, this may have been a 
primary factor in the new configuration of U.S. Senators as a result of 
last November's elections.
  In any event, Mr. President, as of yesterday, Wednesday, May 17, at 
the close of business, the total Federal debt stood--down to the 
penny--at exactly $4,884,246,600,937.11 or $18,540.68 per man, woman, 
and child on a per capital basis. Res ipsa loquitus.


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