[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 87 (Thursday, June 11, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H6595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            STATE OF THE UNION'S FINANCES: A CITIZEN'S GUIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, in the past couple of weeks, two 
of our colleagues, Frank Wolf of Virginia, a Republican, and Jim Cooper 
of Tennessee, a Democrat, sent this booklet around to all of the 
Members. We get a lot of correspondence and a lot of books and 
leaflets; but I would just like to say to my colleagues tonight, I hope 
you read this. It doesn't take very long, but it's extremely important 
because it deals with not only today but with our future and our kids' 
future and our posterity. What it talks about is the debt that we have 
in this country and where we're going.
  In the last 10 years, we've gone from $5.5 trillion in debt to over 
$11 trillion in debt, and the debt is escalating at a very rapid rate. 
In fact, right now the projected deficit in the future is up to $56 
trillion. The reason for expected expenditures is for the programs that 
have been proposed and have been passed into law by this body and the 
other body. Right now explicit liabilities include publicly held debt, 
military and civilian pensions, and retiree health benefits, plus other 
things, that's $12.2 trillion; $1.3 trillion is for Federal insurance 
loan guarantees, leases and so forth; and then the big one, $42.9 
trillion, is Medicare hospital insurance, which is $12.7 trillion; 
Medicare outpatient, $15.7 trillion; Medicare prescription drugs, $7.9 
trillion; and Social Security, $6.6 trillion, for a total of $56.4 
trillion. And that does not include what's going on today. We're going 
into debt right now at about $1 to $2 trillion a year, and it's going 
to continue like that because of the programs we're talking about.
  Over the past few months since this new administration has taken 
office, we have seen proposed a socialized medicine approach to health, 
a national health care program. Lord only knows how much that's going 
to cost, but it's going to be in the billions and billions and probably 
the trillions of dollars. Much of that will be added to the national 
debt because we don't have that money. The auto industry--there's been 
bailouts of the auto industry, and it hasn't really worked. They still 
had to file chapter 11, and over $50 billion went to the auto industry.
  The banking and financial institutions. There was a big bailout of 
those in the TARP bill, I believe it was. And then the energy bill that 
they're talking about, the cap-and-trade, is going to cost a tremendous 
amount of money to the taxpayers not only from the tax money we get 
here, but also what they are going to have to spend in their homes for 
higher electric bills and everything else in the future.
  Let me just say, Mr. Speaker, this is something my colleagues really 
ought to read. It talks about our future, our kids' futures and our 
grandkids' futures. If we continue down the path we're on, there's no 
doubt in my mind that this country will go bankrupt, and we'll go the 
way of great civilizations that we have seen in the past, like Rome. 
There's just no question about it in my mind. Right now the debt that's 
held by China, Japan, England and other countries is out of sight. They 
don't want to buy our debt anymore because the value of the dollar has 
been plummeting because we're printing so much money. Right now we're 
talking about printing trillions of dollars more because they won't buy 
our debt, and we don't have that money. When that printing press gets 
out of control like it is right now, down the road we're going to see 
very high inflation, very high taxes and an economy that's 
unsustainable.
  So I hope my colleagues will read this. The book is called State of 
the Union's Finances: A Citizen's Guide, put out by my good friends 
Frank Wolf and Jim Cooper, and it is from the Pete Peterson Foundation. 
It's on your desk. I hope all of you will read it.

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