[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17244]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1630
                           TRUTH FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Platts). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Speaker Hastert, today marked the 1,355th 
day that you have been Speaker of the House. During that time, in 
particular, in the past 1 year, while the Republicans have had a 
majority in the House, my colleagues will recall a year ago, they had a 
Republican majority in the Senate, and they passed their tax breaks, 
they passed their budget. They got their spending, they got their 
taxes. They increased spending by 16 percent and they cut taxes by 8 
percent. So in one year, they have now added $440,605,894,921 to the 
national debt.
  Those of us who have studied American history will be quick to note 
that from the day that George Washington became President almost until 
the beginning of World War II, our Nation did not acquire that much 
debt in well over 150 years. The Republican Congress, in one year, has 
increased the debt by that much.
  One would think that their response to that would be some shame 
because, after all, all they are doing is sticking our kids with their 
bills. That is what they did today. They passed a bill to say that some 
kids can inherit unlimited amounts of money and not pay a penny's worth 
of tax on it. For those of us who are self-employed as a welder, a 
logger or a shrimper like some of my friends back home, they pay the 
employer's share of Social Security, they pay the employee's share of 
Social Security, so right off the bat they are paying about 18 percent 
of taxes. Plus they are paying income tax on that. But for the very 
wealthiest Americans, those who make the biggest campaign 
contributions, they can now, under the Republican plan, inherit 
unlimited amounts of money and not pay a dime on it; not pay a dime. 
Tell me it is fair to the self-employed person. Tell me it is fair to 
the lady who is going to clean up this building tonight who is going to 
pay at least 8 percent taxes just for Social Security and Medicare.
  But what is really unfair is that in order to give the Bush kids and 
the Cheney kids this huge inheritance tax-free, they are sticking my 
kids, the Taylor kids, they are sticking the Jones kids, they are 
sticking the Jackson kids and everybody else's kids with the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, this is real money, and when America borrows money, it 
is just like when a citizen back home uses their credit card. As long 
as you owe it, you have to pay interest on it. I bet not one person 
watching this realizes that the biggest expense of your Nation is not 
welfare, it is not food stamps, it is not transportation, it is not 
taking care of veterans, it is not defense; it is interest payments on 
the national debt. It is $1 billion a day. Almost every American can 
visualize $1,000. That is a big rent check, a house note and a car note 
for some people, but we can visualize a thousand bucks.
  So what we are spending today on the interest is a thousand times a 
thousand times a thousand. It is squandered. It does not educate our 
kids, it does not help the military, it does not help old folks, it 
does not help kids, it does not help anybody. A third of that goes to 
Japanese and German lending institutions, the folks that lend us the 
money. So I am sure our World War II vets are particularly pleased to 
know that the folks we defeated in World War II now have the ability to 
crush our economy any time they call in the note.
  So, Mr. Speaker, one would think that the prudent thing to do in 
response to running up that debt was come to this House Floor and say, 
okay, we have to cut spending, and maybe we ought to take a look at 
some of those gigantic tax breaks the Republicans gave their big 
contributors but, instead, no, they want to make them permanent, even 
though just last week, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, 
Mitch Daniels, told us that even with this huge increase in the debt, 
only 10 percent of the tax breaks have kicked in. So we are $440 
billion broker than we were a year ago today. What do we think we are 
going to be when the big tax breaks really kick in?
  Our Nation is now $6 trillion, that is a thousand times a thousand 
times a thousand times a thousand times 6 in debt. Why does it affect 
every one of you? Because you folks that I cannot talk to in the 
gallery under House rules, you pay Social Security taxes. You probably 
do not know that right now there is not a penny in the Social Security 
trust fund, and that if we could find the so-called Social Security 
lock box, all we would discover is an IOU for $1 trillion, 300 billion. 
That is a thousand times a thousand times a thousand times a thousand.
  Every one of you who has ever worked paid Medicare taxes. The money 
is supposed to be set aside to help pay your health care bills when you 
get older. If you could find the so-called lock box, all you are going 
to find is an IOU for $263 billion, a thousand times a thousand times a 
thousand times 263. That is your money that they have taken and stolen, 
because it is borrowed if they have a plan to pay it back, but if you 
have no plan to pay it back, and there is no plan to pay it back, it is 
stolen.
  Mr. Speaker, you have now been speaker for 1,355 days and you will 
not let this House vote to balance the budget. You will not allow a 
vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, and you do not 
deserve to be speaker, but the American people deserve to know the 
truth.

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