[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TOTAL U.S. 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, I bring this chart because I 
think if we do nothing else, we should be up front, very honest. We 
should not continue to hoodwink the American people in talking about 
reducing the debt of this country.
  I bring this chart, the total debt of this country is $5.72 trillion. 
I divide it in three segments: The Social Security debt, which is now 
about a trillion; the other trust fund debts are about a $1.1 trillion; 
and the debt held by Wall Street or the debt held by the public is now 
$3.6 trillion.
  What we are doing, when we are saying everybody in Washington says we 
are paying down the debt, we are borrowing from Social Security; that 
is why the Social Security debt gets bigger.
  Mr. Speaker, we are using those dollars borrowed from the Social 
Security trust fund to pay down the Wall Street debt, so the net total 
debt, subject to the debt limit, the total debt of this country that we 
are passing on to our kids continues to go up.
  Let us be honest about it. Let us try to achieve a real balanced 
budget, and that means the total debt of this country does not continue 
to rise.

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