[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5363-5364]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               A NEW DECLARATION OF ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, America needs a new declaration of economic 
independence: Freedom, justice, opportunity. These are the values that 
our parents, grandparents, and forebears lived and died for. These are 
the values that prompt young men and women to give themselves to 
military and public service. These are the values that reflect the 
highest ideals of our country and what America has historically offered 
to the world.
  Thus, last week's debate on taxes, the first major economic debate of 
the 21st century and of the new Presidency, disappointed me greatly. 
The debate should have centered on what is the wisest economic course 
of action for the sustenance of our republic. But the debate basically 
boiled down to what every American can take for himself or herself. The 
President went around the country divisively and derisively saying, 
``It's not the government's money; it's your money.'' Except for one 
thing: We, the American people, are the government. His rhetoric 
appealed to the most selfish instincts imaginable; and his proposals 
are proving he is headed towards government of the rich, by the rich, 
and for the rich.

[[Page 5364]]

  Contrast his base appeal with that of President John F. Kennedy who 
once summoned Americans to ask not what your country can do for you but 
what you can do for your country, and what we together can do for the 
freedom of humankind.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge our colleagues in the other body to choose a 
wiser economic course than the House and the President, a prudent 
course, a responsible course for our Nation's future. We should not 
imperil our Nation's economic growth through reckless tax cuts. America 
should first pay its bills.
  The facts are that the interest payments alone on America's $5.5 
trillion debt account for an ever-increasing percentage of the annual 
budget.
  Look at this chart. This shows since 1975, interest payments on our 
national debt have grown every year. This is the year 2000 right here, 
highest ever, and projected this year, over $434 billion of interest 
payments alone on the debt. So what is all this talk about this magic 
surplus? And think about how these interest payments crowd out other 
important national investments we could be making, in Social Security 
and Medicare, where we must pay those bills, in defense and education, 
in veterans benefits, in transportation, in the environment and 
certainly in agriculture.
  In the 1990s, due to unparalleled economic growth and strong budget 
discipline by Members of this House, we began to turn our ship of state 
around in the proper direction by finally beginning to get our bills 
paid. But I urge anyone to go to the U.S. Department of Treasury Web 
site and see for yourselves what America still owes. Here is the Web 
site number right up here, http://publicdebt.treas.gov.
  Let me point out also that the percentage of foreign holders of the 
Federal debt has tripled since I was a freshman on the Banking 
Committee, going from 12 percent of what is being bought by others 
today to a resounding 41 percent. The largest investor in the U.S. 
Federal debt is now Japan, holding over $340 billion. Do you have any 
question in your mind why our products cannot gain fair access to 
Japan's markets when she is holding the purse strings?
  Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong with our economic 
policies. In fact, interest on our debt now exceeds more than we pay in 
an annual year for the defense of this Nation. It is double what we 
spend annually on Medicaid and Medicare. And it dwarfs critical 
spending in other nondefense areas like education, transportation, 
veterans, agriculture, all put together into one.
  I wanted to add to that our trade deficit. Every single year over the 
last 20 years, America's trade deficit with the world has deepened to 
historically all-time levels. Almost $500 billion more imports coming 
into this country on an annual basis than our exports going out. And 
you ask yourself who is now the largest holder of these private dollars 
related to goods trade with America? I can tell you it is the People's 
Republic of China, which is far from my definition of a republic, with 
over $80 billion of holdings in U.S. dollar reserves.
  So what is wrong with the Bush plan? Tomorrow night I am going to 
continue on that, but let me first say that the President's tax and 
budget plan ought to lead to paying down our debt and ushering in a new 
era of economic independence for our country.

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