[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 74 (Monday, May 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          A RISING SEA OF DEBT

  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. Mr. Speaker, in the next few days, Congress is 
going to pass another increase in the statutory debt limit, and it will 
be signed by the President. I want to talk about the rising sea of 
debt, and we have to be careful that we do not drown.
  A few years of surpluses between 1998 and 2001, which were not really 
surpluses except by Washington standards, seems to have given us a 
false sense of security. Since then the situation has deteriorated very 
rapidly, with huge increases in spending; and now we face the most 
serious debt and overspending crisis in American history. The value of 
the dollar is going down because of the increasing debt and the tax 
obligation that our kids and our grandkids are going to pay is going up 
because of increased debt.
  President Andrew Jackson paid off the Federal debt in 1835, retiring 
the last of the Revolutionary War bonds; however, the United States 
returned to borrowing which has now grown to levels that President 
Jackson could hardly imagine. Starting at zero in 1835, it took more 
than a century for the debt to reach $100 billion in 1943; $100 billion 
in 1943. After 200 years of American history, the debt reached $500 
billion in 1976. Now we are projected to borrow more than $500 billion 
every year, this year, next year, the year after. The debt stands at 
$6.5 trillion today and will reach $10 trillion at current borrowing 
rates before the end of the decade. The administration is now using 
gimmicks to pay our bills until Congress again increases the statutory 
debt limit.
  The debt is not even the worst of it. The government unfunded 
liabilities are several times larger than the official public debt. 
These liabilities are promises that the government has made or 
obligations it has undertaken without setting aside any resources or a 
way to pay those debts. According to the Department of Treasury's 
latest financial report to the United States Government, we owe or can 
expect to owe $57.8 billion to cover otherwise defaults on direct and 
guaranteed loans; $55.8 billion on accounts payable across the 
government; $1.86 trillion for government and military pensions and 
benefits; $849 billion in other veterans benefits, mostly medical; $273 
billion for projected environmental cleanup from government activities; 
$202 billion in miscellaneous liabilities. These are all OMB 
projections, and this is only the beginning. This is the least of it.
  This still is not part of the unfunded liabilities which are Social 
Security and Medicare. It will cost $9 trillion to pay promised Social 
Security benefits. Similarly, Medicare part A is expected to run $5.13 
trillion over expected taxes. Part B is another $8.13 trillion.

                              {time}  2015

  Thus, the liabilities in just these three programs is about four 
times our current debt.
  Further, this unfunded liability assumes the full repayment of all 
trust funds. Government has been borrowing from all of these other 
trust funds to afford the expenditures that have increased so 
dramatically over the last several years. If those trust funds are not 
paid, those amounts, which are really very small by comparison, will 
have to be added to the liability.
  We have gotten to the sorry state of affairs through what I consider 
overspending and overpromising by Washington. Reelection votes are 
bought today in exchange for promises of benefits later, and the 
problem is that the country cannot afford all Washington is promising.
  About 13 percent of the total Federal budget is now used to pay 
interest on the debt. If overspending continues and interest rates 
return to normal, we could easily see spending of the United States 
using one-quarter, one-fourth, of all of the total budget. A day of 
reckoning is coming sooner or later. If the government stays on its 
present course, we will face the choice of much higher taxes or much 
reduced benefits and services.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, Washington needs a new sense of urgency. 
We are promising too much, spending too much, and leaving future 
generations at risk. I have long pushed for spending restraints and 
necessary entitlement reform, including Social Security reform. It is 
time for those issues to come before the floor.

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