[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12055-12061]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE BUDGET, OUR DEBT AND THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
  I also would like to thank and congratulate the previous speaker for 
her outstanding summary of some of the issues that will be facing this 
House later this week. It is, as she said, a bill that will enhance big 
banking at the expense of small community banking. Her hard work on 
this issue is appreciated on both sides of the aisle. Thank you very 
much to the gentlelady for that excellent summary of the bill. There 
are so many issues about which, if we could work together on a 
bipartisan basis, I feel we could come up with better legislation.
  What I intend to talk about this evening is an area about which we 
have not had much bipartisan dialogue. That is, of course, over the 
budget, our debt and the deficit.
  It is official now. We will not have a budget this year. This will be 
the first time since the Budget Act of 1974 was passed, creating the 
system we have for budgeting and for making expenditures now, that we 
will not have had a budget. It is the very first time since 1974. Every 
year, the House has passed a budget. I believe, almost every year, the 
Senate has passed a budget. There were years when they haven't agreed, 
but every year, the House met its obligation and passed a budget.
  You know, the current chairman of the House Budget Committee, who, of 
course, is a member of the majority party, has said, if you can't 
budget, you can't govern. I couldn't agree more. If you can't budget, 
you can't govern. We are not going to budget this year. We, therefore, 
are not going to be governing this year in a manner that the American 
people expect and deserve, so it is a source of tremendous 
disappointment for me.
  We were also told and learned last week that we will see none of the 
major appropriations bills before the November election. That is an 
indication to me that the majority party recognizes that it has 
overspent for 18 months, that the American people are tired of the 
overspending, that they are zeroed in on the debt and the deficit, and 
that they are not going to take it anymore.
  There are ideas that the Republican Party has had to reduce the debt 
and the deficit in order to bring down the size and scope of the 
Federal Government and to divorce ourselves from the current strategy 
of big government, big unions, big business. Among the big businesses 
are those that the gentlelady from the majority party, from Ohio, just 
talked about in the last half an hour. Always supporting bigger 
government, bigger business, bigger unions takes away from our 
communities, which is where the creativity is, which is where the 
desire to create jobs and families and businesses and households and 
churches and charitable institutions really grows and thrives. It 
deletes those kinds of opportunities around our country. It discourages 
those kinds of opportunities around our country.
  Our country is truly at a crossroads now.
  We have seen very different reactions on the part of the people in, 
say, Greece, which is experiencing enormous financial problems--huge 
debts and deficits. The people there who are demonstrating, rioting and 
who are out on the streets are those who receive the benefits of the 
Government of Greece. They are those who are living off the very, very 
small private sector, which is trying to fund this behemoth of a 
government with all kinds of social services and entitlement programs 
that they can't afford because the programs and services are 
unsustainable, which is sending--plummeting--their country into the 
kinds of debts and deficits that have gotten them into such deep 
financial trouble.
  All of the world is horribly concerned.
  Take that image and compare it to the image of the United States in 
the last 18 months. You had the so-called Tea Partiers who were out on 
April 15. They were protesting big spending, protesting big government 
and protesting later in the year this enormous health care bill that 
Congress passed over their objections. These are the kinds of people 
who are up in arms in America and who are out demonstrating and 
protesting. They are the taxpayers. They are the people who want less 
government--smaller government--and more efficient government. They are 
the people who want business to be more accountable and who want 
government to be more transparent. These are the people who are 
protesting in the United States, and these are the people who we should 
be listening to.
  In fact, I want to congratulate one Governor who was listening, who 
has listened and who did a miraculous

