[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10170-10171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, as we conclude the discussion on the 
budget, in which the Presiding Officer participated so eloquently just 
a few moments ago, I wanted to come to the floor because there is a 
significant feature in America's fiscal picture that affects this 
budget considerably but has not really gotten the attention it 
deserves; that is, the debt of the United States of America that has 
been run up by President George W. Bush. It is a frightening legacy, 
really, because of the weight, the fiscal burden of it that will weigh 
on our children and our grandchildren.
  If I may, we calculated the Bush Debt at $7.7 trillion, and we did it 
this way. We took the projections for the U.S. budget on the day George 
Bush took office, which, as the Presiding Officer may recall, projected 
that we actually would have no debt left at all in our country by as 
early as fiscal year 2009--and, indeed, there was economic debate among 
America's leading economists wondering if it is really good for our 
country for America to be completely debt free. What is the ideal level 
of debt? Should we maintain some level of debt? Are there potential 
problems if the United States were to be completely debt free? That was 
the discussion. That was what America was looking forward to.
  The nonpartisan, professional Congressional Budget Office had a 
projection on where that budget was going to go on the day George W. 
Bush took office, and that is the top line of our projection. We call 
it the Clinton budget landscape because it resulted from the economic 
policies of the Clinton administration which left this country in such 
good health for President George W. Bush. That was what could have 
been. The other line is what he did, what this country has done to 
itself fiscally under George W. Bush. When you compare the difference 
between the upper line, where the country was going, and where George 
Bush took us, the difference is the Bush Debt, and it amounts to $7.7 
trillion. To me, that is an almost unimaginable number. So just to kind 
of give an idea of how many zeros that will be, this is what it looks 
like. That is $7.7 trillion. Even in the great State of Michigan, where 
the Presiding Officer hails from, that is a big number. To somebody 
like me, from Rhode Island, it is almost unimaginable. So I asked my 
staff to give me some means of comparing, some way of thinking about 
how big that number is.
  This is a penny. And I asked my staff: If a penny was $1 billion and 
you put a stack of pennies on my desk here, how high would that stack 
of $1 billion pennies go to make $7.7 trillion? Well, they found out 
that the stack of $1 billion pennies would have to go 39 feet high to 
amount to $7.7 trillion. I don't think the television camera can take 
this in, but from here to the very top of this room is about 39 feet of 
$1 billion pennies. That is the enormous burden on our country from the 
improvident, wasteful, feckless policies of the Bush administration.
  I have a credit card. The distinguished Senator from Michigan has a 
credit card. If we borrow money on our credit cards, we have to pay 
interest. American families across the country work to pay interest on 
mortgages, on credit cards, and on loans of various kinds. Well, guess 
what. We have to pay a lot of interest on a debt such as we have. And 
in the recent budget, as the Presiding Officer will recall, that we 
just passed in the Budget Committee and that we are discussing on the 
floor, there is $260 billion in interest, much of it paid to foreign 
countries, on our national debt--$7.7 trillion of it run up by one 
administration, the administration of George W. Bush.
  Now, that $260 billion is another pretty big number. So I asked: What 
could

[[Page 10171]]

we do with $260 billion if we didn't have to give it to the Saudis and 
the Chinese and the Mexicans and everybody else we have borrowed money 
from to fund George Bush's $7.7 trillion debt? Well, here is what we 
could do: For starters, we could pay for health insurance for everyone. 
We would have universal health care in this country. And you know what, 
there would be money left over. With the money that was left over, you 
could also add a million children--a million children--to Head Start 
Programs. Universal health care for everyone, a million extra children 
getting Head Start, and still there would be money left over. You could 
double every Pell grant, which helps kids in America pay for college 
and reach out and seize their futures. Universal health care, a million 
extra kids in Head Start, and doubling every Pell Grant. And there 
would still be money left over. With that last bit of money left over, 
you could repair or replace 95 percent of the bridges that currently 
need repair and reconstruction in America--not 100 percent, only 95 
percent. You would have to wait until next year to do that last 5 
percent.
