[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 24, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BLUE DOG DEFICIT UPDATE

  (Mr. STENHOLM asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, today we owe the country $7,078 billion, 
being swept under the rug every day. Foreign holdings of our debt now 
total $1.5 trillion. Foreign investors financed 70 percent of our 
record $373 billion debt last year. In January of 2002, foreign 
investors held $1 trillion of our U.S. debt; today it is $1.5 trillion. 
Japan holds $545 billion, and China holds $149 billion of our debt. By 
far, the United States' largest foreign aid program is our interest 
payments to foreign investors, yet we continue to not want to change 
our economic game plan to do something about it. The largest single 
debt tax increase in the history of our country is being perpetrated on 
us today.
  Mr. Speaker, $7,078 billion, that is what we owe today.

                          ____________________