[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16913]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RECORD INCREASE IN PUBLIC DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, last week the President of 
the United States went to Ohio and mentioned repeatedly that what this 
Congress needed was a budget. I agree. I wish he had included one more 
word in that, what this Congress needs is a ``balanced'' budget.
  See, Mr. Speaker, last year this Congress, when there was still a 
Republican majority in the other body and a Republican majority in this 
body, gave the President his budget and gave the President his tax 
breaks. They passed both bodies by a fairly narrow margin, but they did 
indeed become law and the President signed them into law.
  As a result of that budget, our Nation's debt has increased by 
$440,605,894,921 in the past 12 months. To put that into perspective, 
our Nation is now $6,210,481,675,956 in debt.
  What is particularly disturbing about that is that as our President 
ponders sending the young men and women in uniform off to fight, most 
of whom are 23 years old or younger, I think it is particularly 
significant that in the lifetime of those soldiers and sailors who are 
23 years of age or younger, our Nation's debt has increased by over $5 
trillion. What is particularly bad about that is, just like any 
individual who has a credit card, as long as we owe that money, we have 
to pay interest on it. The single largest expenditure of this Nation is 
not welfare, it is not food stamps, it is not veterans' health care, it 
is not building highways, it is not defending the Nation. It is 
squandered on interest on the national debt. We squander $1 billion a 
day. That is 1,000 times 1,000 times 1,000 every day is squandered on 
the national debt.
  Mr. Bush, I know that all of us are our fathers' sons. All of us are 
proud of our dads, and you should be particularly proud of your dad. 
After all, he was the President of the United States. One of the things 
your dad did not do well was controlling the deficit when he was 
President. As a matter of fact, the largest deficit in our Nation's 
history took place during the fiscal year of 1991, when your dad was 
President. In that year, our Nation borrowed $432 billion. That is 
1,000 times 1,000 times 1,000 times 432 to make ends meet.
  I regret to tell you, Mr. Bush, that you are on the way to breaking 
your dad's record; that in all probability, at the end of this year, 
you will have borrowed, with your budget passed through a Republican 
Senate and Republican House, more than that $432 billion. So as you go 
to Ohio and tell folks that we need a balanced budget, I would only ask 
as one of 435 Members of this House that you include the word 
``balanced'' budget.
  Why do you not use your incredible popularity to ask the American 
people to get their Congressmen to support a constitutional amendment 
to balance the budget, so that this generation does not burden the next 
generation with our bills? After all, no mom or dad would go buy a 
house and say, ``I don't care what it costs, because I am going to 
stick my child with that bill when they hit 40 years of age, when they 
reach the maximum income years.''
  None of us would go out and buy a fancy car, and say, ``By the way, 
bill it to my grandchildren, whether they are born or not.''
  That is precisely what this Nation has been doing, particularly for 
the last 23 years, when it borrowed $5 trillion.
  On an aside, Mr. Bush, you made a very compelling case to the UN last 
Thursday, and I am in agreement; you have now convinced me that our 
Nation will be at war unless the Iraqis back down. If that is the case, 
then I must insist as a Member of Congress that the wise thing for our 
Nation to do would be to call up the Guard and Reserve. Over one-half 
of the force of the United States of America is in the Guard and 
Reserve.
  If there is going to be a war, then I subscribe to former General and 
now Secretary of State Colin Powell's theory of the overwhelming use of 
force, and we cannot have the overwhelming use of force if the Guard 
and Reserve is not called up.
  If we are going to do this, let us do this right. The best way to 
minimize American casualties is to use overwhelming force, and that has 
to include the calling up of the Guard and Reserves. If this is going 
to be a war, then it is going to be everybody's war, and the way you 
make it everyone's war is including the National Guard and the various 
branches of the Reserves in the effort.
  I would also hope that this body has an opportunity to vote on it. 
But, prior to that vote, I would highly recommend that the Guard and 
Reserve be called up, because the Iraqis watch Cable News Network also, 
and I think as an American people, we should expect attacks on American 
soil through acts of terror from the minute that that vote is taken, 
and we should be prepared for that as a Nation. The only way to be 
prepared for that as a Nation is to have the Guard and Reserve called 
up.

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