[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15178-H15179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FEDERAL DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Longley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LONGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California.
  
[[Page H15179]]

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I saw the Monday night Nightline on what the 
gentleman is doing, and I thought it was absolutely compelling. It is 
bordering on the legendary, and I wish you good luck. If there is 
anything I or any of the more senior Members can do around here to 
advance your seeking the truth, please tell us.
  Mr. LONGLEY. I appreciate the gentleman's comments.
  Mr. Speaker, this afternoon the Federal debt is now 
$4,989,213,998,043.63, again a slight decline from yesterday of about 
$370 million, but still the national debt stands at about $89 billion, 
higher than what has been actually authorized by Congress, nor does 
this number include the additional $61 billion that the administration 
has chosen to borrow from the Civil Service employee retirement 
accounts.
  I mention that because, in light of all the talk about the 
unfortunate result of this stalemate causing many Federal employees to 
be on furlough pending some resolution of the disagreements between the 
President and the Congress, I would suggest that the ultimate 
disrespect is the extent to which the administration is cavalierly 
dipping into these retirement fund accounts, again, to the tune of in 
excess of $60 billion. That is unprecedented.
  I mentioned this morning briefly on the floor that given the current 
stalemate in Washington, that unfortunately I was not going to be able 
to return this week during Christmas recess. I spoke with my daughter 
Sarah this morning, who was very disappointed that I was going to be 
unable to attend her Christmas play tomorrow morning. Again, she has a 
role in the play and she is quite excited about it. Obviously, I am 
very disappointed that I will not be able to see her, because I am sure 
she is going to be very excited and do a tremendous job.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I attempted to explain to my daughter, my 7-year-
old, why it was important that we remain in Washington to deal with 
these issues. The plain facts are that this Congress has in the past, 
and will, at least for the next 5 or 6 or 7 years, be borrowing 
additionally, increasing this debt in order to continue to finance a 
level of spending that is in excess of our revenues and that ultimately 
my daughter Sarah, age 7, and my son Matt, age 11, are going to be 
faced with the obligation of retiring or redeeming this debt. The taxes 
in their lifetimes could well exceed over $100,000 just to keep up with 
the interest on the debts.
  Earlier this morning I challenged Members on the other side who were 
parading about their concern for Medicare, welfare, education, 
veterans, and the environment, but yet they have been absolutely 
unwilling to put their names on a line telling us what they would want 
to spend; nor have they been willing to address their financial 
priorities in a manner that would allow us to balance the Federal 
budget, and that effectively, this fight is about truly whether or not 
this Congress is going to insist on a balanced Federal budget using 
legitimate, honest numbers as certified by the Congressional Budget 
Office. In fact, it is clear to me that this is at the root of the 
disagreement.
  As a practical matter, the amount of money that we would spend is not 
that far off; a few, $10 billion or $20 billion here or there, which in 
Washington is not a large amount of money, given the fact that over the 
next 7 years this Federal Government will be spending in excess of $12 
trillion. That amount of money totally dwarfs any of the issues we have 
been talking about.
  There has been a great outcry about the $245 billion tax cut, with 
yet barely any attention whatsoever to the fact that $245 billion is 
barely 2 percent of the total amount of money that this Government will 
spend in the next 7 years. I have to raise the question whether this 
Government would be severely handicapped at the prospect of only 
spending 98 percent of $12 trillion, as opposed to 100 percent of $12 
trillion.
  I might also mention, let us talk about the issue of Medicare. As we 
all know, this is a program that is paid for by taxes on the wages of 
working people. It has become exceedingly clear that our failure to 
slow the rate of growth of Medicare spending could result in a doubling 
or a tripling of these highly regressive taxes on the wages of working 
people, working people who are already holding down two and three jobs, 
trying to make ends meet.

                              {time}  1945

  Nor has there been any attention to the fact that these dollars are 
invested in a trust fund which consists not only of taxes that are 
collected on the wages of working people, but also on the premiums that 
the seniors pay on a monthly basis. Nor has there been any attention to 
the fact that we are still maintaining a system whereby two-thirds of 
the senior's premium will be paid by the Federal Taxpayer in addition 
to the one-third that is paid by the beneficiary.

                          ____________________