[[Page 12056]]

thing in the last few months. He is the new Governor of the State of 
New Jersey, Governor Christie.
  Governor Christie took over from a big-spending administration. He 
inherited a big-spending legislature in New Jersey. Yet he ran on an 
agenda that resonated with the people of New Jersey. He ran on an 
agenda to cut the debt in the State of New Jersey, and he has done so. 
He brought forward budgets that cut the government.
  The majority in the legislature there said, Oh, my gosh. We can't do 
that.
  So he said, Here is my budget. I am going to make these cuts, and I 
am going to make these cuts unless you submit to me a budget that is 
balanced.
  Last night, very, very late--in the wee hours of the morning--that 
very legislature passed Governor Christie's budget. The State of New 
Jersey, in the signing of that budget by Governor Christie, has become 
among the most fiscally responsible States in the United States.
  It is a miraculous story. It is a story of the American people--in 
their case, the people of New Jersey--winning out over big government, 
special interests, entitlement programs we can't afford, and giving new 
life to small business, individual initiative, freedom.

                              {time}  1800

  It is a great example of what this Congress can do come November.
  I am going to put up a couple of charts that I want you to see.
  This first one is about the changing priorities of this country with 
regard to spending over time, starting in the 1970s and moving into our 
current decade.
  As you can see, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the major 
portion of our budget, almost 50 percent of our Federal budget, was 
spent on defense. Obviously, this was at the height of and then 
followed by the waning of the war in Vietnam. This is when the draft 
was no longer in effect. Ever since then, defense spending has consumed 
a smaller and smaller part of our Federal budget. It is the brown line. 
So it is up a little bit with the war on terror, but compared to our 
other spending, it is still very, very steady, and within the realm it 
has been over the last 20 years.
  Now let's look at Medicare and Medicaid. This is the red line. This 
is the line that started out as a very small 5 percent component of our 
budget in the 1970s and has been steadily climbing, and is climbing 
still to the point where Medicare and Medicaid are going to choke out 
all other spending if we project it forward.
  The two in the middle, Social Security, which has been tremendously 
flat and pretty steady, actually is going to be funded until the 2030s. 
But when we hit the 2030s, we are going to see a 25 percent reduction 
in the benefits paid to those who have paid into Social Security, 
another problem this Congress needs to address on a bipartisan basis. 
Then the other, of course, is nondefense discretionary, which over time 
has followed a wave in between.
  So the big changes are the decline in defense spending as a portion 
of the Federal budget and the massive replacement of this spending in 
Medicare and Medicaid.
  Now, one could say that is a good thing, and indeed it is, that we 
are not having to spend as big a portion of our Federal budget on 
defense. But the scary part is that the growth in entitlement programs, 
Medicare and Medicaid, is going to be unabated and is going to crowd 
out other investments in our country, because we are going to have to, 
in addition to all the other things we do, debt finance these programs.
  When we debt finance and are paying interest out of every year's 
budget for interest on the debt, we are crowding out other investments, 
and by crowding out other investments in our economy, we are marching 
down the road towards Greece, towards Italy, towards Spain, towards the 
kind of problems the U.K. has been having, but is changing course on 
and is going to address, and we wish them the best in those efforts.
  Now, where did the money go? These are components of the 2009 deficit 
growth in billions. Here is the Federal budget deficit, the places 
where the Federal deficit tripled in one fiscal year as tax revenues 
fell and Congress pumped out large sums to stabilize financial 
institutions and stimulate the economy, creating a tripling in the 
Federal deficit in one fiscal year. Furthermore, the policies we have 
enacted will double the debt in five years and triple the debt in 10 
years. So the situation that we put ourselves in in the last 18 months 
creates dire circumstances.
  So the components of the 2009 deficit growth occurred due to lower 
tax receipts, and that is part of our recession, and stimulus, half in 
spending and half in lower taxes. The Republicans, quite frankly, had a 
stimulus package that would have created twice as many jobs with half 
the size of a stimulus, and doing it by infrastructure spending through 
private sector investment.
  The next item, bailouts for financial institutions and the auto 
industry, bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Unfortunately, we 
are not addressing the structural problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac in the financial reform bill, in the conference committee, which 
has concluded its efforts. Then we have unemployment benefits due to 
the recession which have been running steadily until recently. Then the 
remainder is a collection of aggregation of other spending. So that 
explains how our Federal budget has trended the way it has.
  This was before we passed ObamaCare. This budget was passed before 
the health care reform bill, which adds a huge other component to the 
debt and the deficit. We know that that bill, if you take the years 
2010 to 2020, is going to cost over $1 trillion, half of which is going 
to come out of cuts in Medicare and the other half out of tax 
increases. But we are only paying out, as you will recall, six or seven 
years of benefits for 10 years of taxes and Medicare cuts.
  When you combine the first 10 years, where we are actually collecting 
taxes, cutting spending on Medicare, and combine that 10 years with 10 
years of benefits, we are talking about a deficit of $2.4 trillion, and 
that would be what it would be going forward.
  In other words, we created a program that we knew had a long-term 
structural deficit that was enormous and did it knowingly, leaving for 
future generations the tough decisions about how to pay for it.
  Creating an entitlement that you know you can't pay for and that 
creates structural deficits for our children kicks the can down the 
road to a generation that deserves to inherit a better country. No 
wonder when you poll the American people, they will say that we 
inherited a better America from our parents, but our children will not 
be inheriting as high a standard of living from us as we inherited from 
our parents. That is unconscionable.
  I have been joined this evening by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, 
who has made his career in health care and may wish to comment further 
on that or anything else. I am so pleased you have chosen to join me 
this evening, and I yield the time to you.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlelady from Wyoming for 
hosting this very important hour on this very important need.
  The number one issue right now, as you have very appropriately 
pointed out, is the growing and massive Federal debt. Independents in 
this country overwhelmingly identify the debt as being the biggest 
threat to the future well-being of this country.
  As I travel around, and the fact that the Democratic majority has not 
even introduced a budget, the first time since 1976, I raise the 
question: America is really at a critical crossroads in history. We 
have a choice. We have a choice to continue the path of taxing, and 
spending, and borrowing, and the lack of transparency that will result 
in a choice between that and accountable government. So America really 
has a choice between becoming Greece or New Jersey.

