[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 2924-2925]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NATIONAL DEBT

  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, just a few days ago the President stood in 
where the Clerk of the House stands and told the Nation that we will 
not pass along our problems to other Congresses, other Presidents and 
other generations. I stood and applauded that statement because I agree 
with my President. I agree with my commander in chief.
  Then I was somewhat disappointed, considerably disappointed, when the 
administration's budget came through projecting a $307 billion deficit 
for next year and deficits as far as the eye can see. The President's 
budget protects cumulative deficits of over $2.1 trillion from 2002 
through 2011. That is a $7.7 trillion deterioration of our fiscal 
matters of this country in 2 years.
  The Blue Dogs stood on this floor and opposed the economic game plan 
that we are now under. We were not prophetic. We agreed with the 
majority party on the spending, but we were not even allowed to have 
our budget on the floor, and we have heard nothing but rhetoric ever 
since.
  But now the results of the economic game plan are coming in, and I 
want everyone to understand, 60 percent of the deterioration has 
occurred because of 9-11-01 and the military homeland defense needs of 
this country and the recession. But 40 percent of that deterioration 
has occurred because of the economic game plan that we are now under.
  I personally happen to agree with the President's leadership 
regarding solving the Social Security problem while we still had a 
chance. Again, I am ready to step forward in a bipartisan way and work 
with my colleagues to take care of that debt for our children. But that 
is not what we are talking about today. That is not what is being 
proposed and talked about in the budget.

[[Page 2925]]

  After 4 years of reduction in the debt held by the public and 
warnings by administration and Republican after Republican in Congress 
that the government would pay off the debt too quickly 2 years ago, 
debt held by the public will exceed $5 trillion by 2008, a 50 percent 
increase, a debt tax increase on the American people that every 
taxpayer will have to pay, a debt tax increase under the 
administration's budget that is being proposed.
  The administration requested the statutory debt limit be increased 
for the second time in less than a year. That ought to tell us 
something. When we are having to increase the debt limit so we can 
borrow more money, it ought to tell us there is something wrong with 
the game plan that we are now following.
  The greatest danger of the deficits in the President's budget is that 
it will make it harder to address the challenges facing Social Security 
and Medicare when our baby boom generation begins to retire in the next 
decade. Instead of saving money to prepare for those costs, we will 
already be in a deep hole when the $18 trillion liability facing those 
programs begins to come due. The analytical prospectus volume of the 
President's budget, the administration warned us, as the baby boomers 
reach retirement age in large numbers, the deficit is projected to rise 
steadily as a percent of GDP. Deficits will grow from 2.2 percent of 
GDP in 2020 to 5.4 percent in 2030 to 8.8 percent in 2040 under the 
President's budget policies. How can we continue to ignore that today?
  The debt tax is real. It is an increase. But instead of our paying 
for it today, what are we saying? We are going to give this generation 
another tax cut. And no one, including the President's own budget 
analysis, shows that it is going to do anything other than increase the 
debt.
  And we are not even talking about paying for the war, the war that we 
all pray will not come, but it looks like it is; and I am behind my 
commander in chief 100 percent. But the rhetoric of the economy in the 
budget does not match the rhetoric of what is needed as the gentleman 
from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) spoke so eloquently on a moment ago. The 
debt tax consumed 18 percent of all government revenues to pay interest 
on the $6.4 trillion debt last year. That debt tax will go up to 19.5 
percent by 2008 under the economic game plan that we are being asked to 
support.
  I ask my colleagues as one Democrat who used to vote with you and we 
passed the balanced budget constitutional amendment in 1995, what has 
happened to you? What has caused you to suddenly start saying, deficits 
do not matter, balancing the budget does not matter?
  The Blue Dogs stand ready to work with our President and with the 
majority in seeing that we do not increase the taxes on our children 
through the debt tax.

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