[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 8 (Thursday, January 20, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H390-H392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A TIME FOR SACRIFICE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized
for 30 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, ``On a blistering evening in Phoenix recently,
a group of prominent civic leaders met to talk about America. It didn't
take long for the conversation to get around to the fall of the Ottoman
Empire.
``That's what happens when smart Americans get to talking about
politics these days.
``Topic A is the growing sense that our best days as a Nation are
behind us, that our kids won't live as well as we did, that China is in
the driver's seat.''
Those were the opening words of an October 2010 Time magazine piece,
authored by veteran reporter Joe Klein, who canvassed the country
during the height of the campaign season.
Klein's assessment of the national mood was underscored by New York
Times columnist David Brooks, who recently wrote: ``The current sour
mood is not just caused by high unemployment. It emerges from the fear
that America's best days are behind it.''
I believe this foreboding national anxiety is born of certain
realities--exploding debts and deficits, shuttered factories, rising
unemployment, bloated government, and an acrimonious tenor to our
national discourse. People fear that America's influence is waning and
our ``shining city on a hill'' is dimming.
I must admit to sharing these same anxieties as a father of five and
grandfather of 15. I have never been more concerned about my country's
future. Yet I do not believe that the realization of these fears is
inevitable. We can walk back from the precipice. We have options.
Sober-minded people believe that we must dramatically change course,
especially as it relates to our ballooning national debt and deficit--
and I agree.
Yet, are America and her leaders willing to make the tough decisions
that are necessary?
The lyrics in Simon and Garfunkel's song ``The Boxer''--``Man hears
what he wants to hear and disregards the rest''--aptly describe the
mood in Washington when it comes to addressing Federal spending.
Within days of the President's fiscal commission report on the dire
consequences of the failure to address growing mandatory spending, it
was business as usual with Congress passing and the Obama
administration supporting a tax and spending bill with an $857 billion
price tag that included a yearlong ``payroll tax holiday,'' raiding the
Social Security trust fund at a cost of $112 billion, without paying
for it, thereby increasing the national debt.
So the question before us is: Will Washington summon the courage and
the fortitude to make the tough decisions, to govern based on principle
and not politics, to lead the country toward a brighter tomorrow even
if it means sacrificing in the short term?
Historically, Americans are willing to sacrifice.
Many of our countrymen have made the ultimate sacrifice on our own
shores and in distant lands, in places like Antietam, Normandy, Saigon,
Kandahar, and Baghdad.
It is on their shoulders we stand--wobbly at times, but stand
nonetheless. The Nation's future now falls to us. Will we step up to
the plate or will we fail to act?
For too long, routinely increasing the amount of money that
government can borrow without taking any action to stem the country's
growing debt has been standard operating procedure; but the storm
warning signs have been posted, and I am heeding their ominous call.
When Congress is asked to increase the statutory debt limit, which
will likely happen in the next few months, I will vote ``no'' unless--
and let me be completely clear here--there is a firm commitment to deal
with the larger issue or the vote itself is tied to a plan to put
America on a path to financial responsibility.
I have come to this decision based on a multitude of factors that I
will explore in the remaining time. Consider these grim realities:
Our Nation is now more than $14 trillion in debt. We have accumulated
a $1 trillion deficit every year. Just last Thursday, both Moody's
Investment Service and Standard & Poor's again cautioned the U.S. that
its coveted AAA credit rating is at risk if the country's deteriorating
fiscal situation is not corrected.
The practical implications of a downgraded credit rating are severe.
The cost to borrow money will rise. Everything from a home loan to a
car loan to a student loan will increase. Interest on the debt was $202
billion in 2010. That's nearly $4 billion a week. In 2021, interest on
the debt is projected to be $1 trillion a year, or roughly $2.7 billion
a day.
Unsustainable debt in Europe and the resulting economic woes and
austerity measures led to riots in the streets. Is it just a matter of
time before we see that at home?
