[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    OVERSPENDING AND OVER-PROMISING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to speak about 
what some consider boring statistics on government growth. I can add 
later in this 5-minute short brief, on where we are on not only 
overspending but over-promising.
  We are now doing the appropriations bills. This is my last year in 
Congress. In the 12 years that I have been in Congress, all spending 
appropriations are increasing much faster than inflation. That means 
government is growing faster than everybody else's financial pocketbook 
who are citizens in this country.
  Some years we have seen 3, 3\1/2\, one year almost 4 percent growth 
in the Federal Government faster than inflation.
  The percentage of our total Federal budget that goes to service the 
debt, pay interest on the debt, of our annual overspending is now $7 
trillion. And what it costs the taxpayers of this country to pay the 
interest on that debt is 14 percent of our total Federal spending. 14 
percent represents a little more than $300 billion a year that we are 
spending on interest.
  And so I ask, Mr. Speaker, guess what is going to happen to interest 
rates over the next couple of years or the next 10 years. Interest 
rates are going to go up. They are now at a relatively low percentage. 
And if the lower percentage represents a cost to us of $300 billion a 
year, what if interest rates were to go back up to where they were in 
the early 1980s?
  Now, let us move from the high interest rates and that cost to 
taxpayers in the future to how much the total debt of this country is 
increasing. Now, I mentioned about $7 trillion current debt. We are 
increasing the debt now by over $500 billion a year. That means that 
this body, this Congress, these Members are going to have to look their 
grandkids in the face and try to explain today's overspending, saying 
something, some excuse, it was not my fault, it was somebody else's 
fault that taxes in your generation are so high.
  We are going to hear a lot of rhetoric during these appropriation 
bills that Congress should spend more, in other words, go deeper into 
debt. And it is somewhat of an egotistical attitude that somehow we are 
pretending that our problems today are greater than what the problems 
are going to be for our kids and our grandkids.
  Let me conclude by suggesting that it is not good for our security in 
this country. The Department of Treasury reports that 45 percent of our 
marketable debt for this government is held by foreign interests. Last 
year the overspending, which means more borrowing, resulted in 75 
percent of it being picked up by foreign interests. China is now the 
country that is accumulating more of our debt. Just imagine, for a 
moment, the vulnerability that puts us in when we become so subject to 
another country in any kind of negotiations. Whether it is military or 
whether it is trade, and that country that owns so much of our equity 
says, well, you might not be the country we wish to invest in. That 
would put us in a very serious economic situation.
  I conclude with the estimate by the actuaries of Medicare, Social 
Security, and Medicaid that are now predicting that the over-promising, 
the unfunded mandates, meaning how much money we are going to have to 
come up with over and above what is coming in currently in the FICA 
tax, the payroll tax, to accommodate the extra spending that is needed, 
again over and above the money that is coming in, is $73.5 trillion. So 
if one adds the unfunded liability of $73.5 trillion to $7 trillion 
debt, that means $80 trillion plus responsibility that we are loading 
on our kids.
  I am a farmer from Michigan. We try to pay down the mortgage on the 
farm. This body is in effect saying let us spend more, let us solve 
more of the problems by borrowing more and let us pass the bill on to 
our kids.

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