[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2375]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
               $22 TRILLION DEBT AND DEBT CEILING REACHED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, America recently blew through the 
$22 trillion debt mark with no end in sight.
  In January, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned 
Washington that America faces an unending stream of trillion-dollar-a-
year deficits beginning in FY 2022 and culminating in a $1.4 trillion 
deficit in FY 2028, the amount Congress spends each year on our 
discretionary budget that pays for the military, NASA, ATF, FBI, and 
almost every other Federal agency.
  The cumulative effect of these deficits is a debt that explodes from 
$22 trillion today to $33 trillion in a decade.
  As debt goes up, so does debt service. The CBO warns: ``In CBO's 
projections, outlays for net interest increase from $325 billion in 
2018 to $383 billion . . . in 2019, and more than double by 2029, to 
$928 billion'' a year, which is the rough equivalent of almost 50 NASA 
programs.
  Compounding matters, this past weekend, on March 2, the Federal 
Government hit the debt ceiling, which means the Federal Government's 
operational costs are being paid for via extraordinary measures, such 
as borrowing from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
  Washington's response to this financial firestorm is akin to that of 
Roman Emperor Nero, who fiddled as Rome burned.
  Rather than be proactive and work to prevent a debilitating national 
insolvency and bankruptcy, Congress emulates an ostrich that buries its 
head in the sand and denies lurking danger.
  In sum, America's sea of red ink and projected financial path is 
wholly and completely unsustainable.
  America must learn from financially reckless nations like Greece and 
Venezuela, and from Puerto Rico, an American territory that defaulted 
on its $70 billion debt.
  Unfortunately, the vast majority of American voters are oblivious to 
America's lurking financial dangers, in large part because of minimal 
national media coverage.
  American voters are too often seduced by debt-junkie politicians who 
promise free stuff to get elected, while knowing full well America 
can't pay for it. If American voters do not elect financially 
responsible officials to Washington, America will succumb to the same 
debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that wreaks havoc in Greece and 
Puerto Rico, with one major difference; unlike Greece, which has been 
bailed out three times by the European community, and unlike Puerto 
Rico, which may yet be bailed out by American taxpayers, there is no 
one, no one who can or will bail out America.
  Instead, America will be more like Venezuela, whose annual inflation 
rate now exceeds 2 million percent, where the International Monetary 
Fund reports there are: ``Widespread shortages of essential goods, 
including food, exacting a tragic toll,'' where grocery stores have 
rows and rows of empty shelves and Venezuelans can't find food to feed 
their families.
  Worse yet, Venezuela's bankruptcy has made it one of the most violent 
countries in the world, with a chilling 82 homicides per 100,000 
population, roughly 20 times worse than America's homicide rate. 
Caracas, Venezuela's capital is the world's most violent city, with a 
war-zone-like 120 murders per 100,000 citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, America must learn from the financially irresponsible 
mistakes of others. As the adage says, We can either learn from 
history, or we are doomed to repeat it.
  American voters must wake up and stop being seduced by the wily ways 
of debt-junkie politicians who promise anything to get elected, who 
pretend to be Santa Claus, when, in fact, they are the Grinch that 
stole America's future.
  Time is running out. The American people must start being good 
stewards of our Republic, and elect Washington officials who both 
understand the threat posed by defaults, and deficit, and debt, and 
have the backbone to fix it. America's future depends on it.

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