[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 148 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S13995]
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 to myself 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. 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, Wednesday, 
September 20, stood at $4,967,473,200,287.86 or $18,856.61 for every 
man, woman, and child in America on a per capita basis.

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