                              {time}  1810

  And Greece, we have all witnessed the fiscal meltdown and chaos that 
resulted in that country as a result of the

[[Page 12057]]

massive social spending and out-of-control government. And we've all 
seen most recently in the Garden State, with the election of 
accountable and transparent and fiscally responsible leadership, where 
that State has really started to put its house in order. So this is a 
little hard for someone who is a lifetime Keystone Stater to say I 
would choose New Jersey when it came between those two.
  We have confirmed that the Federal budget plan for fiscal year 2011 
really has been canceled. The cause? Washington Democrats' out-of-
control spending spree. This is really a betrayal of hardworking 
American taxpayers. The House of Representatives has passed a budget 
every year since the Congressional Budget Act took effect in fiscal 
year 1976. To be completely accurate, there have been times under 
Democrats and Republicans when a finished budget was not passed by both 
Houses, but this is the first time that the House of Representatives 
has simply decided there's too much peril for the American public to 
see the numbers that they are pursuing. So they're going to stop the 
game before the coin is even tossed. We have more than $13 trillion in 
debt and a Presidential budget that puts the deficit at $1.6 trillion 
and spends $3.8 trillion. Even the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, said 
this debt is ``unsustainable.''
  Now, faced with similar challenges in our personal budget--and that's 
something we families do around this country each and every day--there 
would be a talk around the kitchen table and the children's allowances 
would be cut, along with many other luxuries. It is that discussion 
that the majority party in this Chamber really seems only willing to 
have under the theory that if they ignore it, it'll go away, or 
frankly, if they ignore it, maybe the American people won't notice the 
massive amount of debt that has been accrued over these past 18 months. 
Unfortunately, the debt will not go away. It is a legacy of debt for 
our children and grandchildren. And the pain will be transferred to 
those future generations in the hopes that, frankly, they'll have the 
guts to face reality. So I thank the gentlelady for hosting this hour 
on a very, very important topic.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman for joining me. As some of you are 
aware, AmericaSpeakingOut.com is a Web site where all Americans can go 
to weigh in about their views on the American debt, deficit, and about 
ideas to reduce the size and scope of government, and right-size it, 
make it more efficient, and anything else you have in mind about 
shaping the activities of this Congress. We very much want to hear from 
you. AmericaSpeakingOut.com gives you a chance to share your ideas with 
Members of Congress. And we very much commend it to your attention.
  I have a bill that I'd like to discuss that I'd like you to put in a 
plug for on AmericaSpeakingOut.com, and that is a bill called the 
Federal Workforce Reduction Act. It is a bill that I'm sponsoring and 
that I've used this information to help explain.
  This year in Congress, when you add up all the spending we've done in 
the last 18 months, the great growth sector in terms of employment has 
been government. In fact, when we passed the stimulus bill--and we were 
told that if we pass the stimulus bill it will keep unemployment under 
8 percent, and employment since this has been hovering at around 9.7 
percent and as high as 10, 10.1 percent. During that time, 9 million 
private sector jobs were lost. The entrepreneurial economy lost jobs, 
and yet the only sector that grew was government.
  Government employment has increased by 15 percent during the time 
when 9 million jobs were lost in the private sector. And this shows you 
what is happening to Federal Government employment. It actually was 
pretty high back in 1993, but over the decade of the nineties it 
declined. Then it experienced right after the 9/11 bump in employment 
associated with homeland security, it experienced tremendous stability 
