[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 50]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         BETTER LEADERSHIP NEEDED DURING TRYING ECONOMIC TIMES

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, America is sliding into a full-
fledged recession. Meanwhile, the President continues to pour hundreds 
of billions of dollars more into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 
first wars in America's history in which most Americans have never been 
asked to sacrifice anything.
  The President has offered no means to pay for this war spending. It 
is being financed solely through increased borrowing. Apparently, the 
idea is to borrow money, particularly from China, while driving up oil 
prices that benefit Iran in order to fight the war on terrorism. I am 
not sure that is such a wise strategy.
  We send an astounding $60 million a day to China. We now owe China 
$1.4 trillion. America has never been so deeply in debt to another 
country in our Nation's history. It is the equivalent of every American 
borrowing $4,000 from China.
  Today, the Bush administration will announce that our trade deficit 
with China is $250 billion, a quarter of a trillion dollars, just this 
year. We have gotten ourselves into a financial vise, too dependent 
upon a totalitarian state. It can't continue and should not. We need 
better leadership, Madam Speaker.

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