[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 74 (Thursday, May 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5636]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA'S TREASURY IS BARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, today we passed the supplemental bill. And 
I'm deeply disappointed about that. I was disappointed also that I 
wasn't able to get any time to enter into the debate because the time 
was rather limited and it was a closed rule. But I did want to make a 
couple of comments and the concerns that I have had about this 
supplemental.
  When the President sent the supplemental over, it was $84.9 billion. 
And there were some of us that were hoping that we wouldn't be funding 
the war through supplementals, but it looks like that hasn't changed, 
the process would continue, even though there were some that believed 
there would be a change in the way we funded these wars. When that bill 
came to the House, there was a lot of expression about concern about 
spending too much money. But by the time it got to the floor, it was 
$96.7 billion. And things were added, for instance, $2 billion for the 
flu epidemic that didn't occur, but still, we are going to spend $2 
billion trying to figure out whether we are ever going to have an 
epidemic.
  It was very disappointing that even though it was a closed rule, the 
minority had one chance to do something about it and maybe reduce some 
of the spending. But lo and behold, when that amendment was offered, it 
was offered to increase the spending by $2.9 billion. There was a lot 
of expression of the outcry about this spending and the deficits we 
have and the deficits exploding and the Social Security, Medicare, 
Medicaid underfunded, and we are in the midst of a crisis. But it 
doesn't seem to bother anybody about spending. But the truth is, the 
Treasury is bare. The Treasury is empty. And yet we continue to spend 
all this money.
  So where do they think they are going to get this money? Well, we 
can't tax the people any more. The people are broke. And yet still we 
resort to more borrowing and more printing of money which will not last 
forever. It will eventually come to an end. And I think that is what we 
are witnessing.
  This process bothers me a whole lot that we come to the floor with 
the supplementals. We rush them through. We talk about this excessive 
spending. And lo and behold, when we finally vote, we get a total of 60 
people who would say, Enough is enough. And besides, what are we doing? 
Where are we spending this money? I thought we were supposed to, with 
this change in administration, that we would be fighting less wars. But 
no. The war in Iraq continues. We expand the war in Afghanistan. We 
spread the war into Pakistan. And we always have on the table the 
potential danger of Iran.
  So when will it ever end? We can't even define the enemy. Who exactly 
is the enemy over there? Is it the al Qaeda? The Taliban? Is it the 
Government of Pakistan? If you can't define the enemy, how do you know 
when the war is over? If we are in war, which we are, how can this be 
anything other than war? When was this war declared? Oh, well, we got 
this authority 5 or 10 years ago. Who knows when? Perpetual war. This 
is what we are involved with. Perpetual spending. And then we say, 
well, we have to do that to be safe. That is what is preposterous. It 
is the very policy that makes us unsafe. We pursue this policy, and the 
more we do, the less safe we are. There is a big argument now about 
whether we are safer now with the new administration or is it making us 
less safe?
  The truth is the policies of the last 10, 15, 20 years have made us 
less safe. And as long as we occupy countries, as long as we kill other 
people and civilians are being killed, we are going to build enemies. 
And as long as we are known throughout the world that we torture 
people, we will incite people to hate us and want to come here to kill 
us. So we aren't more safe. We are less safe by this foreign policy. 
And some day we have to wise up, change our ways and not be the 
policeman of the world, not to pretend that we can be the nation 
builder of the world, swear off and make sure we don't torture, because 
you don't get worthwhile information from torture. All it does is 
incite people against us. And the occupations can never be of any 
benefit to us.
  What about the financial calamity that is coming? I'm afraid this is 
the way this will end, through another financial crisis much bigger 
than the one we currently have, because you can't create $2 trillion of 
new money every year and expect this system to continue.
  The Soviet system collapsed because they couldn't afford it. Their 
economic system was a total failure. We did not have to fight the 
Soviets. Even though they were a nuclear power, they collapsed and 
disintegrated. And that is what we have to be concerned about, because 
we cannot continue to finance this system and pursue a policy which 
endangers us.
  So if we care about the American people and care about our liberties 
and care about our Constitution, we ought to look seriously at our 
foreign policy and not continue to pursue the supplemental 
appropriations where we continue to spend money that we don't have.

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