If we are on the same trajectory as these countries, their
unemployment numbers should give us pause. Spain was at a whopping 19.8
percent in December.
Noted historian Niall Ferguson authored a piece in the April 2010
Foreign Affairs, exploring the theory that great empires often decline
swiftly. From Rome to the Ming Dynasty to the British Empire, history
is rife with examples of seemingly invincible world powers that
collapse in a short period of time.
Ferguson adds that, while there are varied theories about why each of
these empires declined in such short order, he said, ``Most imperial
falls are associated with fiscal crises.''
If paying $202 billion a year in interest alone isn't a fiscal
crisis, I don't know what is. Is America heading off a cliff?
Consider that last year a report from the Congressional Budget Office
revealed that for the first time in 25 years Social Security was taking
in less in taxes than it was spending on benefits. In addition, recent
reports found that as 2011 opens, the first of the baby boomers will
turn 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day for the next 19 years. Or consider
that just over the past decade foreign ownership of U.S. debt has
increased significantly from 5 percent 40 years ago to 46 percent
today.
If the U.S. does not begin to rein in spending, every penny of the
Federal budget will go to interest on the debt and entitlement spending
by 2028. This has grave implications for a host of national priorities.
Ferguson is not alone in his warnings.
In 2007, then-U.S. Comptroller General David Walker warned of
``striking similarities'' between America's current situation and the
fall of the Roman Empire.
[[Page H391]]
Respected business leader Norm Augustine, who chaired a National
Academies' Commission on American Competitiveness that resulted in the
landmark ``Gathering Storm'' report, captured well the situation in
which America now finds itself when he said, ``In the technology-driven
economy in which we live, Americans have come to accept leadership as
the natural and enduring state of affairs; but leadership is highly
perishable. It must be constantly re-earned.''
{time} 1350
He went on to say, ``Unless we do things dramatically different,
including strengthening our investments in research and education, the
21st century will belong to China and India.''
As America sinks deeper into debt, we seem satisfied to live utterly
in the moment with no concern for the future. And as our own
investments in the future lag, China is forging ahead, making critical
gains in education while our children are left in the wake.
One woman in Arizona who spoke to Klein during his heartland travel
said pointedly, ``We seem to be mired in mediocrity while China is
steaming ahead.'' Do we really want the 21st century, this century, to
be the Chinese century? Do we really want to leave our children a
country mired in mediocrity?
Last year, a 5-year followup report titled ``Rising Above the
Gathering Storm, Revisited'' noted that ``Almost one-third of U.S.
manufacturing companies responding to a recent survey say they are
suffering from some level of skills shortages.'' This failure to train
the next generation of engineers and scientists has a direct bearing on
our economy. The U.S. graduates only half the number--half the number--
of physicists today than we did in 1956.
The Gathering Storm report determined that, for the first time in our
Nation's history, the younger generation of Americans is less well
educated than its parents, and warned that ``the United States appears
to be on a course that will lead to a declining standard of living for
our children and our grandchildren.''
Against this backdrop, roughly half of America's outstanding publicly
held debt is now foreign owned, with China and Saudi Arabia among the
largest holders. Saudi Arabia was home to many of the 9/11 terrorists.
Saudi Arabia's radical Wahhabism is taught in some of the most
extremist mosques and madrassas, including up on the Afghan-Pakistan
border. Their textbooks are filled with hateful messages about minority
faiths, including Christians and Jews.
A recent New York Times story reported that, ``Saudi donors remain
the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al Qaeda.'' Is this
a country we want to be beholden to financially? Or what about
Communist China? It is well documented by the U.S. intelligence
community that China's attempt to spy on U.S. agencies and businesses
are the most aggressive of all foreign intelligence organizations and,
according to the FBI, ``pose a significant threat to the national
security'' and compromise U.S. critical national assets.
China also routinely violates the basic human rights of its own
people. Even this week, as Chinese President Hu Jintao is afforded the
pomp and circumstance of a White House state dinner, Catholic bishops,
Protestant pastors, and Tibetan monks are in Chinese jails for
practicing their faith.
