[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 12, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WHY DEFICITS MEAN SOMETHING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, as 
everybody knows. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) is here with 
me. The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) was here earlier, as was 
the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor). This is going to be a 
first in a series of, I hope, enlightened or enlightening exercises 
that we do with regard to why deficits mean something in this country.
  I heard some of the most astounding rhetoric I have ever heard in my 
life when there are some in this town who say deficits do not matter. 
We are going to try to point out why they do over the next few weeks.
  Mr. Speaker, do you realize that today we are passing on to our 
children and our grandchildren an 18 percent mortgage on this country? 
We have literally mortgaged our children's future by our spending 
habits and our inability or our lack of courage to raise the necessary 
funds to pay for what my generation wants.

                              {time}  1830

  The President has submitted a budget that is another $300 billion in 
the red. Let me just say why that matters.
  We already are paying, as a people, a billion dollars a day in 
interest on past consumption. If we do the math on that, there are 
129.9 million individual taxpayers in this country, that means that 
every individual taxpayer last year paid on average $2,556 on the debt, 
interest on the debt, a debt tax that will continue to go up under 
these present economic policies that we are asked to follow.
  It gets even worse than that, though, because what happens is, every 
time we borrow money, we have put a tax increase not only on us, but on 
our children and grandchildren, that can never be repealed because the 
interest must be paid. It is a tax increase every day we sit here 
spending more money or not having the courage to raise the money we 
need to protect this country and the people who live here.
  Every day we do that is another tax on our children and us and our 
grandchildren that cannot be repealed. That is what the debt tax is. 
That is what the interest tax is.
  And it really is ironic that people would sit here and say, we are 
not going to pass on the problems of this Congress on this day, in this 
hour, to those who come after us. If our forefathers had done to us 
what we are doing to our children and grandchildren, we would not have 
the standard of living we have today, that we have had and enjoyed. We 
would not have the opportunities, because we would not have the 
discretionary income for education, for health care, for veterans, for 
the world class military that we all know is necessary for the defense 
of this country.
  We will not have that money. It will continue to go out in the form 
of interest payments.
  What the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) said about Brazil, we 
are not creditworthy were it not for the full faith, credit and 
confidence of the people of this country in terms of what we have done 
in borrowing money. It is a shame what is going on each and every day.
  The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) asked for a balanced 
budget amendment vote, 1,400-some pages. We do not have one. This 
Congress, if it does not come face to face with the fact that we are 
spending a lot of money that we did not count on because of 9-11 that 
we have to spend to protect this country, our first and foremost 
obligation as Members of Congress, if they do not come face to face 
with that and understand that we have to get the money up to pay for it 
or else pass it on to our children in the form of a debt tax that can 
never be repealed, then we have shamefully failed not only our oath of 
office, but we have shamefully failed those who will follow us.
  And each and every day a billion dollars goes out of this place to 
pay interest, and each and every day we operate in the red, it is more 
piled on. That is why deficits matter and that is what the Blue Dogs 
are going to be talking about over the next few weeks.

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