in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
  And then you get to 2008 and 2009 and then 2010, where it goes off 
the charts. It shows that Federal Government employment has absolutely 
skyrocketed. And further, Federal Government employment has grown in 
terms of the salaries that are paid. They far exceed average salaries 
in the private sector. Even here at the U.S. Department of Education in 
Washington, the average employee makes twice as much as the average 
American teacher. Imagine that. The people here in Washington are 
making twice as much--the bureaucrats dealing with education issues--
making twice as much as the classroom teacher in America who's actually 
teaching the students.
  So for these reasons I sponsored the Workforce Reduction Act. And 
this bill does a couple of things: one, it freezes Federal Government 
employment; and, secondly, for every year we're running a deficit, we 
will take vacant positions. When someone retires or someone moves to 
another job, their position is vacated. Those positions then will go 
into an employment pool and agencies will have to seek reinstatement of 
that position so they can hire someone into that position from the 
employment pool. They'll have to justify it and they'll have to compete 
for those positions because for every two people who leave their job 
and vacate a position, only one position survives in the pool, thereby 
reducing the number of Federal employees through attrition.
  We're not firing anybody. We're doing it through attrition. When 
people retire or leave their job, the number of Federal employees would 
diminish. The exempt agencies from this plan are Homeland Security, 
Defense, and Veterans Affairs. Every other agency is subject to it. And 
this will continue for as long as we run deficits.
  The fact that Federal employment has grown by 15 percent when the 
private sector lost 9 million jobs is just completely unconscionable. 
It is in furtherance of the big government, big unions, big business 
agenda that is being advanced through this Congress in the last 18 
months, when we should be having small, efficient government. We should 
be encouraging small business where the job creation is. And we should 
be encouraging union membership in small relationships that can deal 
directly with employers on the job site rather than the huge national 
organizations that have their tentacles in every aspect of every bill 
that we pass.
  So please go to AmericaSpeakingOut.com and weigh in on your thoughts.
  We have been joined now by the gentleman from Florida, who is also a 
distinguished member of this conference. I will yield time to the 
gentleman from Florida. Thank you for joining us.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Let me first thank you for bringing 
us together tonight to talk about such an important issue. The news 
recently has been full of pictures of the G-20 meeting, where the 
leaders from around the world got together to speak about the economic 
situation in the world.
  And it was rather, I thought, ironic that you had on one side the 
Canadian leader, plus many European Union leaders, talking about how we 
have to control spending, we have to control debt and how the world 
economies are going, frankly, are on a path towards not being 
sustainable. And on the other side, pretty much alone, you have the 
President of the United States, who continues to insist that we need to 
spend more money and borrow more money in order to have the economy 
prosper.
  Now, we know how well that has worked so far. Think about it. We had 
the TARP bailout of Wall Street. We had then the so-called 
``stimulus.'' And the gentlewoman from Wyoming just spoke about the 
results of that almost trillion-dollar borrowed money that the Federal 
Government took from the American people, from small businesses, from 
families, to spend it because they said they promised that it was going 
to fix the employment situation and that unemployment would be capped 
at 8 percent and 3-plus million jobs will be created.
  And we know that the only place where jobs have been created, as the 
gentlewoman just said and showed so eloquently, was government jobs. 
Yet,

