[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      THE CHALLENGE FACING CONGRESS AS IT DEVELOPS THE NEW BUDGET

  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. Madam Speaker, I would like to talk a minute 
about the challenge facing this Congress as we develop next years new 
budget. Part of the question is, are we really going to pay down the 
debt, and do we really have a balanced budget. The answer is no on both 
counts.
  As Members will notice this chart, I have divided our debt into three 
segments, because there is a great deal of confusion in terms of what 
our debt really is. Are we really paying down the debt? We hear the 
candidates running in this first primary today in New Hampshire talking 
about the importance of paying down the debt. Madam Speaker, the total 
debt of this country is now $5.72 trillion. This $5.72 trillion I have 
divided up into three categories.
  One is what I call the Wall Street debt, or the debt held by the 
public. That is approximately $3.6 trillion. The other portion of the 
debt is the social security surplus about $1 trillion. Right now, 
because we are overtaxing American workers, we are bringing in about 
$153 billion this year more in social security taxes than is required 
for the payment of current benefits. For the last 40 years we have been 
using that extra social security surplus to fund on other government 
programs. The middle portion of this chart represents what we have 
borrowed from the other 112 trust funds.
  Madam Speaker, I think it is so important that we not, if you will, 
hoodwink or mislead the American people that we are paying down the 
debt of the country when we really are not. As Members will see by this 
chart, the total debt continues to increase. This continued increase in 
debt is if we have a freeze, and continue to only spend at last year's 
spending level. Of course, last year we added another $20 billion of 
emergency spending. So if we add that spending to what we already spent 
last year and we froze at that level for that next 5 years, then we are 
going to continue to increase the national debt.
  We talk about the words ``balanced budget.'' Do Members not think it 
would be reasonable to define a balanced budget as a spending level 
when the total debt of the country does not continue to increase? I 
think it would.
  I am a farmer. On the farm, a lot of us try to pay off the mortgage 
so our kids have a little better life, have a little better chance of 
making it, so we try to pay down the mortgage so their life does not 
have the kind of sacrifices that some of us went through.
  But in this Congress, we are going just the other way. We are adding 
to the mortgage of the country, and we are asking our kids and our 
grandkids to sacrifice their living standards because we think our 
needs today are so great we should overindulge or overspend now. Let us 
start really balancing the budget. Let us stop borrowing from the 112 
trust funds for other government spending.
  On the top of this chart we see social security trust funds. That is 
the largest surplus we have coming from any of the trust funds. But 
then there is the Medicare trust fund and the others 111 trust funds. 
In the gray portion in the middle of this chart, we have represented 
another 112 trust funds we are borrowing from. Without that borrowing, 
we do not have a balanced budget.
  Let me show Members this other chart. If we stick to our budget caps, 
this chart represents how we can pay down the Federal debt. It does not 
start to go actually down until 2003, but at least it starts to go 
down.
  Let me suggest to Members and the President that increasing spending 
is not good public policy. I see keeping solvent both social security 
and Medicare a huge challenge. The actuaries at the Social Security 
Administration estimate that over the next 75 years, over the next 75 
years, there will be $120 trillion less coming in from the social 
security tax than is needed to pay benefits.
  Let me say that again. The social security actuaries at the Social 
Security Administration estimate that we are going to need $120 
trillion more than what is expected to come in from the 12.4 percent 
social security tax over the next 75 years to pay the benefits that we 
have promised; a tremendous challenge in social security, a tremendous 
challenge of keeping solvent the Medicare program.
  I think we have to be very careful about implementing what the 
President has suggested on increased spending. We cannot continue to 
expand the size of this government, to increase spending. Let us start 
solving the problems of social security, Medicare, and start paying 
down the debt.
  Madam Speaker, during good times, it is reasonable, whether you are a 
family or a government, to have a rainy day fund. A rainy day fund for 
a government that owes $5.7 trillion is starting to pay down that debt. 
I ask my colleagues to resist the political temptation to increase 
spending.

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