[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 4, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H2946-H2947]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GREATEST TRAGEDY OF MANKIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, when I came here in 1997, we passed the first 
balanced Budget Act in 30 years. That was a result of the work of a lot 
of people. I do not take credit for making that happen. But then after 
having a balanced budget and running a surplus until the year 2001, 
beginning in January of that year, when we turned over this great 
country to the Bush administration and a Republican majority in the 
House and the Senate, and let us be very clear about that. The 
Republicans have controlled the House, the Senate, the White House and 
the Supreme Court for all of this time. And we have turned over a $5 
trillion surplus to these people.
  Now, as we just saw a few minutes ago from one of our conscientious 
Blue Dogs, they have turned that $5 trillion surplus into an $8 
trillion debt. And just last week when the budget was passed that I 
voted against and most of the Democrats voted against, as far as I know 
all of them did, they raised the debt ceiling again to $9 trillion.
  We are having to raise the debt ceiling almost $1 trillion a year to 
keep up with the total mismanagement of the people's affairs by the 
Republicans. It would be hard to imagine a greater fiscal disaster than 
the Bush administration has led us to.
  Over and over and over again, we tried to reach out and we tried to 
say, let us reestablish the budget rules that got us to a surplus back 
in the 90s. Let us admit that we have got a problem. Let us require a 
balanced budget. Let us require pay-as-you-go. If you cannot pay for 
it, you cannot spend it. Let us make borrowing money from our children 
and grandchildren much more difficult to do, and it should only be done 
in cases of great national emergency.
  Recently, the President has gone before the Nation and declared he 
wants to save Social Security. Regardless of the outcome of what he 
wants to do, if we do not take care of the debt and the deficit, all we 
are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It is a 
ridiculous exercise to talk about changing the Social Security system

[[Page H2947]]

when we do not know how we are going to pay the interest on the 
national debt 5 years from now.
  If nothing is done by the time the Social Security so-called crisis 
occurs, it will take every nickel of the income of the Federal 
Government just to pay the interest on the debt. And my question to the 
Republicans that have created this situation, and I remember so well 
how they told us back in 2001, if we just do this, if we just cut taxes 
on the richest people in this country, the economy will just bubble up 
out of the ground. It will be the land of milk and honey. Nothing but 
free Bubble-Up and rainbow stew everywhere for everyone.
  What a ridiculous thing that has been proven to be. But they told us 
if you will just do this, everything will be wonderful.
  The fact is they have borrowed nearly $5 trillion from our children 
and grandchildren and do not have a clue as to how they are going to 
pay it back. And the great mystery to me is why. Why would you want to 
do that? Why would you deceive yourselves into thinking that that is 
something good for this great Nation?
  I can tell you this, the United States of America is the most 
wonderful thing ever done by man with a divine inspiration of God 
Almighty. And if we would be so foolish as to spend ourselves 
completely bankrupt and not take any action to deal with this in a 
responsible way while we may still have time to do it, it will be the 
greatest tragedy of mankind.

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