[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 6, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE MOUNTING FEDERAL DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk for a couple of 
moments on the financial situation of the Federal Government. This 
chart shows what is happening to gross Federal debt. The debt held by 
the public, the debt held by government accounts, mostly Social 
Security, what we are borrowing from Social Security, added together, 
equal the total amount of debt. The only way debt can be increased in 
the United States Government is if the House and the Senate pass 
legislation increasing the debt limit and then the President signs it. 
That is what we are doing again this year and that is partially because 
of the increase in Federal spending.
  As you can see on this chart, by 2013 we are approaching a debt of 
$10 trillion; $10 trillion debt compared to a budget for next year that 
is going to amount to about $2.2 trillion. Let me tell you one of the 
big problems of why we are going so deep in debt. That is because of 
the overzealousness of this legislative body and the White House to 
spend more and more money.
  This next chart shows the increase in spending. As you can see, the 
discretionary spending increases have averaged 6.3 percent each year 
since 1996. Since 1997, we have increased spending by 7.7 percent. Even 
in what is called a very frugal budget this year, with increased 
spending about 4.2 to 4.4 percent, still again it is about twice the 
rate of inflation. So if we are going to keep increasing spending, then 
what we are doing in effect is leaving a larger and larger debt to our 
kids and our grandkids.
  I am a farmer from Michigan. Our goal has been on the farm to try to 
pay down some of that mortgage in order for our kids to have a better 
chance at success and the good life than maybe their parents had. Here 
in this body, in Congress, we keep increasing the debt on our kids. It 
is sort of a hidden tax.
  If you will a future tax increase.
  Increasing taxes outright is going to increase the chance that you 
are not going to be reelected.

                              {time}  1300

  But increasing spending by increased borrowing means that they are 
cutting a ribbon on some jogging trail or some library or other pork 
project. It probably increases the chance that they are going to be 
reelected. So the propensity to spend more and more money is one of the 
failures of this legislative system. Simply leaving this mortgage to 
our kids is in effect saying that our problems today are more important 
than the problems that our kids and our grandkids are going to face 
when they are responsible for paying their taxes into this Federal 
Government.
  Let me say that I was disappointed last week in another demonstration 
of the unwillingness of this Chamber to stay within the budget. Last 
week we had an HIV/AIDS bill coming before the body that we passed out 
of the House and sent to the Senate. That bill increased by 50 percent 
the HIV/AIDS money that was in the budget to be spent internationally 
to help cure AIDS. So it was an increase of 50 percent over and above 
what the President suggested, 50 percent over and above what we passed 
in the budget resolution. So the discipline of this body to reduce 
spending and live within our budget leaves much to be desired.
  How do we get this kind of discipline? We are talking this week about 
tax cuts, and certainly we cannot pay for tax cuts with increased 
borrowing. However, we have a system in this country where those who 
work hard, save and invest and try to start a business and make money 
producing something that other people want to buy has ended up with the 
kind of incentives that has made this country the strongest 
economically in the world. And it is not Government that decides 
whether we are going to have a good economy. It is the people that 
decide that it is going to be to their advantage and the advantage of 
their family if they decide to work hard and try to produce talent or 
some products that other people want to buy.
  So the goal and the key, the bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that 
somehow, someplace, sometime this body and the White House have got to 
come up with the discipline to hold down spending if we want to keep a 
strong economy and those incentives that cause people to expand 
business and therefore expand jobs.

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