[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 9, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NATION'S DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, if you were to look back 400 
or 500 years, to the nations that our forefathers left, many of them in 
Europe, a common practice then was that children would inherit the 
debts of their parents. If they did not have the money to repay those 
debts, then they became indentured servants for some lord or king.
  Amongst the many decisions our founding fathers made when they wrote 
America's constitution was they had to wrestle with whether or not one 
generation should be able to burden the next generation with its debts. 
They decided they would not; that the debt dies with the estate, and 
that once an estate's taxes are paid, the children are not responsible 
for the debts of their parents.
  I say this because we have seen a dramatic change in our Nation in 
the past 25 years, in particular, in the past 3 years. I have a 25-
year-old daughter. On the day she was born, our Nation was less than $1 
trillion in debt. We had gone all the way from the American Revolution, 
the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish-
American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, escaped the 
Great Depression, built the intercoastal waterways, and the Golden Gate 
Bridge and borrowed less than $1 trillion.
  It first started with the Reagan administration, a Democratic House 
and a Republican Senate. In the span of 8 years, they doubled that debt 
to $2 trillion. Ah, but they were just pikers when it came to the Bush 
administration. In less than 3 years, since May 9, 2001, when George 
Bush passed his tax cut saying he could cut taxes, increase spending, 
balance the budget, and pay off those debts that we had, our Nation's 
debt has grown by $1,448,675,099,676.
  If I were to have one page out here on the House floor, which I have 
since been prohibited from doing by Speaker Hastert, each holding up 
one sign for one digit, it would take 13 young Americans to show just 
the increase in our Nation's debt.
  But it is worse than that. Because if we listen to my Republican 
colleagues, they say, but we have tax cuts, and we have done a lot of 
good with that. I would remind my colleagues that through December of 
this year, they have returned to the American public $431 billion in 
tax cuts since May 9, 2001. But in order to do that, they borrowed 
$1.358 trillion.
  Now, 7th grade math tells me that for every $1 they have returned to 
the citizens, they borrowed $3. It is an intergenerational transfer of 
debt. For the sake of their political coffers going up and their 
contributions going up, they have now stuck my kids, everyone's kids 
and every unborn child in America with an additional $1.448 trillion 
worth of debt.
  But it is worse than that. They did not just steal it from future 
generations, they stole it from today's generation.
  Speaker Hastert, why don't you tell us how much we owe to the Social 
Security Trust Fund today? Oh, I am sorry, you are out raising money.
  Well, the Social Security Trust Fund owes $1.555 trillion. And when 
my colleagues tell you about the lock box, ask them the name of the 
bank and the account number. Because there is not one penny in the 
Social Security Trust Fund.
  How about the Medicare Trust Fund? Mr. Speaker, how much is owed to 
the Medicare Trust Fund? I am sorry, he is out talking about what a 
great job he has done as Speaker.
  We owe $284 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund. That is money taken 
out of people's taxes that were promised to be set aside for no other 
purpose than to pay Medicare bills. There is not a penny in that 
account. Again, if any of my colleagues tell you that there is, ask 
them for the name of the bank and the account number.
  How about the military retirement fund? Those brave people serving us 
right now in dangerous places like Iraq and Afghanistan, in Colombia 
and Korea.
  Mr. Speaker, how much money do we owe the military retirees trust 
fund? Gee, could not make it.
  It is $185 billion that you have taken from their trust fund and used 
to spend on your programs.
  And lastly, those people who serve us, all the way from the FBI 
agents to the CIA, border patrol agents, homeland security agents, all 
those folks who work for our Nation and have a retirement system they 
have paid into that has been matched by the taxpayers. How much is owed 
to it, Mr. Speaker? $621 billion.
  Mr. Speaker, you have been Speaker now since January 1, 1999, and you 
have not allowed a vote on a balanced budget amendment. What is it that 
you are hiding from me? What is it that you are hiding from them?

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