[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 26, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                  DON'T LET DEBT DEFEAT A GREAT NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, soon the Congress will be asked to raise the 
debt limit of this Nation. This actually happened under the previous 
administration, and now it's happening under the new administration.
  I have not voted, from the time I have been in Congress, to raise 
this debt ceiling because all this really does is permit our government 
to borrow more money from foreign governments. I think we all know that 
we are what is called a debtor nation. We don't pay our bills anymore. 
We have to go to the Japanese, the Chinese, the UAE, and to many other 
countries to buy our debt so we can spend more. That is the reason I 
wanted to come to the floor tonight.
  Before we broke for Christmas, Frank Wolf had sent out to each Member 
of the House a little pamphlet that says, ``Don't Let Debt Defeat a 
Great Nation.'' He and Jim Cooper, in a bipartisan way--Frank Wolf 
being a Republican; Jim Cooper a Democrat--have introduced H.R. 1557, 
the SAFE Commission Act, and I want to talk about that in the little 
bit of time I have.
  And I am reading from his publication, Mr. Wolf's publication. ``We 
have amassed massive unfunded `promises' to guarantee future 
entitlement benefits that when added with liabilities like the debt, 
total nearly $57 trillion. That means every man, woman and child in 
America owes $184,000.''
  I have used this back in my district, and I like to say it this way, 
Mr. Speaker. When that beautiful baby is born, the first cry out of his 
or her mouth is a cry of, ``Do I owe $184,000?'' Yes, baby, you do owe 
$184,000. Every American does.
  This could, according to the information from Frank Wolf, skyrocket 
to $21 trillion by the year 2020. How do Frank Wolf and Jim Cooper, in 
a bipartisan effort, try to deal with this out-of-control spending? 
They have introduced, again, H.R. 1557, the SAFE Commission Act. And 
the actual title on it is the Securing America's Future Economy--SAFE 
Act.
  How does this function? This would create a SAFE Commission. This 
would be made up of 16 bipartisan appointed people to be on this SAFE 
Commission Act, and it would be their responsibility to go through how 
government spends its money, from the entitlements to the spending on 
education, transportation, health care, national defense, tax policy, 
and other items. This commission would come back to Congress, if this 
should become the law, and then Congress would be required to vote up 
or down on the panels's proposal.
  Now, how this panel would come up with this proposal is they would go 
around this country and they would hold hearings and listen to the 
American people--something we have not been doing, either party, quite 
frankly. We are not listening to the American people. Yes, we are now, 
and after what happened in Massachusetts a couple weeks ago, the 
American people are being heard and they've been heard by many of us 
when we go back home and do our own town meetings. But this commission 
would have the authority, should this become the law, to say to the 
Congress, You can't duck these votes. You're going to have to vote up 
or down. I think this is critical.
  I would love to hear the President tomorrow night--I hope somebody 
has made him aware of this bipartisan effort known as the SAFE 
Commission, and I hope he would say tomorrow night that he would 
endorse this legislation and encourage the Democratic leadership in the 
House and the Republican leadership in the House to get behind this 
bill.
  At this present time, Mr. Speaker, we have 109 Members of Congress 
who have cosponsored this legislation. I hope my other colleagues will 
look seriously at what Mr. Cooper and Mr. Wolf have done to try to 
bring to the American people hope that we can meet our obligations 
based on the Constitution and deal with this out-of-control spending 
here in Washington, D.C. that both parties are responsible for.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, before I leave, as I do every night on the 
floor, I ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform, to 
please bless their families, and I ask God to hold in his arms the 
families who've given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and 
Iraq.
  And, Mr. Speaker, three times, I ask God to please, please God, 
please God, please God, continue to bless America.

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