[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           BALANCED BUDGET SHOULD NOT INCREASE NATIONAL DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I suspect some of my colleagues 
might be disappointed in the message I am going to convey in the next 5 
minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, this is one of the several books that the President sent 
over on the budget that we will start in 1999. The budget books, 
however, go for the next 5 years. There has been a lot of maybe 
bragging done that we have a balanced budget or we now may have a 
balanced budget by the end of this year, definitely by the end of next 
year. The President suggested in his budget that we have a balanced 
budget next year.
  Well, I would like to suggest that it is not a balanced budget; that 
we are borrowing $100 billion every year, more than $100 billion from 
the Social Security Trust Fund. And like the saying goes, ``You can't 
fool Mother Nature,'' neither can you fool the economists and 
bookkeepers that decide what is happening to the national debt.
  Now, it would seem reasonable to me, Mr. Speaker, that if we had a 
balanced budget, the national debt would not continue to go up every 
year for the next 5 years under the President's budget. And I suggest 
anybody that might want to look at the historical tables that the 
President sent over, on page 111, it shows actually what is happening 
to the national debt for the next 5 years.

  In 1998, the national debt is $5.5 trillion. In 1999, it goes to $5.7 
trillion. In the year 2000, it goes to $5.9 trillion. In the year 2001, 
it goes up to $6 trillion. In the year 2002, $6.6 trillion. In 2003, 
6.33 trillion dollars. Every year the national debt increases between 
$122 billion and $176 billion every year for the next 5 years.
  So what is wrong? How come we say it is a balanced budget? Well, that 
is because we creatively figure good ways to say things that maybe 
meets the end that we have accomplished more than we really have 
accomplished.
  I would like to suggest the real test of a balanced budget is when 
the national debt stops going up. When I go back to my district, I hear 
some people ask what is the difference between a deficit and a debt? 
Well, the deficit is how much we overspend every year. The national 
debt is if we add up all of those years' borrowings, that is the 
national debt.
  Right now the national debt is $5.5 trillion. It takes 15 percent of 
our total Federal budget to pay off the interest on that national debt. 
That is why I think it is very important to be very clear and very 
honest with all of the American people that we need to do a little 
better job than we have done.
  As good as the job has been for the last 3 years in cutting down 
spending, in trying to get rid of some of the waste in government, we 
have still got a distance to go if we are going to have a true Federal 
balanced budget that does not borrow from the trust funds.
  Look, borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund is one of the 
most dangerous things we can do. We heard the President say Social 
Security should be first. A lot of my colleagues are now suggesting 
Social Security should be first. I suggest that if we are serious about 
starting to help solve the problem of Social Security, we are going to 
take some of that surplus money and give the option to a group of 
working Americans to say, look, we are going to invest part of that 
money in our own personal retirement savings account that becomes our 
property. If we die before retirement age, it goes into our estate. 
Unlike Social Security and those benefits today, if we die early, we do 
not get anything.
  I think it is important that we look at the long-range solutions for 
Social Security and simply that we be honest with the American people 
when we really have achieved a balanced budget.

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