[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14073-14074]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            FAILED FISCAL POLICY OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, following up on the theme of the failed fiscal 
policy of the Bush administration, I would like to emphasize two points 
made by my colleague.
  The President's bragging on a $300 billion deficit. That means the 
government's borrowing about $800 million a day, $800 million a day to 
run the government, and they are handing the bill to future 
generations. He is bragging on that as great achievement, but that is 
not the whole story. He is also borrowing $182 billion from the Social 
Security surplus this year. So he is also borrowing from present and 
future generations. The total borrowing by the Federal Government this 
year will be $482 billion, and the President's bragging on it, and that 
means we are borrowing $1.3 billion a day to run the government, 
borrowing against the future, sending the bill to working Americans 
because we do not want to tax the rich people anymore, and the 
corporations are moving offshore to avoid taxes.
  It is an extraordinarily fiscally irresponsible position for this 
government, and it is just part of the many failures of this 
administration, but I am going to talk about another failure today, one 
where the President has said we are also setting new records, trade 
policy.
  America, month after month after month, is running larger and larger 
trade deficits. We are hemorrhaging jobs overseas to countries that 
exploit labor, countries like China where people work for 25 cents an 
hour they are so desperate, where they are not allowed to form labor 
unions, where U.S. capital is feeding their technological investment 
from corporations who are moving away from our country but want to sell 
their goods here.
  Our trade deficit with China was $17.7 billion last month. One month, 
we borrowed $500 million a day from China to buy stuff from them that 
we used to make here in the United States of

[[Page 14074]]

America. That is not sustainable. We are losing the jobs and we are 
mortgaging our future, and someday that debt is going to be called in 
by the Chinese and others.
  The trade deficit overall went up to $63.8 billion. We are on track 
to have a trade deficit of $765 billion this year. Now, that is a lot 
of numbers. What does that mean? We are borrowing over $2 billion a 
day, $2 billion a day from foreign interests, number one being China, 
number two Japan, and others, to buy stuff made overseas that we used 
to make here. And the Bush administration touts this as a great 
success, free trade. Why?
  Well, because the corporate CEOs, who have outsourced their jobs to 
China, are getting huge and growing compensation, an average of $12 
million. They live in gated communities. They send their kids to 
private schools. They fly on private jets. They go to private resorts. 
They do not care about public infrastructure or public education. They 
do not care about the rest of us in this country. They do not even care 
about the American workers anymore because they are making stuff 
overseas. All they do is hope our credit cards hold up a little bit 
longer so we can buy more of the stuff they made over there that might 
be a tiny bit cheaper and put it on the credit card and they can cash 
in and get out of town before this house of cards collapses.
  So we are borrowing over $1.4 billion a day to run the government. We 
are borrowing $2 billion a day to buy stuff made overseas, and 
President Bush is telling the American people that things are great and 
getting better, but on Main Street, America, they know that is not 
true.
  Now, in the country clubs and in the boardrooms, sure, better than 
ever. Corporate CEO pay went up last year about 10 percent, about $1 
million on average, which happens to be 100 times what a minimum-wage 
earner earns in this country. That was just their increase. The minimum 
wage has not gone up in 9 years. The Republicans refuse to bring it to 
the floor of the House because they are favoring these corporate CEOs. 
God forbid, they should pay more in taxes, and God forbid, they should 
have to pay the minimum-wage people who wait on their tables, who park 
their cars and who mow their lawns any more money. It would be a 
hardship for those rich folks.
  So this is the Bush economic success. We are borrowing from overseas. 
We are borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund. We are borrowing 
from other investors. We are financing it on the credit card, and they 
tout this as great for our country and a strong economy. What a lie.

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