[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16152]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2000
                        FINANCIAL FREEDOM NEEDED

  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to adopt as part of my remarks the 
comments that the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) and the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) made before me.
  The Blue Dogs have tried repeatedly to do something about this abuse 
of our country and what is going on here with regard to the Nation's 
balance sheet. I do not think that people of this country realize fully 
how bad it is and how quickly it is deteriorating. And I am talking 
about our Nation's financial picture.
  We cannot be a strong and free country if we are in hock to every 
other country on Earth. We cannot be strong and free if we are broke. 
We cannot fix the problems our society faces as long as we are engaged 
in this financial madness that has been going on around here for the 
last 3\1/2\ years.
  Let me just tell you something that is going to scare you. It is not 
fun to talk about and nobody talks about it because it is not much of a 
comfort to us as Americans when we beat on our chests and say how great 
we are. Let me tell you what we are doing. The privately held debt, 
that is the debt not held by government agencies, the debt that we 
write checks on every year as interest, in January of 2001 was $2.96 
trillion. Of that amount, foreign interest, foreign governments owned 
$1.01 trillion; 34 percent, in other words, of our debt in 2001 was 
held by foreigners.
  Today, that privately held debt is $4.22 trillion. Foreign interests 
own $1.75 trillion. It is now 42 percent of our Nation's debt, 
outstanding debt held by foreign interests. That is a 73 percent 
increase since we had a one-party government here the last 3 years. Can 
you imagine what we are doing in the name of cutting taxes for American 
citizens and without the PAYGO rules to discipline ourselves on 
spending, which the majority party will not allow the Blue Dogs to 
bring up? They have increased what we are in debt to the rest of the 
world by 73 percent in the last 3 years. Last year alone the deficit 
was $374 billion.
  Do you know how much foreigners lent us so that we could keep on 
spending? $260 billion. Seventy percent of the deficit last year that 
we spent right here on this floor was lent to us by foreigners who we 
are now writing interest checks to.
  This is the most irresponsible financial game plan for this country 
in my lifetime, maybe in the country's lifetime.
  What is happening here ought to enrage the American people. They will 
not let us bring up PAYGO so we can stop the spending. They keep on 
spending, keep on reducing revenue, and borrowing it from foreign 
interests.
  You talk about patriotism. We are in hock. Let me read you a few, if 
you would like. Do you know how much Japan owns of our paper? $668 
billion. China and Hong Kong together, $216 billion. Almost a trillion 
dollars by two countries. Caribbean banking centers, we owe them $72 
billion. Korea, $58 billion. Germany, $49 billion. Switzerland, $49 
billion. OPEC, $48 billion. Mexico, $41 billion. Canada, 33. It goes 
on. We owe Brazil almost $13 billion. The Netherlands, $13 billion. 
Belgium, $13 billion. Turkey, 15. India, 15. And just the other day we 
had a foreign aid bill.
  What is happening for the last 3\1/2\ years here financially is an 
outrage. It is not only what we are doing to ourselves now. I contend 
that this Congress has raised taxes more than any other Congress in 
history. Why? Because they borrowed so much money that we have got to 
pay interest on, not just once, but every year, every year.
  So far this year we have spent $130 billion just to write interest 
checks to people. I tell you what, unless the American people get on to 
this scheme that is going on around here about borrowing and spending 
so that we can hold down taxes or so we say in which we are doing the 
reverse, we are raising taxes because we will have interest payments on 
all of this borrowing every year, not to mention the sad fact that we 
are in hock to every nation that lends us money.
  I will tell one thing to the American people that was said in the 
Wall Street Journal, ``Whose bread I eat, whose song I sing.''
  We are in hock all over the world, and we had better stop right now.

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