[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H3125-H3126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     BECOMING AMERICA THE DEPENDENT

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from Ohio 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, America, which should value our birthright 
of independence, is all too quickly becoming America the dependent.
  We are dangerously dependent, for example, on foreign oil for our 
energy needs. Indeed, we import nearly 75 percent of it; a third of our 
trade deficit is due to this oil dependency. We could become energy 
independent here at home with energy sources here that we would invent 
and create and refine, and what a job-rich America that would create.
  America is becoming more and more dependent upon imports from foreign 
manufacturers than we are exports from our country in all fields: in 
appliances, in clothing, even food. This year America may become for 
the first time in its history a net food importer.
  The balance of payments which had been the pride of our country, more 
exports than imports, has been reduced to red ink. The monthly trade 
deficit for March was just in 1 month over $62 billion, and we are 
still on another record annual trade deficit pace.
  In fact, our monthly trade deficit figure is so huge it equals the 
entire annual budget of our Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans 
fought to make us free from foreign tyranny, but the new tyranny is 
taking a different form.
  At the end of March, our overall publicly held debt was a staggering 
$4.6 trillion, not counting promises that the government has made to 
pay for retirement programs and health benefits that are due to the 
American people in the amount of over $8.4 trillion. Now, would you 
believe that nearly half, 43 percent of this debt, overall debt, of 
that amount, $2 trillion is now held by foreigners.
  We have already heard that it took 200 years for our Nation to 
accumulate $1 trillion of debt. But would you believe we are now at the 
point where $1 trillion of our public debt is held by Japan, China and 
Hong Kong? As this chart illustrates, Japan is the largest holder of 
our debt, followed by Europe, followed by China and Hong Kong, which 
are rising very quickly.
  In fact, would you believe that between October of 2003 and March of 
this year, China alone more than doubled its holdings of our public 
debt from $151 billion to $321 billion. The United States government, 
our taxpayers this year will pay more than $200 billion in interest on 
publicly-held debt with nearly $100 billion going to foreign holders of 
our debt. That's right. We are going to pay interest to foreign holders 
of U.S. debt, almost five times as much as we appropriate on an annual 
basis for the entire U.S. Department of Energy. Imagine if we invested 
those dollars in ourselves. We will pay interest to foreign holders of 
U.S. debt nearly three times as much as we spend in a year on the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development to build this country from 
coast-to-coast.
  We will pay interest to foreign holders of U.S. debt nearly twice as 
much as we appropriate for the entire Department of Labor. We have just 
had more miners killed in Kentucky, God rest their souls, because they 
didn't have oxygen equipment that would last them long enough that 
would outlast the monoxide until the rescue workers could get there.
  Yet we can pay this kind of money to foreign holders of our debt. We 
will pay about as much interest to foreign holders of U.S. debt as we 
will appropriate for fighting the war in Iraq. Wow. Think about it. 
What do we do about it?
  Without a doubt, first thing we should do is clean up our fiscal 
house, and that starts with balancing our budgets and digging out of 
this red ink. We cannot expect to continue in this fashion and remain 
the leader of the free world. Our currency is being devalued. We see 
the skittishness in the stock market, and interest rates are going up 
at the same time as gas prices are going up. This is very clear.
  There are certain rules of economics that never fail you. We are 
either going to have a currency devaluation, or we are going to have 
inflation go out of control. But the point is, more and

[[Page H3126]]

more, we are going in hock to foreign interests. We need to ask, how do 
we take our country back? At a minimum, how do we owe the money to 
ourselves rather than other Nations? In prior generations, when we were 
faced with a problem like this, we didn't turn to foreign bankers; we 
turned to the American people. We did it through balancing our budget, 
and we did it through savings bond sales. There used to be a time when 
savings bonds could be purchased easily at any local bank or even in 
smaller denominations at our U.S. Postal Service.
  It was a way the average American, who is as patriotic as anybody in 
this world, could invest in their own country. They could buy bonds in 
very small denominations, and they knew their investment was secure and 
that they were investing in America, not someplace else.
  But in recent years, the Federal Reserve and our Treasury have gotten 
lazy. They are selling these denominations in big, big numbers, 
thousands of dollars apiece, and they like to do it through just a few 
cushy dealers on Wall Street. They love dealing with the big bond 
houses to get fees for every bond they sell. It is a very undemocratic 
bond system.
  In fact, the Federal Reserve loves to reward their friends on Wall 
Street instead of strengthening our Nation down to the average citizen 
and their ability to own a piece of the republic. I would like to 
restore that spirit of independence to our country, and this method, 
tried and true, of savings bond purchases helped us through military 
wars and economic depressions.
  Savings bonds can be called upon again, in a new war, to maintain 
America's economic independence and take it back from foreign investors 
who are owning larger pieces of us every day. Independence, 
independence, independence. Reduce America's ownership by foreign 
interests.

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