[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 193 (Tuesday, November 28, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9438-H9439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WE HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marshall). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, history is replete with examples of 
prosperous nations and powerful empires whose demise was not as a 
result of adversaries on the outside but, rather, the enemy within.
  Congress and our President face several challenges to ensure the next 
generation inherits a safe, strong, and free country. There is the rise 
of global Islamic terrorism, escalating nuclear threats, increasing 
geopolitical instability, the need to modernize our military and ensure 
it is prepared to address those threats, and, finally, the need to 
revive our economy and give more and better jobs to middle and working 
class Americans.
  While these are serious issues and they necessitate a sense of 
urgency and bold actions, they are all but irrelevant if we experience 
a sovereign debt crisis. This is not a hypothetical. This is a real 
probability, and if we stay on our current trajectory, we will all but 
assure our children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences.
  If the United States experiences a debt crisis, how are we going to 
fund a safety net for our agriculture producers and our most 
vulnerable? How are we going to have transportation and other critical 
infrastructure to support economic growth? And, most importantly, how 
are we going to give the tools to our men and women in uniform so they 
will be successful and safe? How will we fund these national priorities 
if our government is insolvent?
  Today, the United States is $20 trillion in debt--over 70 percent of 
GDP. That is roughly $165,000 per taxpayer. If all current policies 
stay in place, in the next 10 years, we will be $30 trillion in debt, 
or nearly 90 percent of GDP, the highest level we have seen since 1947, 
according to the CBO. We will have $1 trillion in annual deficit 
spending; and, get this, we will spend more on the interest on our debt 
than we will on national defense.
  Just to give you a sense of how quickly this debt is amassing, in the 
next 24 hours, we will have increased our debt $1.5 billion.
  I want to be clear. This is not a revenue problem. Just this past 
year, according to the monthly Treasury statement, the Federal 
Government collected record amounts of both individual income tax 
revenue and payroll tax revenue.

[[Page H9439]]

  The underlying issue here is runaway spending. We all know it. The 
American people know it. The lion's share of that spending is for 
mandatory spending. Mandatory spending is government spending on 
autopilot.
  Today, mandatory spending makes up 70 percent of the entire Federal 
budget. In terms of growth in spending, over the next 10 years, 90 
percent of the growth will come from mandatory spending.
  We will never solve the national debt problem on discretionary 
spending alone. We must deal with mandatory spending, which means 
entitlement reform is the most serious and realistic opportunity to 
address our national debt.

                              {time}  1215

  Many of our entitlement programs are nearing insolvency. Without 
immediate action, some of these important social safety net programs 
will not be there for the next generation. With 10,000 baby boomers 
entering retirement every day--the largest generational retirement in 
the history of the world--these critical safety net programs, like 
Medicare and Social Security, will be insolvent; Medicare by 2030, 
Social Security by 2034.
  We no longer have the luxury of kicking the can down the road. We are 
long overdue for action and we are fast approaching yet another debt 
ceiling.
  The debt ceiling has been in existence since 1941, 70 years, and 
every time very little has been done to rein in spending as a result. 
It was supposed to serve as a warning so that we pause and consider the 
risk of borrowing more money that 74 times we have effectively just 
blown past through it.
  We cannot continue to increase our borrowing capacity every time we 
hit the debt ceiling without some countervailing action to address our 
deficit and debt.
  At what point is enough enough? How far do we want to put our 
children and grandchildren in the debt hole before we decide that this 
is a moral obligation and this is truly a looming crisis?
  As Congress works to deal with the debt ceiling and our spending 
package that is here on the immediate horizon, it is important that we 
also introduce structural spending reforms. We need to have a balanced 
budget, for heaven's sake. We need to move some of the mandatory over 
to discretionary.
  We need to set targets for reducing our debt. And if we don't meet 
those targets because we don't have the courage to do it, then it 
should be forced on us to cut across the board until we get this debt 
down to a manageable size for our children and for the future of this 
country.
  Balancing our budget and reducing our country's debilitating debt is 
the challenge of the 21st century. It is my generation's greatest 
challenge. It is time for Congress to step up to the plate and get to 
work addressing the biggest problem facing our country. That means less 
partisan obstruction and thinking about our political futures and more 
courageous leadership and thinking about our children's future.

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