[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7978-S7979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE BUDGET DEFICIT

  Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, as we come to a close of the 115th 
Congress, this will be my last speech in this Congress. It is an honor 
to be in this body. It is a privilege that I take very seriously, as I 
know the Presiding Officer does as well.
  Today, I come to talk about a topic that I told this body in my 
maiden speech was the reason I ran for the Senate, and at the end of 
each year, I try to remind us all of where we are on this topic--the 
financial crisis that the United States faces today. It is intertwined 
with the global security crisis that we heard about in a speech just a 
minute ago. They are very much interrelated.
  Today, we have $21 trillion in debt. What makes that so important is 
that just this week, just recently, the Federal Reserve increased the 
Fed fund rate one-quarter point. To most people, that really doesn't 
sound like a big deal, but this is the ninth increase in just the last 
couple of years. Just this one-quarter point increase means $50 billion 
of new interest that the Federal Government is obligated to pay each 
year, every year. Over the last couple of years, those nine increases 
together represent a 2.25-percent increase. So that 2.25 percent 
increase in the interest rate means an additional $450 billion of new 
interest expense liability the Federal Government has incurred over the 
last couple of years. To put that in perspective, we only raise about 
$2.2 trillion in total Federal income tax. We spent about $700 billion 
on our military and only $200 billion on our veterans.
  This is a train wreck, and it is a crisis of full proportion. Yet 
here we were just last night passing our 186th continuing resolution 
since 1974 when the Budget Act of 1974 passed. That is one of our 
problems. Combine that with 8 years of lethargic economic productivity, 
and you end up with a burgeoning debt crisis.
  It is projected by the Congressional Budget Office that, at current 
interest rates, with no other interest rate increases, the interest on 
the debt will grow--by 2023, just 5 short years, we will be spending 
more on just interest than we will on national defense. That cannot 
happen. The world bond markets probably won't let that happen. And here 
we are in 2018.
  How did we get here? In 2000, at the end of the Clinton 
administration, this country had $6 trillion of debt. In 2008, at the 
end of President Bush's administration, we had $10 trillion of debt. In 
2016, at the end of President Obama's tenure, we had $20 trillion of 
debt. In that 8 years, America added more to the debt than all other 
Presidents combined prior to 2008.
  Today, the rate of growth continues. We are at $21 trillion. In my 
office, we have a debt clock that actually shows real time how this 
debt clicks forward every day, every minute. It is a sobering thing to 
watch because this is a legacy we are giving to our children and our 
grandchildren, and there is no reason to let this go forward. We can 
solve this today.
  Under the Obama administration, over those 8 years, the Federal 
Government borrowed a little less than 35 percent of what it spent as a 
Federal Government. Let me say that again. It borrowed almost a third 
of what it spent. To put that in perspective, the discretionary part of 
our budget--we spend about $4 trillion a year, including all of our 
mandatory expenses, but only 1.3 of that 4.3 is discretionary. 
Discretionary spending is about 25 percent. So if you are borrowing 33 
percent and your discretionary spending is 25 percent and all of your 
first money that comes in goes to pay for the mandatory expenses--like 
a car payment, a house payment, insurance payments--automatically 
deducted, that is exactly what happens in the Federal Government. What 
we have is a situation where every dime--during those 8 years--of 
discretionary spending was by definition borrowed money.
  Today, we are not borrowing quite that much, but the problem 
continues that most of our domestic discretionary spending is borrowed 
money. This is not lost on leaders around the world. Our near-peer 
competitors in Russia and China pay attention to this. They saw we cut 
our military spending over those 8 years ending in 2016 by 25 percent. 
That is one reason we see a very active China right now in the South 
China Sea. It is also why we see Russia being very active in the Middle 
East. It is because of our inactivity and our withdrawal from the 
global stage, and that was driven largely by the political position 
that administration was in at the time, but I also believe it is 
because of the Federal crisis we have relative to our national debt.
  Today, if you look at the sources of our income and the uses of that 
income and our expenses, just on the Federal budget side, we raise 
about $2.2 trillion.
  The first three line items that we dedicate money to or allocate 
money to is a subsidy for the Social Security trust fund. Now, this is 
the first year that has really happened. It was never supposed to 
happen. The trust fund was supposed to sustain itself forever, 
indefinitely. It was supposed to be self-sustaining.

  The second item is the Medicare trust fund. Now, the Medicare trust 
fund has to be subsidized by the general account of the Federal budget.
  The third is this unlimited entitlement we have called Medicaid under 
the Affordable Care Act. It is an unlimited expense depending on what 
different Governors decide to do and what the Federal Government has to 
do in terms of matching funds that go to those States.
  Those three line items--just those three--account for more than 50 
percent of all Federal income tax dollars we collect--over 50 percent.
  The Social Security trust fund is projected to go to zero--the 
balance in that trust is supposed to go to zero in 12 years. The 
Medicare trust fund is supposed to go to zero in 8 years. This is a 
situation that is exploding before us. Discretionary expenditures have 
leveled out. Those are being fairly controlled. What is not being 
fairly controlled are all the mandatory expenses--the Social Security, 
expense of Medicare, Medicaid, pension benefits for Federal employees, 
and the interest on the debt. The fastest growing of all that is the 
interest on the debt, as I mentioned earlier. We have added $450 
billion of new interest expense just in the last 2 years.
  I believe there is a way forward. We have been talking about it. 
President Trump said job No. 1 when he got elected was growing the 
economy. Why? Well, one of the benefits--we put people back to work, we 
have confidence going again, and we get the economy going, but it also 
raises more dollars for the Federal Government.
  The Congressional Budget Office said that if we grow the economy 100 
basis points more than we were growing during the Obama administration, 
which was only 1.9 percent over 8 years, that that 1 percentage point 
of growth adds $300 billion a year. Well, we are growing much faster 
than that now. We are growing at almost twice the rate. The GDP is 
growing at almost twice the rate it grew during the Obama 
administration. What that means is that we have lowered the curve over 
the next decade of this debt cycle--this ever increasing debt cycle--we 
have lowered the curve by as much as $3 trillion, by some estimates. 
That is the first step.
  The second step is this budget process we are working on to try to 
fix it. We formed a joint select committee this year of equal numbers 
of participants from Republican to Democrat,

