[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2221-2222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        DEALING WITH THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, throughout the 1980s and into 
the 1990s, no problem loomed larger in our Nation than the growing, 
seemingly never-ending Federal debt. Now, we have gotten to the point 
where that Federal debt is at $5.5 trillion, and in the early 1990s we 
were adding to it to the tune of almost $300 billion a year and more, 
and projections showed that going up forever. It looked like it was 
never going to end and it did not seem like we were ever going to get 
out of the debt spiral.
  I rise today to give a little good news, that we are headed in the 
right direction finally on the debt issue, but also to emphasize the 
importance of going the whole way: getting the budget balanced, and 
perhaps as important, paying down some of that debt.
  Since 1992 we have seen reductions in the yearly deficit, to the 
point where in this past year that deficit is only about $30 billion.

                              {time}  1430

  I know Members have heard we have a surplus, but we really do not, 
because we are still counting the money we borrow from the social 
security trust fund as income, and it is really not. We have to pay 
that money back. So within the unified budget we are $30 billion in 
debt this year, and have a projected surplus for 2001. So we are headed 
in the right direction, but we need to maintain that fiscal discipline 
to get there, to get the budget balanced.
  To show just how big a problem the debt is, I have brought a chart 
with me today that shows where the Federal Government spends its money. 
It

[[Page 2222]]

spends it in a variety of different areas. The third largest chunk of 
money going out of the Federal Government right now goes to interest on 
the debt. Fourteen percent of our budget, or $243 billion a year, is 
paid on interest on the debt.
  What that means is that this money basically is not helping us do 
anything. It is not helping us cut taxes, it is not helping us cover 
social security or national defense or health care for seniors. It is 
simply going to service the debt we ran up over the course of the last 
30 years.
  If we can reduce this number we can do dramatically positive things 
for this country, either by reducing taxes or funding necessary 
programs. It is very important that in the next 10 years we do this, we 
start to reduce the debt, because the economy is strong now. We have an 
unemployment rate of 4.3 percent. We have record low inflation. Now is 
the time to pay down that debt.
  A crisis will come. The economy cannot remain in boom times forever. 
When it does, we are going to need the resources to deal with that 
crisis. If we do not step up to the problem now, start paying down the 
debt during good times, we will be in horribly bad shape when the bad 
times come.
  I rise with particular emphasis on this point as a Democrat because I 
think Democrats need to be for fiscal responsibility and emphasize that 
that is a cornerstone of our message, is to get the budget balanced, 
keep it that way, and pay down the debt. I think that is a very 
important principle for the Democratic Party to stand up for. I as a 
Democrat I am going to stand up for that. This will have dramatic 
effects on individual lives, as well.
  Speakers who are going to follow me are going to talk a little bit 
about the positive effects of reducing interest rates on peoples' 
lives. If the government is not out there sucking up all of the money, 
that means that others, small businesses, farmers, individuals, people 
looking for student loans, home mortgages, will have access to that 
money and to borrow it at a better rate, because the government is not 
out there grabbing all of it. If the interest rates go down, that 
improves individual's lives in a wide variety of areas, some of which 
my colleagues will touch upon in a minute.
  The bottom line point here is with the economy strong, with us headed 
in the right direction, finally, on fiscal responsibility, we need to 
stay with that discipline and get there, get the budget balanced, start 
paying down the debt so we can strengthen our entire economy, create 
more jobs, and create a better future for ourselves and for our 
children.
  I strongly urge my colleagues today to maintain fiscal discipline and 
pay down the debt. That needs to be one of our number one priorities 
for the coming decade.

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