[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 24, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2312-H2313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SPENDING MONEY WE DON'T HAVE

  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. Madam Speaker, I'm not going to talk for 5 
minutes, but I would like to talk to my Democratic colleagues tonight 
because once again it seems that we're spending money that we don't 
have. And I know this may sound funny, but the American people can't 
figure out why they have to balance their budgets and we keep spending 
money we don't have, we don't have, we don't have.
  Now, the bill we passed today provided $6 million in funds that we 
did appropriate money for, for use for summer jobs, and we had $5.1 
billion for disaster relief. Well, now, disaster relief is something 
that I think is very laudable. But we have had the President say a 
number of times he is for what's called PAYGO, and if you come up with 
a program and don't have the money, you have to come up with the money 
by cutting another program to take care of the one that you're funding. 
So we had another $5.1 billion added to the deficit today.
  The deficit projected by the White House over the next 10 years is 
$900 billion a year. And they've been short on their projections all 
over the place. For instance, they said that the health care bill we 
just passed--which most Americans don't want--was only going to cost 
about $800-and-some billion. But, when you realize that we're paying 
for

[[Page H2313]]

6 years of benefits but we're taxing for 10 years, you realize that 
it's going to cost way more than the $800-and-some billion they're 
talking about. It's going to cost like $1.6 trillion or $1.7 trillion 
for 10 years of coverage or 10 years of taxes.
  So I would just like to say to my colleagues tonight and my 
colleagues back in the office--and if I were talking to the American 
people, if they were listening, if I could talk to them--I know I 
can't, Madam Speaker----I would say what we need to be doing in 
Washington is we need to be telling the President and the Democrat 
leadership to go down and buy several thousand reams of additional 
paper and several million gallons of ink so that they can go down to 
the printing press at the Treasury Department and print money that we 
don't have. That is what they ought to be doing.
  And then the people who have money in the bank, let's say you got a 
thousand dollars in the bank, Madam Speaker, and we double the money 
supplied by printing money that we don't have, we double the money 
supply, you have a thousand in the bank. You still have a thousand 
dollars but it will only buy $500 worth of product. That is where we're 
heading. Inflation is a hidden tax that people don't even realize 
they're getting. And that's what's going to happen if we don't get 
control of spending.
  The budget this year was $3.85 trillion that we don't have. The 
health care bill is going to cost more like $3 trillion in the next 10 
years that we don't have. That doesn't include the doc fix, which is 
going to cost $250-some billion dollars that we don't have.
  So I would just like to say, Madam Speaker, to my colleagues back in 
their offices and to the American people if I could talk to them, and I 
know I can't, you ought to talk to your representative and tell them, 
quit spending money we don't have. You're ruining our children's 
future. You're creating a society that is going to be costing them a 
lot more, taxing them a lot more and giving them a quality of life that 
does not equal what we have today. And that is a terrible legacy to 
leave to the future generations.

                          ____________________