[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 124 (Thursday, September 29, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H8630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          KATRINA UNEARTHS DISASTROUS FISCAL STATE OF COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, almost a year ago, I spoke on this House 
floor warning of the dangers posed by the latest effort of the majority 
party to raise the debt limit for the third time during this 
administration to a whopping $8.18 trillion.
  I used the occasion to contrast the fiscal policies of the Clinton 
administration, namely, turning the largest budget deficits in history 
to the largest budget surpluses in history, with the fiscal policies of 
the current administration. However, my protestations and the warnings 
of my fellow Blue Dog Democrats continued to fall on deaf ears.
  It is inconceivable that deficits soaring as far as the eye can see, 
mounting debt, and the skyrocketing costs of military operations in 
Iraq and Afghanistan would be ignored for so long and that it would 
take a tragedy such as Hurricane Katrina to finally serve as a wakeup 
call. For years members of the Blue Dog Coalition have warned that we 
were spending money we did not have, that the administration had no 
economic plan, and that massive untargeted tax cuts were not a 
substitute for an economic blueprint for our country's future. And yet 
the Congress continued to reject every proposal requiring us to do our 
budget in the same way that our constituents do, by paying as we go.
  Now that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have wreaked havoc on the gulf 
coast, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage, it is clear 
that we must take immediate action to get our fiscal house in order. 
Members on the other side of the aisle have finally acknowledged what 
Democrats have been saying for years, that our current economic 
policies cannot be maintained. Unfortunately, however, some in the 
majority party have proposed that we ask those Americans who have been 
impacted most by Katrina, namely, the elderly and those with low 
incomes, to bear the costs.
  This is not the answer to the persistent poverty exposed so brutally 
and graphically by Katrina. We must pursue a comprehensive solution to 
our fiscal woes by suspending tax cuts for wealthy families, by cutting 
spending, and enacting PAYGO rules, pay-as-you-go, and establishing an 
emergency rainy day fund.
  Mr. Speaker, the 2005 budget resolution included $106 billion in new 
deficit finance tax cuts over the next 5 years. These additional tax 
cuts will impose a huge additional debt burden on the next generation. 
If the government is forced to borrow the money to cover these added 
expenses, the yearly interest payments alone will pile on the already 
enormous debt that our children and grandchildren will be faced with 
paying off.
  Most of these tax cuts will actually be doled out to individuals who 
do not need more of the government's largesse. With American troops in 
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and with our country coping with the 
rebuilding of the gulf coast, all of us, all of us, must sacrifice for 
our troops and for our neighbors.
  In addition to suspending tax cuts for wealthy families, the Congress 
must immediately restrain its voracious appetite for spending, finding 
places where cuts can be made to pay the costs of Katrina and Iraq. And 
in addition to making tough cuts, the Congress should move to 
immediately reinstate PAYGO rules to stop any further bleeding.
  Finally, the Congress must establish a rainy day fund for future 
Katrinas so we will not find ourselves in this spot again. The interest 
earned by such a fund could be used for disaster planning and 
preparedness, to modernize our Nation's infrastructure, fortify our 
levees, and to update and make interoperable our communications 
systems.
  The American people now understand the precarious state of the 
Nation's finances. Today our national debt stands at nearly $8 
trillion. Each citizen's personal share of that debt is almost $27,000. 
This is what we bequeath to our children, and it conflicts most 
directly with what my parents taught me and what most of our parents 
taught all of us, that is, we leave the country a little better off 
than we found it.
  In 1989, a New York City real estate developer named Seymour Durst 
placed a large National Debt Clock in Times Square in order to draw 
public attention to what he saw as a grim predictor of financial 
instability. For 11 years, the debt numbers on the clock rose at the 
breakneck pace of $13,000 a second. In 1995, as the Clinton 
administration began to pay down the national debt, onlookers were 
shocked to see the numbers on that clock not only slow down but 
reverse. The clock was retired in the year 2000, as President Clinton 
announced record reductions in the national debt.
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, no debt clocks were at work this time 
drawing attention to this crisis. It has taken Katrina to awaken the 
Nation to the coming fiscal crisis. Let us hope our response to this 
crisis is an improvement on our response to the last. We owe that to 
our kids.

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