[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3229-S3230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SENATE RESOLUTION 237--RELATIVE TO THE NATIONAL DEBT

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Governmental 
Affairs, jointly, pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, with 
instructions that if one committee reports, the other committee have 30 
days to report or be discharged:

                              S. Res. 237

       Whereas, the United States national debt is approximately 
     $4.9 trillion;
       Whereas, the Congress has authorized the national debt by 
     law to reach $5.5 trillion;
       Whereas, the 104th Congress and the President have both 
     presented plans to balance the budget by the year 2002, by 
     which time our national debt will be approximately $6.5 
     trillion;
       Whereas, this accumulated debt represents a significant 
     financial burden that will require excessive taxation and 
     lost economic opportunity for future generations of the 
     United States;
       Resolved, That, it is the sense of the Senate that any 
     comprehensive legislation that balances the budget by a 
     certain date and that is agreed to by the Congress and the 
     President shall also contain a strategy for reducing the 
     national debt of the United States.

                        NATIONAL DEBT REDUCTION

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation that 
will require the Treasury Secretary to prepare a report for Congress on 
recommendations to reduce the national debt. Further, Mr. President, I 
am submitting a sense-of-the-Senate resolution that if we enact a 
balanced budget plan this year, such legislation should also contain a 
strategy for reducing the national debt.
  Yesterday, the Congress raised the national debt to $5.5 trillion, a 
figure beyond the comprehension of most people. By most estimates, we 
will not even begin to balance a budget until the year 2002, at which 
point the national debt will, of course, be even larger--$6.5 trillion.
  Mr. President, I am concerned about this debt burden that we have 
placed on our children, grandchildren, and children yet born. We 
continue to spend money we do not have on day-to-

[[Page S3230]]

day needs--not investments--just simply for day-to-day needs--we spend 
money we do not have. However, if we continue this irresponsible 
pattern, we will bring great harm to future generations. We talk about 
doing something for our children, and, yet, we could do them few 
greater services than to leave them a debt-free country.

  It took this country nearly 200 years to accumulate a debt of $1 
trillion. In the last 16 years, however, the debt has increased 
fivefold. This Republican Congress has attempted to move the budget 
toward balance. This Congress has tried to stop the flow of red ink. 
The President has, regrettably, vetoed our Balanced Budget Act.
  Indeed, most of our time has been spent just trying to stop deficit 
spending, and we have worked to move toward a balanced budget in the 
year 2002. We still have not succeeded in doing this.
  Beyond the plan to put this country on the track toward a balanced 
budget, however, we have no plan--no plan whatsoever--and no thought 
has been given to how we will reduce the national debt. We merely have 
been trying to slow the train. Even if we balance the budget 7 years 
from now, Mr. President, we have no plans to reduce the $6.5 trillion 
debt that we will have accumulated.
  This $6.5 trillion debt represents a tremendous amount of money--an 
incomprehensible amount of money to practically all of us--but what 
does it mean in real terms to the average working person? Six-point-
five trillion dollars would build 50 million houses and finance 187 
million college educations. It would buy 310 million tractors. It would 
buy 433 million automobiles.
  Permit me to put that in perspective. Fifty million new homes--built 
at the average price of $130,000 each--would mean a new house for every 
married couple in America. If housing is an important goal, we could 
have bought everyone a new house. Six-point-five trillion dollars would 
pay the full 4-year college tuition of every American over the age of 
18. If education is an important goal, we could have sent every 
American adult to college.
  Six-point-five trillion dollars would buy 310 million farm tractors. 
It would buy 433 million automobiles. We started producing automobiles 
in this country around 1900 or immediately thereafter. Since then, we 
have not come close to producing 433 million cars. Mr. President, our 
debt would buy every automobile ever produced in this country, and it 
probably would still carry us through another couple years.
  These illustrations underscore the massive spending spree that we 
have been on for the last 20 years. Mr. President, it is important to 
remember that 80 percent of this debt has been accumulated since 1980, 
so a great part of these examples could have been accomplished in just 
the last 20 years.
  Perhaps the most startling fact is how interest costs are consuming 
us. Over 40 percent of the personal income taxes paid this year--40 
percent of the personal income taxes collected in this country this 
year--will be used to pay the interest on the debt.
  In terms of spending per person, the numbers are astonishing, and 
they are shocking. Interest on the national debt is the third most 
expensive budgetary category per person behind Social Security and 
defense. We spend more on interest than on Medicare, other health 
expenditures, education, housing, environment, and agriculture--all 
these eclipsed by just interest.
  These are things that are important to the American people, and, yet, 
there is less to spend because we insist on spending more than we have. 
And we are adding to this debt every day. Every day we add to this debt 
somewhere close to $350 million.
  Mr. President, the average 21-year-old will face a lifetime tax 
burden of $115,000 just to pay the interest on the national debt. As 
graduation season approaches, every college graduate looks forward to 
receiving a diploma, but that diploma will be accompanied by a bill 
from the U.S. Government for $115,000 as his or her part of the 
interest on the debt. So inside each diploma should be a bill from the 
Federal Government for $115,000.

