[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 57 (Thursday, April 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2212-H2213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WE CANNOT SAY WE DID NOT KNOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. In his first speech in the British Parliament in 1789 
describing the slave trade, William Wilberforce concluded telling his 
colleagues this, he said, ``Having heard all of this, you may choose to 
look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know.''
  Not one Member of the 110th Congress can say they do not know about 
the Nation's long-term financial outlook which former Comptroller 
General David Walker said will ``result in a tsunami of spending and 
debt that could swamp our ship of state.''
  According to the Government Accountability Office, America is $5.3 
trillion deep in publicly held debt and has estimated $54.3 trillion in 
unfunded promised benefits if we don't change our current course. And 
that is trillions with a ``T.''

[[Page H2213]]

  The Social Security Medicare Trustees Report recently issued only 
reinforces the dire condition of our fiscal health. The Medicare 
Trustees Report concluded that consideration of reforms to ensure the 
financial security of Medicare must occur, stating, ``the sooner the 
solutions are enacted, the more flexible and gradual they can be.'' The 
Social Security report echoes this sense of urgency, saying, ``The 
projected trust fund deficits should be addressed in a timely manner. 
Making adjustments sooner will allow them to be spread over more 
generations.''
  And if those dire projections are not enough to raise the warning 
flags, couple those with the fact that the value of the dollar is 
falling through the floor. What more evidence do we need to realize 
that our children and grandchildren cannot afford to have their leaders 
choose to look the other way?
  I was so disappointed that Treasury Secretary Paulson's focus is not 
on this issue. I told him today when he testified before the State and 
Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee that I believe he is one 
of the most qualified Treasury Secretaries our Nation has had. He has a 
brilliant mind, but his attention isn't on the most fundamental of all 
issues, the economic future of America.
  I was also disappointed that he didn't answer my question about the 
projections credible rating agencies, such as Moody's Investment 
Service, are making about the U.S. triple-A bond rating being at risk 
as early as year 2012. I also asked Secretary Paulson what the 
ramifications of this loss would be. He didn't answer that question 
either.
  Just last week, Congressman Jim Cooper and I sat in on a roundtable 
discussion held by Maya MacGuineas and the Committee for a Responsible 
Federal Budget, and they have done a great job. It was just such a 
diverse group from the business, finance and policy communities, former 
CBO directors, former OMB directors, think tanks, political views 
across the spectrum, the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings 
Institution included. Almost everyone expressed concern about the 
entitlement crisis we are facing. This is not only an economic issue, 
it is also generational and a moral issue.
  You may have read Pete Peterson's editorial in Newsweek this week. He 
ended by quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was 
instrumental in the resistance movement against fascist Germany. He 
said, ``The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it 
leaves to its children.''
  I cannot help but wonder what sort of future today's partisan 
Washington is leaving to generations to come. If we can come together, 
both sides of the aisle, we can ensure that our children and our 
grandchildren have all the opportunity that you and I have had. Jim 
Cooper and I are working together on the Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission, 
with over 80 bipartisan cosponsors.
  If anyone has another viable plan to address our entitlement tsunami, 
we're anxious to hear it. But we cannot continue the status quo. Doing 
nothing is not acceptable.
  Wilberforce's admonition rings as true today as it did in 1789. 
``Having heard all this, you may choose to look the other way, but you 
can never again say that you do not know.''
  We know, and it's on our watch. Let's fix it.

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