[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 155 (Wednesday, December 1, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H7761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA'S ECONOMIC CRISIS

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, Ireland, with a population of just 4.4 
million, has been forced to get a $90 billion bailout to keep from 
crashing. With our debt of almost $14 trillion and trillion-dollar 
yearly deficits, we are very close to becoming a gigantic Ireland 
financially. A similar bailout for the U.S. would be over $6 trillion.
  In yesterday's Washington Post, columnist Fareed Zakaria, concerning 
what he called our economic crisis, wrote this:
  ``Washington is asking consumers to stop saving and start spending, 
while the government issues more debt and the Fed lowers rates--all 
measures designed to increase debt.'' ``In other words,'' he wrote, 
``we are fighting a crisis caused by excessive debt by encouraging 
excessive debt. Is that really the best way to get growth?''
  A few months ago the Post editorialized, ``It's time to stop worrying 
about the deficit and start panicking about the debt. The fiscal 
situation was serious before the recession; it is now dire.''
  The problem is that the Post, like too many in this city, always 
attacks any attempts to cut spending.

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