[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S13380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         THE BAD DEBT BOXSCORE

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, on that evening in 1972 when I first was 
elected to the Senate, I made a commitment that I would never fail to 
see a young person, or a group of young people, who wanted to see me.
  It has proved enormously beneficial to me 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.
  Mr. President, most of them have been concerned about the enormity of 
the Federal debt that Congress has run up for the coming generations to 
pay. The young people and I almost always discuss the fact that under 
the U.S. Constitution, no President can spend 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 began making these daily reports to the Senate on 
February 22, 1992. I wanted to make a matter of daily record of the 
precise size of the Federal debt which as of yesterday, Monday, 
September 11, stood at $4,962,944,077,933.57 or $18,839.42 for every 
man, woman, and child in America on a per capita basis.


                          ____________________