[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18425]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FEDERAL DEBT AND THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor tonight to talk about 
something that apparently no one else wants to talk about: the Federal 
debt and the deficit. We are about to see record deficits, nothing like 
this country has ever seen. This year $615 billion we will borrow. Next 
year, $639 billion we will borrow.
  The mid-session review just came out. The Office of Management and 
Budget tends to explain it away that it is really not the largest that 
has ever been before as a percent of GDP; it is less. But every time 
the deficit has been larger in the past, the Congress and the President 
have come in with a proposal of how to do something about it. This time 
for some strange reason no one on the majority side chooses to talk 
about what we are going to do to reduce the deficit.
  We will hear that the tax cuts are in place and that will turn the 
economy around. We were told that in 2001. We were told it again in 
2002, and we were told it again this year. As I have said from this 
floor many times, I hope Members are right, and I hope I get to eat the 
biggest plate of crow in town, and I see some colleagues on the floor 
tonight that would love to serve it up to me. But that is not what I am 
here tonight about. Finger-pointing does not do any good, and it darn 
sure is not going to do our grandchildren any good.
  It is time for us to start looking at what can we do to turn this 
around other than talk about platitudes. We keep hearing if we just 
reduce spending. And the chairman of the Committee on the Budget said 
in his presentation today, if we just control spending. Well, let me 
remind Members we are at war. We are at war on the homeland front, we 
are at war in Iraq in which we are losing a soldier or two or three 
every day. The cost of that war is estimated at $4 billion per month. 
At no time in the history since 1812 of this country have we ever gone 
to war and not had a sacrifice demanded of those of us fortunate enough 
to stay back home. But this time some way we are looking at it 
differently. I guess it is not going to change because the minority 
party cannot change the direction that we are going.
  I suppose that we can continue to talk about the deficit. We can 
continue to explain it. No matter how Members attempt to describe it, 
in the last 2 years we borrowed a trillion dollars. In the next 2 
years, we will borrow in excess of $1.2 trillion. That is trillion. 
When we consider it took us over 200 years to borrow the first trillion 
dollars, that should mean something to somebody.
  OMB Director Mitch Daniels has left, but where has he been over the 
last year or two? Usually OMB directors come up and proudly defend the 
economic game plan we are under, but that is not to happen.
  The economy has lost 2.5 million jobs and employment has increased 
from 4.1 to 6.4 percent. The number of workers unemployed for more than 
6 months has tripled to 2 million. That is where we are. Yet there is a 
curious silence of what are we going to do about it, or does it not 
matter? Do deficits not matter?
  I have been told that now so many times. I have been here too long. 
During the 25 years that I have been here, I remember standing with my 
friends on the other side of the aisle decrying deficits. I remember 
voting five or six times in the last 3 years to lock up the Social 
Security surplus and not touch it because that is money that is 
reserved for the baby boomers about to begin retiring in 2011. The same 
folks that voted for locking it up today, just curious silence, or 
having some platitude, do not bother.
  I remember when we passed the balanced budget constitutional 
amendment, which was one of the happiest days of my life here because I 
believed finally we were about to put something into the Constitution 
to demand what we would do and not be able to do what we have now done 
in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Tax cuts with borrowed money, no reputable 
economist today believes that is good economic policy. Tax cuts with 
money that is surplus that should not be spent, that is a different 
argument. That is one I would gladly join with my friends on the other 
side of the aisle, but we are borrowing $639 billion next year, $615 
billion this year; and we keep hearing we are just giving the money 
back to you because it is your money.
  It is not your money. It is our children and grandchildren's money 
that we are giving back. The result of the supply side economic theory 
folks is not working.

                              {time}  2200

  It is kind of like we heard some speakers earlier today, we have got 
a problem in Iraq, and our plan for peace is not working as I had hoped 
it would, as I had been supportive and still support certainly the 
troops and my President regarding that endeavor. But we have got a 
problem, and we will continue to be on this floor talking about it. We 
look forward to joining with our colleagues on the other side very soon 
and hopefully coming up with a bipartisan solution and no finger-
pointing.

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