[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 245-246]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



     PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SHOULD SERIOUSLY ADDRESS NATIONAL DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, all the Presidential Republican 
candidates and Democrats are campaigning today for the Nation's first 
elections tomorrow. I would like to talk, Mr. Speaker, about what is 
happening with our national debt. The public debt of the United States 
that technically every citizen now or our kids and our grandkids 
eventually are going to have to pay off.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope every one of those candidates realizes that this 
talk about paying down the public debt is somewhat of an untruthful 
presentation of what is happening with the public debt of this country.

[[Page 246]]

  The way we do our bookkeeping here in Washington is sometimes 
confusing and unquestionably very complicated. But what we have right 
now is a public debt, as defined in law of $5.72 trillion, $5.72 
trillion, approaching $6 trillion.
  We made some good decisions this past year to not spend any of the 
Social Security surplus for other government spending. Excellent start. 
Excellent beginning. But still, our total national debt continues to 
increase. Why is the total debt of this country continuing to increase 
as we brag, and that is Republicans, Democrats, the President, brag 
that we are balancing the budget and paying down the Federal debt? Here 
is why.
  We have about 112 trust funds. The largest, of course, is the Social 
Security Trust Fund. But we are borrowing from all of these other trust 
funds also. The Civil Service Retirement Trust Fund, the Highway Trust 
Fund, the Airport Trust Fund, the Medicare Trust Fund. From all of 
these trust funds we are taking the extra money, because we have 
charged additional taxes more and above what is needed in any 
particular one year of spending. Now, we are using that money for other 
government spending.
  I am introducing legislation that says let us lower the total debt 
subject to the debt limit that Congress has to pass and the President 
has to sign. Let us lower that debt to where it will be at the end of 
this fiscal year next October 1, and then let us stick to it. Let us 
make sure that we have the kind of freeze that is going to take the 
burden off of our kids and our grandkids so that they are not going to 
end up having to pay for what we consider is very important spending 
this year.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a senior member of the Committee on the Budget. 
This week we are holding what are called listening sessions, talking 
about what the Members are willing to do in terms of holding the line 
on spending.
  I am a very strong advocate, and I will encourage at our meetings 
tomorrow, this week and next week, that we have spending caps for the 
kind of spending discipline that it allows us.
  We have come a long ways. When I first came to Congress in 1993, the 
projected deficit, in addition to what we were borrowing from Social 
Security, was over $200 billion a year. Now, at least, we have balanced 
the budget in terms of Social Security spending, and that is the 
largest amount. There will be approximately $120 billion or $130 
billion more money coming in from Social Security taxes than we need in 
any one year, so somehow we should be starting to talk about how do we 
reduce that burden on working men and women of America; and how do we 
save Social Security in the long run?
  It is a huge challenge. We talk about millions and billions and 
trillions. But, Mr. Speaker, if anybody can conceive what a trillion 
dollars is, let me just give what is going to be required to pay out 
Social Security benefits over the next 75 years over and above what we 
are going to collect in Social Security taxes.
  Over and above what we are going to collect in Social Security taxes 
over the next 75 years, it is going to take $120 trillion more money. 
That has got to either come from increased borrowing, increased taxes, 
because I suspect the way we have been going in Congress it is not 
going to be coming from reduced spending in other areas. There are huge 
challenges before us.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a farmer. What we do on the farm is we try to pay 
off the farm so that our kids do not have to pay off that mortgage. In 
this country we are continuing to increase the debt to give a bigger 
mortgage to our kids and our grandkids. Let us turn that around. Let us 
have the presidential candidates start talking about the seriousness of 
saving Medicare and saving Social Security and paying down this huge 
public debt that is facing this country.

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