[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 22, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2230
                        RAISING THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Issa). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, tonight the House began the debate on the 
supplemental appropriations bill, a bill that funds the war on 
terrorism and makes sure that our troops in the field have the 
necessary equipment and tools they need to win this war. Every Member 
of this House supports funding the war on terrorism. That is not what 
the debate was about tonight nor will it be what the debate is about 
tomorrow, as we continue to debate this supplemental.
  The debate tonight was about a provision of the bill that the 
Republican leadership put in there that would allow an unlimited 
increase in the statutory debt ceiling. The statutory debt ceiling is a 
law that provides the maximum amount that our Federal Government can go 
into debt. It is one of the few tools that we have to promote fiscal 
responsibility and require fiscal discipline in this House.
  The Democrats tonight stood up to tell the American people that we 
deserve to have an honest and open debate regarding this very critical 
issue. If we increase the national debt limit by $750 billion, as 
Secretary O'Neill has requested, we will be giving this Congress a 
blank check for uncontrolled spending for ever-increasing debt and for 
deficits.
  It is wrong for us to ask the young men and women in uniform who are 
sacrificing tonight to fight this war against terrorism to be the very 
generation that comes home and pays the bills for this war.
  The fundamental question before the House tonight was who is going to 
pay the bill for this war on terrorism. Are we going to pay it as the 
generation that is able to do so? Are we going to say to the young men 
and women in uniform, we will let them fight the war and then when they 
come home and when they are in their good income-earning years they can 
pay the debt for the war that they fought?
  Democrats believe that is wrong. We believe it is wrong to hide an 
increase in the debt ceiling in this very important supplemental 
appropriation bill.
  We must not use the Social Security trust fund, the American people's 
retirement fund, to pay for this war. We must not ask that we borrow 
money from the public to pay for this war. We believe that it is our 
responsibility today to pay for this war.
  The patriotic thing to do as Americans is to be willing to sacrifice 
along with the men and women in uniform, and the sacrifice that we must 
pay is we must be willing to pay the bill.
  At your house and mine and your business and mine, we understand what 
it means to balance the budget. We understand that when changed 
economic circumstances lower our income, that we have to make 
adjustments in our budget. We have to cut our spending, and if we need 
to borrow money, we establish a plan to pay it back. It should be no 
different in Washington. In Washington we also should pay the American 
people's bills.
  Every Member of this Congress recognizes that the debt ceiling must 
be raised. In fact, as we speak tonight, Secretary O'Neill is using 
unusual emergency measures to keep the Federal Government from 
defaulting on its obligations, by using the retirement funds of Federal 
employees to prevent a default in Federal obligations.
  Even after using every trick in the bag, the tricks will run out by 
the end of June and the debt ceiling must be raised, but Democrats 
believe that when we raise the debt ceiling we need at the same time to 
establish a plan to put us back into a balanced budget. Democrats have 
offered before the Committee on Rules amendments that would do that in 
a bipartisan way and those have been rejected.
  In the first 7 months of this fiscal year, the Federal deficit is 
$66.5 billion. To give my colleagues a picture of how things have 
changed in Washington, if we go back just 1 year and look at what the 
budget looked like in the first 7 months of the last fiscal year, we 
had a surplus of $165 billion. After having 4 straight years of 
surpluses in the Federal budget, we are back into deficit spending, and 
we need a plan to get us back on the road to fiscal responsibility.
  Our failure to balance the budget means that we are going to be using 
the Social Security trust fund to finance this war. That is wrong, and 
Democrats want a plan to get us back on the right track.

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