[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16153-16154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. HERSETH. Mr. Speaker, as the newest member of the Blue Dog 
Coalition, I rise today to speak on an issue of vital importance to the 
hardworking people of South Dakota, fiscal responsibility.
  South Dakota families know how important it is to live within their 
means. They do this because they know that is what it means to live 
responsibly, even if it requires difficult decisions for them and their 
families.
  In its most recent pronouncement, the Congressional Budget Office now 
estimates that the Federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2004 will be 
approximately $477 billion. This means that in a 12-month period ending 
this September 30, the Federal Government will spend almost half a 
trillion dollars more than it will take in. If a South Dakota family 
behaved in this way, they would ultimately be headed to bankruptcy 
court under the burden and pressure of crushing debt.
  This projected deficit would be the highest in our Nation's history, 
and the

[[Page 16154]]

picture does not get much better as we look down the road. CBO's 
updated 10-year deficit estimate is $2.4 trillion, almost $1 trillion 
more than its earlier predictions. To make matters worse, the 10-year 
deficit estimate would virtually explode to $4.1 trillion if all of the 
current administration's tax cuts are extended for 10 years.
  What is often lost in the debate about the budget deficit is its 
impact on the overall Federal debt. We cannot allow this fact to be 
obscured. The national debt currently stands at well over $7 trillion. 
That is an estimated Federal debt of more than $24,000 for every man, 
woman and child in the United States. During this past year, the 
national debt has continued to increase an average of $1.69 billion per 
day.
  In fiscal year 2003, the U.S. Government spent $318 billion of 
taxpayers' money on interest payments on the national debt. This is 
over $1,000 per person and over $4,000 for a family of four in this 
country, and that was for last year alone.
  The problem can be brought into sharp focus by taking a snapshot of 
the programs under the jurisdiction of the committees on which I serve: 
Committee on Agriculture, Committee on Resources, and Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs.
  Because Congress and the administration have failed to exercise the 
same fiscal responsibility that South Dakotans use to balance their 
household budgets every day, our government is now seeking to balance 
the budgets on the backs of family farmers, veterans and vulnerable 
members of our society, such as many Native Americans.
  Under pressure from our massive deficit, the Agriculture 
appropriations bill that just passed the House shortchanges 
conservation programs that are needed to restore the land and build 
wildlife habitat.
  The same fiscal policy has led to cuts in vital service for Native 
Americans, including in education and human services. These cuts come 
despite the fact that Native Americans in my State live in some of the 
poorest counties in the entire Nation in sometimes desperate 
conditions. They know better than anyone else that education is the 
only path toward a better life.
  Finally, just as we are creating a whole new generation of veterans 
on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, pressure from the deficit 
has led to a budget that shortchanges America's veterans. It is a sad 
fact that this administration's budget is $1.2 billion short of the 
amount that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs said is necessary simply 
to maintain current services.
  In the years ahead, we must meet the obligations that we are making 
to these tens of thousands of selfless Americans. They will need 
assistance to recover from injuries sustained on the battlefield. They 
deserve assistance with education, housing and building a better life. 
Especially in light of the sacrifices they have already made, they do 
not deserve having to bear the additional burden of financing this 
outrageous financial debt.
  We must put our financial house back in order. The $318 billion we 
are paying in interest on the debt alone would fund all of these needs 
many times over. It would help sustain family farms and rural 
economies, build new schools for all who need them, and keep our 
Nation's promise to our veterans.
  I hope that we can bring common sense back to our Nation's budgeting 
process. We must reinstate meaningful budget enforcement tools such as 
the pay-as-you-go rule proposed by the Blue Dogs and by which this 
House previously abided. We must focus on middle class tax relief, 
paying down our Nation's debt and balancing our Nation's budget in a 
way that protects our key priorities.

                          ____________________