[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 28, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    WE SHOULD STOP PRETENDING AND FACE THE REAL ISSUE, WHICH IS THE 
                             NATIONAL DEBT

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, following up on the previous 
speaker, I would just like to suggest that since this administration 
took office, the public debt has increased $1.5 trillion, but that is 
not just the President; that is Congress and the President who control 
borrowing and spending.
  We have decided to keep on borrowing and spending. So every year we 
have increased the public debt of our federal government.
  To suggest that tax increases result in a stronger economy would be 
contrary to what almost every economist says. The previous speaker is 
correct--the 1993 largest tax increase in history was passed by 
Congress and the President without a single Republican vote.
  I am going to send a copy of our debt history out as a ``dear 
colleague'' so that everybody is fully aware of what is happening to 
our public debt. We now owe roughly $5.6 trillion. Ten years ago, it 
was half that amount.
  It seems important to me that we understand that we have three parts 
of our public debt. One is what I call Wall Street debt, about $3.6 
trillion. One is Social Security debt, approaching $1 trillion, and 
then the other 122 trust funds and intergovernment transfers, which is 
another $1.2 trillion. We cannot pretend to pay down one part of the 
debt without considering what we are doing to the total debt of this 
country. It is all debt. It all has to be paid back, if not by us, by 
our kids and grandchildren.

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