[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18455]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NATIONAL DEBT

  (Mr. CASE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, it has been 1,215 days since the current 
administration assumed stewardship over our Federal budget. During that 
time, our national private debt has increased by 1.733 trillion. 
According to the Web site for the Bureau of the Public Debt at the U.S. 
Department of Treasury, yesterday our Nation's outstanding privately 
held debt alone was $4.343 trillion, an increase of 39 percent in just 
3\1/2\ years. And foreign holdings of that debt now total $1.79 
trillion, an increase of $780 billion since January, 2001, and now 41 
percent of all privately held debt.
  Total Federal debt at the end of this current fiscal year in just 15 
days, including obligations to Social Security and Medicare, is 
projected to be $7.372 trillion.
  It is time to stop the bleeding.

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