[[Page S7979]]

House and Senate. While we didn't pass a bill coming out of that 
exercise, we did agree on several things that will allow us to avoid 
putting pressure on the end of the year that leads to these continuing 
resolutions and these omnibuses that are generating more and more debt.
  The third thing is, we are done with Agencies' excess spending. This 
year, the Department of Defense has provided--the first ever in U.S. 
history--its own internal financial audit. There was a law written in 
1981 that said this was required, but nobody has ever forced that to 
happen. Secretary Mattis and President Trump have forced that to 
happen. Over the next couple of years, we will be digesting exactly 
what they are finding in that internal audit. We can't get a turnaround 
if we don't know what is going on with the outflows, and that is 
exactly what we are doing in the Department of Defense.
  So make this known, that President Trump says: Yes, we have increased 
spending to get our readiness back, to recap our military, and to 
develop the capability we need to protect this country. But at the same 
time, he is holding the Department of Defense accountable for every 
single red cent it spends, and the first step of that is this internal 
audit.
  As a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Budget 
Committee--this is in the wheelhouse of those two committees, and I can 
state that every single member, Democratic and Republican, is 
interested in that audit and how it can make us much more productive 
and efficient in terms of how we spend taxpayer money.
  The fourth is, after 8 years of arguing about the healthcare 
insurance plans for the individual market, which is about 21 million 
people, we need to start talking about the underlying cost drivers of 
our spiraling healthcare costs.
  Lastly, the fifth and final thing we have to do to address this debt 
over the next 20 to 30 years is that we immediately have to save the 
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid Programs for our recipients who 
need those benefits, but we also have to secure them for the future.
  There are solutions out there. That is the good news today. The bad 
news is, yes, the spiraling debt is still with us. It is absolutely the 
No. 1 threat to our national security; there is no doubt about that. I 
believe that, and Secretary Mattis believes that. Prior Chairmen of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that. We have to get the political will 
to face the American people and to tell us all that we have to have a 
plan over the next 20 or 30 years that will absolutely bring this back 
into reason.
  One of my great colleagues in this body, a Democrat, Senator Sheldon 
Whitehouse from Rhode Island, has an idea to go out in the future and 
pick a certain date, agree on the debt as a percentage of GDP, and then 
move backwards with a guardrail plan on a roadmap to today to allow us 
to get there over time. I am in full support of that. He has been a big 
ally in this effort to rein in the debt and to develop a budget process 
that is sensible.
  Mr. President, it is clear to me that after 4 years in this body, we 
have made some progress on this but not nearly enough. In 6 short 
years, one of our major trust funds, one of the major pillars of our 
social safety net system, the Medicare system--that trust fund goes to 
zero.
  We deserve better than this. Democrats and Republicans both agree on 
that. What we have to do now is translate that into cooperation on this 
floor this next year; to talk about compromise, to find ways to get 
through the extreme positions this town and the media really encourage 
us to take.
  Behind the scenes--behind that door right there--you know and I know 
we talk in a different way than we do when we are in front of the 
media. I believe, behind that door right there, lies the solutions to 
most of these problems, where we can be cooperative and find common 
solutions to these problems.
  The last thing I will say is this. This country is not bankrupt. We 
have about $130 trillion of future unfunded liabilities. If you just 
look at the next 30 years, that is true. Fortunately, though, on the 
other side of the balance sheet, we have some people estimate well more 
than $250 trillion of assets.
  The question is, Do we have the will to address the debt problem over 
some reasonable period of time using our assets and our productive 
capability to make this country stable and financially strong again? 
Not only do the citizens of the United States deserve this and need 
this, the rest of the world needs us. We are the most philanthropic 
country in the history of the world. Yet that is jeopardized by this 
intransigence that continues in this city.
  I am an optimist, and I believe we will solve this. We have a good 
many new Members coming into this body next year--some great Members 
who are retiring--but it is time this moves up in our priority chain, 
where this is the No. 1 crisis that we begin to deal with.
  I believe the best days of America are ahead because this problem has 
solutions, and we have plenty of resources to do it. It just depends on 
the political will.
  Let me say this too. I believe, with a Democratic-controlled House, a 
Republican-controlled Senate, and a Republican in the White House, the 
American people have sent a message to Washington saying: OK, guys, it 
is time. This is one of the priorities.
  We will see in this next year if the House decides to legislate or 
they decide to investigate.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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