[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8623-8624]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1745
                        DEFICIT AND DEBT CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Inglis of South Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper) 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I join my fellow Blue Dog, the gentleman 
from Hawaii (Mr. Case), in speaking about the deficit and debt crisis 
that our Nation faces. He gave a lot of stunning numbers. Let me put it 
on a time line.
  What are the milestones that we are facing as a Nation? First, the 
year 2004, the year past, the Comptroller General of the United States, 
David A. Walker, said that arguably it was the worst year in American 
fiscal history, clearly setting our Nation on an unsustainable path. 
Those are tough words, and they are from our Nation's leading auditor. 
Arguably the worst year in American fiscal history.
  Our history goes back many, many decades, and it stretches through 
periods of trial and turmoil, like World War II, the Civil War, and 
other conflicts. Yet the year 2004 was the worst year in American 
fiscal history according to the Comptroller General.
  Now, in 2005, what has happened in our budget and deficit this year? 
The House Republican majority ran through last week on Thursday night, 
under a so-called martial law rule, the entire budget of the United 
States of America, $2.6 trillion. And from start to finish, from first 
time to look at the budget to final passage in this body was no more 
than 2 to 3 hours of time. Literally, no one in this body had any clue 
what was in the budget because no one can read a document of that 
complexity in that short amount of time, especially under a martial law 
rule.
  Let us look forward. By the last year of the Bush administration, by 
the year 2008-2009, we will be spending, according to the House 
Republican budget, more money on interest payments to the creditors of 
our Nation than we will be spending on all regular government in 
America. Let me repeat that: more money will go to creditors of our 
Nation, bond holders, than to the citizens of our Nation in regular 
government, at least in the form of domestic, nondefense discretionary 
spending. That is a tipping point. That is an outrage. And that is the 
result of profligate Republican spending policies, the latest evidence 
of which is in this Cato Institute report that came out on May 3, 2005, 
that says the Bush administration is the worst spending administration 
since Lyndon Baines Johnson.
  Let us look forward. The Wall Street Journal reported about a month 
ago that if current trends continue, the last living U.S. bond holder 
will sell his or her holding to the People's Bank of China on February 
9, 2012. Then the Chinese will own virtually all of our foreign-held 
debt. That is not a good situation for the security of our Nation, 
either defense security or fiscal security.
  Let us look forward again. The year 2017. That is the year in which 
the Social Security surpluses will run to zero, and that will be the 
first year in modern times that the American people will get an honest 
picture of the size of the Federal budget deficit. Because no longer 
will the Social Security surplus be able to be used to hide the true 
size of the Federal deficit. For example, in 2004, most folks, most 
experts think the deficit was $412 billion. Wrong. The real deficit was 
$567 billion, or $155 billion larger than is represented, because our 
government has used the Social Security surplus to hide the true size 
of it.
  Let us look forward again. By the year 2040, only 35 years from now, 
if current trends continue, the Comptroller General of the United 
States says that it will take all revenues collected by the Federal 
Government, every dime collected in taxes from our people, just to pay 
interest on our debt. This is a truly stunning finding of the GAO, 
because it indicates that there will be no money left by the year 2040 
for any national defense, any Social Security, any Medicare, any money 
to meet the needs of our people.
  Clearly, Mr. Speaker, that is an unsustainable path. Clearly, I think 
we need Presidential leadership. Because being practical, even though 
we have a strong package of Blue Dog budget deficit reforms, even 
though both parties should come together, it is hard for a group of 435 
in this body or 100 people

[[Page 8624]]

in the other body to exert the leadership that the President should be 
demonstrating. But the President has vetoed no legislation during his 
entire Presidency. He has not disciplined Congress in any way. He is 
the first President since James Garfield in 1881 to fail to veto a 
single measure of this body. President Garfield was only in office for 
6 months before he died. President Bush has been in office for 5 years 
now.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to focus on the deficit and debt 
crisis that this Nation faces.

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