[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 139 (Wednesday, August 5, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4892-S4893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL DEBT
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I rise today to address a
topic that Washington has been ignoring for decades. For years,
Republicans fought against wasteful spending under the Obama
administration. My party argued that our debt and deficits were
unsustainable, and they were leaving a burden that our children and
grandchildren simply can't afford. Unfortunately, my party has shown an
almost equal disregard for the dangers of a growing national debt and
annual deficits, as have the Democrats.
Congress spends taxpayer money with no accountability--something you
would never do in business or in your personal life--and our Federal
Government is borrowing an unprecedented amount of money. Congress
borrows money with no plan to pay it back. Our families and our
businesses cannot do that. Congress is leaving debt for the next
generation. Parents and grandparents don't do that.
This year, between mid-March and late June, the Treasury's total
borrowing rose by about $2.9 trillion, and the Federal Reserve's
holdings of U.S. Treasury debt rose by about $1.6 trillion. The Federal
Reserve is creating an artificial market for treasuries to keep
interest rates low. This is not sustainable and will have dire
consequences. There will come a time when they can't purchase any more
treasuries and rates will increase.
When the Federal Reserve can no longer keep interest rates low,
everything from car loans to student loans
[[Page S4893]]
to mortgages become more expensive for the American people, and the
interest on our debt, which is already the fourth largest expenditure
in the Federal budget, will become our largest expenditure. For every 1
percent increase in our interest rate, we are going to spend almost $2
trillion over 10 years. That is more money the taxpayers get no return
on.
Even during the economic boom we were experiencing, our Federal
Government could not live within its means. Our Federal Government was
set to spend approximately $4.6 trillion while collecting only $3.6
trillion in taxes in one of our greatest economies ever.
Now, as we continue to address the coronavirus pandemic, the Federal
Government this year will spend more than $7 trillion and collect much
less than $3 trillion. The market is telling us that lenders are not
confident this pandemic is being handled in a fiscally responsible
manner. We are seeing the price of gold at a record high and the dollar
devaluing, and this is just the beginning.
Now Congress wants to spend more, even though we still don't know how
much has already been spent from previous relief packages. What is
happening in Washington, DC, is wrong. It is unfair to Americans who
work hard every day to take care of their families.
For months, I made a weekly video called ``Washington Waste
Wednesday'' to highlight all the ways Washington is currently wasting
taxpayer dollars. It wasn't hard to find examples. Officials in
Washington have failed to make the tough decisions that will put our
Nation on a fiscally successful path. It is the most inefficient place
you can imagine.
These poor choices mean a day of reckoning is coming. If our
financial system comes crashing down because of excessive government
spending and borrowing, history suggests we will have runaway
inflation, with the price of goods skyrocketing. That will hurt the
poorest families and those living on a fixed income. With inflation,
fixed incomes will stay the same while the prices for necessities go up
month after month. For hourly workers, wages will not grow fast enough
to cover the ever-increasing costs of goods and services. This happened
in the United States in the 1970s.
Let's not forget about the mandatory spending programs that Congress
takes no accountability for. Medicare is running out of money. When
Medicare runs out of money in 2026, either doctors and hospitals will
be paid significantly less or Medicare recipients will receive less
care. Medicaid costs are increasing by about 5 percent a year. Social
Security will run out of cash reserves by 2035. At that time there will
be an automatic 20-percent reduction of Social Security payments.
Our country is like a failing business without a plan. We can't
accept this fate.
I ran for Governor of Florida in 2010 because I could not stand to
watch the fiscal mismanagement by politicians anymore. Over my 8 years
as Governor, we made the tough choices to turn the State around. We
grew the economy by over 30 percent, added almost 1.7 million new jobs,
paid down almost one-third of State debt, and cut taxes by more than
$10 billion. I was the first Governor in 20 years to actually pay down
State debt.
I ran for the U.S. Senate to do the same thing at the Federal level.
I was tired of watching career politicians in Washington spend other
people's money without a care. Washington seems to have forgotten that
trillions of dollars in new spending means trillions in tax increases
somewhere down the road. They want short-term solutions regardless of
consequences.
Career politicians say they care about you. When they run huge
deficits, do they care about you?
When they raise your taxes, do they care about you?
When they overpromise benefits for Social Security without a funding
source, do they care about you?
When they overpromise Medicare benefits without a funding source, do
they care about you?
Maybe the intentions are good. Who knows? But, unfortunately, you
can't pay for Social Security with good intentions. You can't pay for
Medicare with good intentions. You can't build a lethal military with
good intentions. And you can't open a business with just good
intentions. These good intentions have created $27 trillion of debt
that our children and grandchildren will have to answer for. Now they
want to spend another $3 trillion. It is time to wake up.
We can fix this and put our Nation on a fiscally responsible path. We
fix this by doing what I did in Florida. We need to focus on growing
the economy, cutting taxes and burdensome regulations, and streamlining
permitting. We fix this by helping every American get a good job. We
fix this with a focus on buying American, with the understanding that
buying products made by our adversaries, like Communist China, hurts
American jobs and manufacturing and threatens our national security. We
fix this by making good trade deals with other freedom-loving
countries, and we fix this by getting a return on every taxpayer dollar
we spend.
Turning around a failing business is hard. I have done that. Turning
around a failing State is also hard--even harder. I have done that.
Turning around the future of a nation sounds impossible, but it is not.
If elected leaders don't want to do the hard work--and it is going to
be hard--then they should go home. They can no longer hide behind the
cowardice of political expediency.
Politicians in Washington are afraid to tell you the truth, so here
it is: If we want our country to survive and thrive and continue to be
a beacon for freedom, prosperity, and hope around the world, we will
need to make tough choices. We will need to be more productive, and we
cannot rely on government programs paid for through more borrowing. We
will need to reassert the fundamental principle of conservatism that
the private sector and individuals--not the government--should be the
driving forces behind our economic stability and success.
As long as I am a Member of the U.S. Senate, I will fight to rein in
the out-of-control spending that is putting our children's and our
grandchildren's futures at risk.
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. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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