[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 84 (Friday, May 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S7010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          WAS CONGRESS IRRESPONSIBLE? THE VOTERS HAVE SAID YES

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, on the evening I learned I had been elected 
to the Senate in 1972, one of the commitments I made to myself was that 
I would never fail to see a young person or a group of young people who 
wanted to see me. It was certainly beneficial to me that I did because 
I have been inspired by the estimated 60,000 young people with whom I 
have visited during the nearly 23 years I have been in the Senate.
  Most of them have been concerned about the magnitude of the Federal 
debt that Congress has run up for the coming generations to pay. The 
young people and I always discuss the fact that under the Constitution, 
no President can spend even a dime of Federal money that has not first 
been authorized and appropriated by both the House and Senate of the 
United States.
  That is why I have been making these daily reports to the Senate 
since February 22, 1992. I want to make it a matter of record precisely 
the size of the Federal debt which as of Thursday, May 18, stood at 
$4,885,256,391,108.42 or $18,544.52 on a per capita basis.
  What Congress has already done to future generations is immoral.
  

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