[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7112]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
         PRIORITIZE SPENDING AND REDUCE BURDEN ON OUR CHILDREN

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, we are now in the process of 
deciding how much money we are going to spend. The budget is being 
finally decided, and then the appropriations process makes the 
decision, where money is spent and how big should government be.
  Tom Savings, an actuary with both Medicare and Social Security, came 
to my office a couple of weeks ago. This is what he said where our 
promises exceed our ability to pay for it, unfunded liabilities: 
Medicare part A, $21 trillion; Medicare part B, $23 trillion; Medicare 
part D, the new drug bill, $16.6 trillion; Social Security, $12 
trillion.
  At this time, I just call on all my colleagues to be tight-fisted. 
Let us start prioritizing spending and reduce the tremendous burden we 
are placing on our kids and our grandkids.

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