[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23729-23730]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   MORAL VALUE OF GOVERNMENT'S ``BORROW AND SPEND'' ECONOMIC POLICIES

  (Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk and 
discussion in media and throughout the country about morals and the 
role they played in the elections. I personally welcome these 
discussions, but I am saddened by the fact that there has been little 
talk about the moral values of the government's ``borrow and spend'' 
economic policies.
  This week, we will have a vote to raise the debt ceiling for the 
third time in the last 3 years. Why? Because Congress has been content 
to manage the American taxpayers' money in a way that immorally 
disregards the well-being of our Nation's economic future.
  I believe it is immoral for this country to keep racking up debt as 
far as the eye can see only to pass it on to our children and our 
grandchildren. I think it is immoral to continue to borrow and spend 
and ask our soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice while we refuse to 
make even marginal sacrifices in our fiscal policies.
  Mr. Speaker, last week, on Thursday, November 11, the 278th 
Regimental Combat Unit left for Iraq. Many of these brave men and women 
of this National Guard unit come from my district in Tennessee. I was 
able to visit the 278th in Fort Shelby, Mississippi, the day they went 
off to defend our country. I wish them luck and offer my prayers for 
their safe return home.

                              {time}  1015

  Now I wish our soldiers' government would take the steps necessary to 
curb this deficit spending, to reinstate true budget enforcement 
measures like pay-go, and to pay down this national debt instead of 
continuing to raise the ceiling, so that when our troops return home, 
they are not left footing the bill

[[Page 23730]]

for a war they so bravely fought. As we continue to discuss morality in 
America, I hope we will not continue to ignore the immoralities within 
our current fiscal policies.

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