I've seen how China plundered Tibet. China's abuses do not stop at
home. They are a significant arms supplier to the genocidal regime in
Khartoum, Sudan. Do we really want China to be our banker? All of these
realities must prompt some soul-searching on the part of our Nation's
leadership.
Almost 5 years ago, during the last Republican majority, I came to
the floor of the House proposing an independent bipartisan commission
to address unsustainable Federal spending. It would put everything on
the table--entitlements, all other spending, and tax policy. The SAFE
Commission--short for Securing America's Future Economy--would operate
in a transparent way, holding public meetings across the country to
hear from the American people and give them a vested interest in the
outcome. Further, it would require Congress to vote on its
recommendations.
I reintroduced this legislation with Congressman Jim Cooper in the
110th and 111th Congresses. Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg
introduced a similar bill calling for a deficit commission that became
the blueprint for the President's National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, or the Simpson-Bowles Commission.
I give credit to the deficit commission. I certainly didn't agree
with every part of its report, but the commission's work was an
important step in moving the national conversation forward. It put
forth serious ideas rather than just kicking the can down the road. And
had I been appointed to the commission, while supporting some changes,
I would have voted for its final report. I commend its members who
voted yes, such as Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, a
champion of low taxes, for having the courage to do so.
The plan set forth by the Simpson-Bowles Commission--supported by a
majority of the commission's 18 members--makes it clear that addressing
the debt and the deficit isn't just a simple exercise in rooting out
waste, fraud, and abuse. It is all well and good to eliminate earmarks,
fraud, waste, and abuse and rein in discretionary spending, but these
things alone do not come close to solving the debt and the deficit.
The infamous bank robber Willie Sutton reportedly said he robbed
banks ``because that's where the money is.'' In our government, the
money is in entitlements--Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Let
me say it again: If we do not deal with Medicare, Medicaid and Social
Security, we cannot solve this problem. We need to do it in a way that
really fixes the problem for us and for the next generation. We need to
do it in a way that strengthens America, creating economic growth and
jobs. This will be difficult and at times controversial, but the longer
we wait we can be certain that it will become more difficult and more
controversial.
The commission's forthright assessment about what is necessary to put
us in good fiscal standing was a step in the right direction. The
success of any endeavor, however, is predicated on actively involving
the American people and must require an up-or-down vote in Congress.
The President's commission came up short in that regard.
We have a divided government, which necessitates a bipartisan
solution, something that can be passed and be enacted into law, and the
sooner the better. If we neglect to do this, America will decline, and
it will decline on our watch. We will have failed our children and
grandchildren. We will have broken faith with the Founding Fathers and
past generations who have sacrificed greatly to make this Nation, our
Nation, a shining city on a hill.
We can no longer ignore the albatross of debt around our collective
necks. That is why, unless there is a firm commitment to deal with the
larger financial crisis or the vote itself is tied to a possible debt
solution, I will vote against the debt limit increase. And again, I
urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to consider doing the
same.
I don't say this lightly. I am fully aware of the implications. In a
recent letter to congressional leadership, Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner spoke in near apocalyptic terms about the consequences of
default. Even if just a fraction of his analysis is accurate, it is
clear that this isn't a decision to be made casually. It is precisely
because the stakes are so high that I believe the debt limit vote can
serve as a trigger to force congressional action that otherwise will
not be taken.
The country does not currently have a credit card limit, and we need
one in order to stop the mortgaging of our country's future. Failure to
act now on fiscal problems will ensure that in the future there will be
tax increases and drastic entitlement reductions, and no money for
important discretionary spending such as infrastructure, national
security, medical research, and education. The longer it takes to
address this issue, the more draconian the options will be when the
Nation is forced to change course, as it most assuredly will be.