  That is what the cost to us is of an administration and a Republican 
Congress that ran up $7.7 trillion in debt.
  So I appreciate very much the ranking member who spoke eloquently 
last week about the problem of that last $9.6 billion in discretionary 
spending we authorized in the Senate-passed budget above the $1 
trillion mark. We wouldn't need to worry about that $9.6 billion if his 
colleagues and President Bush hadn't run up $7.7 trillion in debt for 
Americans to have to pay in the future because this administration, 
frankly, was too cowardly to pay its own way and has borrowed from 
future generations to pay for the war in Iraq and to pay for tax cuts 
for the richest Americans. In a country where the difference between 
the wealthy and the poor, between the CEOs and the workers is growing 
dramatically, is straining the very fabric of our society, instead of 
bringing us together, what was the President's solution? Lots more tax 
cuts for the very richest people, who are doing the absolute best 
already, the ones who have nothing to worry about except whether they 
take the Lincoln or they take the Benz. They are the ones who need the 
tax cuts in this country? I don't think so. But the President did, and 
he didn't even have the guts to pay for it or find the cuts. He 
borrowed the money. That is why we are at $7.7 trillion.
  So I think it is fascinating that we are having this budget 
discussion. I want to salute our chairman, Senator Conrad, who is 
absolutely brilliant with the budget. He works so well with people in 
this body and has such enormous credibility that he is able to work 
through issues in a very special way--in large part because of his 
personal character and his credibility. We all benefit from his being 
able to do that.
  But he has had to work very hard to try to bring this budget into 
balance, 3 or 4 years out from now. It is not easy work, putting this 
budget together.
  When people come to the floor and criticize his efforts and try to 
knock $9.6 billion off and worry that this might not be fiscally 
prudent, it is astonishing when those remarks come from the people who 
aided and abetted George Bush in running up $7.7 trillion in money that 
we owe now to the rest of the world, that we will have to pay off 
indefinitely, that will be a weight and a burden on the shoulders of 
this country for decades if not generations.
  I actually think we need to do something about the $7.7 trillion Bush 
Debt. I recommended that we have a formal commission of some kind, an 
authority whose job it is to take the best and the brightest people who 
understand our economy and figure out how we pay down $7.7 trillion. It 
is really a disaster.
  Some of us have served in State government before we came here. Some 
of us have served in municipal government. If there is a crisis at the 
State government level--an economic crisis--if a municipality has a 
terrible fire in a facility and has to rebuild, you take that problem 
and you set it aside and you create a revenue stream and you deal with 
it. You don't try to force it through the regular operating budget of 
the State or of the municipality.
  We may be at the stage where the Bush Debt of $7.7 trillion is so 
serious for us fiscally that we should start thinking about getting 
together a group of the most learned economists, the people who care 
the most about America's future, who see the hazard to our welfare, to 
our national security that this kind of debt creates, and can think 
creatively about how we can set up special revenue streams to pay it 
down and begin to bring our country back in balance.
  I appreciate the courtesy of the Chair in listening to these remarks. 
I did think as we closed out the budget debate it was important to 
remind everybody that, for all the big talk the Bush administration may 
make about fiscal prudence and about being responsible, it is the most 
fiscally imprudent and the most irresponsible administration in our 
history. Indeed, President Bush alone has borrowed more money from 
foreign countries than all 42 Presidents who preceded him--not any one 
of them, all of them. If we add up everything they borrowed through the 
entire history of the Republic, in just one Presidency he has them 
beat.
  It takes a little brass to be able to come and argue for fiscal 
prudence and responsibility and not mention that President Bush and the 
Republican Congress ran up $7.7 trillion in debt. I thought we should 
think about it and reflect on that as this debate concludes.
  I appreciate working with the very distinguished Senator from 
Michigan. Her work on the Budget Committee is very valuable. She is a 
wonderful colleague to me, and I appreciate the indulgence this 
evening.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. I ask unanimous consent to speak up to 10 minutes as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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