  If we had been responsible here in Washington and were really 
concerned about the future of the young people of this country--rather 
than just making platitudes about being nice to them--their future 
would look different. The $115,000 that the IRS will demand from our 
children could have been better spent. Four years of college, a new 
car, the down payment on a house, and, Mr. President, each would still 
have $60,000 left over. But, no, they are going to receive a $115,000 
interest bill on the day we hand them a diploma.
  Further, their future would be brighter because we would have reduced 
interest rates significantly, without the Government taking $350 
million a day from the lending pool in this world. Interest rates would 
be down, and down considerably.
  President Clinton likes to make much of the fact that he is young, 
that he appeals to young voters, and that his wife is active in the 
Children's Defense Fund. But how concerned is he really about America's 
young people? How concerned, really, is he? When he leaves office in 
1997, America will be another $1 trillion deeper in debt than we were 
when he came. It took him 3 years into his Presidency to submit a 
balanced budget, and it was really not a balanced budget. It did not 
balance the budget, in fact, and it was just a pretense of a balanced 
budget. It took him 3 years of ``amateur night'' before he came up with 
a proposal that he could even pretend was a balanced budget, and, 
really, he did it after he was driven to do it by a Republican 
Congress.
  If they are interested in doing something for the children, it is my 
belief that the best Children's Defense Fund is a national debt with a 
zero balance.
  Mr. President, let me conclude by saying that the two bills I am 
introducing are a small step in a long journey to reduce our debt. We 
must develop a plan to bring down the debt. One idea is to establish a 
national debt reduction fund much like the Presidential campaign fund. 
Perhaps there are other ways we can use incentives to reduce the debt.
  It is important to consider methods to reduce the debt, and this is a 
critical issue, but, Mr. President, this Congress must muster the 
fortitude to stop spending. And, so far, we have not managed to do 
that.
  If we do not begin now, if we do not start now, when will we? If we 
do not do it in this Congress, if the people now here do not do it, who 
will do it?
  Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time. I thank you.
  Mr. GLENN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Ohio is recognized to speak as if in morning business for up to 15 
minutes.
  Mr. GLENN. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, I did not come to speak on this particular subject 
that was just addressed by Senator Faircloth, but I wanted to set some 
facts straight in the interest of fairness.
  The facts are that when President Reagan took office, the national 
debt was at $1 trillion--the result of a buildup through all of the 
Presidents since George Washington through Jimmy Carter. During the 
Reagan-Bush years, we added $3.9 trillion. Currently, the national debt 
is about $5 trillion.
  In the summer of 1993, President Clinton announced the reconciliation 
bill that he put forward with his economic policies. We passed the bill 
in the U.S. Senate without a single Republican vote--not one. It 
resulted in the first 3 years of budget deficit reduction since Harry 
Truman was in office. We went from a budget deficit of $292 billion in 
the year we passed the reconciliation bill in 1993, down to 
approximately $240 billion in 1994 and $163 billion in 1995. This year 
the budget deficit is estimated to be $142 billion. There are several 
estimates on that amount, including CBO. For the first time since Harry 
Truman, we have had a steady reduction of the Federal deficit over a 3-
year period. We worked for a balanced budget, and we are on the road to 
attaining it.

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