If you are on Social Security or Medicare, you should insist that the
Congress and the administration act. If you are a young adult, you
should be worried that your generation will be
[[Page H392]]
significantly less well off than your parents' generation.
{time} 1400
If you care about America's global leadership, if you yearn for our
country to have the resources to combat global scourges, if you hope
for the day when there is a cure for cancer and Alzheimer's, you should
press Congress and the administration to step up to the plate now.
We must all ask ourselves: Do we want to make a point or do we want
to make a difference? If the answer is the latter, then it is clear
that this is a conversation we need to be having today. We must not put
it off.
At his 1796 farewell address, George Washington admonished his fellow
countrymen, ``We should avoid ungenerously throwing upon posterity the
burden of which we ourselves ought to bear.'' An apt charge for today's
political leadership.
A brief word to America's faith community, who should be intimately
concerned with the moral component of this crisis. If we say we care
about the poor, we must speak up, for they will be the hardest hit if
we fail to act. If we say we are passionate about justice, then we must
not be complicit in committing a massive generational injustice.
Not only is our current course immoral, it is un-American.
Generations past have always passed the torch of the American Dream to
their children and their grandchildren. Presently, we're poised to hand
off the struggling flicker of a flame.
The implications of an America on decline also has ripple effects the
world over.
In a December 5 Washington Post Outlook piece, author Robert Kaplan
hauntingly writes, ``America's ability to bring a modicum of order to
the world is simply fading in slow motion.'' A look at the daily
headlines and we are reminded that the world is a much more dangerous
place when our Nation is perceived as weak, or worse yet, when that
perception becomes a reality.
Surely we can agree on the enormity of what is at stake. The precise
blueprint for how to move forward may seem blurry at times, but the
implications of doing nothing must propel us onward.
If we summon the courage to act, I believe we can see a rebirth in
America marked by grand innovations in science and technology that are
the wonders of the world, advances in medical research that save
millions of lives, and further exploration into the remaining frontier
of space and much more.
Columnist Tony Blankley wrote recently, ``America has become a great
Nation because we have been an optimistic people who insist on both
success and liberty. America's can-do spirit has been the wonder of the
ages. It has raised us from a handful of farmers to the colossus of the
planet. And if we can regain that spirit, there is not a reason in the
world that the 21st century will not be the American century--just as
the 20th century was.''
I was reminded once again of that unique American spirit on Election
Day when I stopped by the Snow White Grill in Winchester, Virginia.
While I was there, one man said to me, ``We are ready! We are prepared
to sacrifice. We're ready to do what's right.'' And several others at
the lunch counter echoed the same.
But the question remains: Are America's leaders prepared to
sacrifice? Are America's leaders prepared to do what's right?
Battle lines have been drawn on both sides.
The MoveOn.orgs of the left and the Americans for Tax Reform of the
right have wielded their political influence with remarkable effect,
only to paralyze the Congress and the Obama administration on arguably
the most important issue of our time. I am not prepared to continue to
let that happen.
In 1787, on the final day of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin
Franklin was said to have wept when he signed the document. James
Madison wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, ``Whilst the last
members were signing it,'' he said, ``Dr. Franklin, looking towards the
President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be
painted, observed to a few members near him that painters had found it
difficult to distinguish in their art a rising sun from a setting
sun.''
And then Dr. Franklin remarked that during the course of the session,
``I have often looked at that picture . . . without being able to tell
whether it was a rising or setting sun.'' And then Franklin continues,
``Now . . . I have the happiness to know that it is indeed a rising,
not a setting sun.''
Every politician loves to say that the sun has barely begun to rise
on America and that America's best days are yet ahead.
If we steel ourselves for tough decisions and commit to doing the
right thing, if we work for economic and moral rebirth, then we will
honestly be able to join the chorus of voices reaching back to our
Nation's founding and echoing across the ages which enjoin us to
believe that the sun has indeed barely begun to rise on our country and
that America's best days are yet to come.
This is a call to action. We are Americans, and we can prevail.
____________________