[[Page 12058]]

private sector jobs have not been created. But wealth has been taken 
away from families and small businesses in order to spend and misspend 
and to waste that money.

                              {time}  1820

  And then we had the second part of TARP, the second expenditure of 
TARP, and then we had the Son of Stimulus. We're continuously told 
that, Well, yes, that's really helping, and it's worked.
  You know, how do you know if what you're being told isn't quite 
accurate? Well, just listen to what they're telling you. The President 
himself stated that if the so-called stimulus were to pass that 
unemployment would be capped at 8 percent, would not reach 8 percent. 
Those are his numbers. That was his benchmark--not mine, not yours, not 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania's benchmark. That benchmark was 
established by the President. He established what he said was going to 
happen, and yet we all know what has happened.
  Unemployment is way above that. Job creation has been dismal. We've 
actually lost millions of jobs after the stimulus passed, and yet we 
see our President in front of the world saying, number one, it's worked 
and that we need to do more of it, as if we're living in some weird 
time warp. Does he and does the leadership in the House not understand 
what's going on in Europe right now with Greece, for example, where 
Greece has had to get bailed out by the European Union because, 
frankly, their debt is so high and their expenditures are so out of 
control that they've had to bail them out? Do they not understand 
what's going on in Spain now where everybody says that they are the 
next one to, frankly, implode economically because their debt is so 
high, because their expenditures are so high?
  It is my understanding that the President of the United States even 
called Spain and said, Hey, you have to cut back on expenses. And yet 
here he pretends as if we live in Disney World, that you can continue 
to spend people's money--let me restate that. It's not people's money 
anymore. It's borrowed money--and that there are no consequences, that 
it's fake, that the words of just about every economist that says this 
is unsustainable are just, frankly, not true.
  So, by the way, if that were not bad enough, where have they spent 
this hard-earned money? Where has it gone? Now, if I were to tell you 
all that--I don't know. Pick your government. Pick a government, a 
neighboring government. I don't know, Guatemala, Argentina, wherever 
you want. If we said, Hey, you know, the administration there just 
established a Web page, and the Web page cost $5 million. We would all 
go, Oh, my gosh. What have they done? There's a word for that. It's not 
``waste.'' I mean, if that happened someplace else, we don't call it 
waste. We call it corruption. If we see that some government, some 
President has created a Web page for $5 million, we'd look at it and 
we'd say, Something strange is happening here.
  The Web page that was created by this administration to track the 
failed stimulus didn't cost $1 million. No, it didn't cost $5 million. 
The Web page cost $18 million. Now, you know, I ask the American 
people, Have you ever heard of an $18 million Web page? Does that sound 
like efficient use of your money? Does that make any sense? So you are 
wondering why it hasn't created jobs. Well, because the money has been 
wasted. And I am not going to use another word for it, a word that we 
would use if it happened someplace else. I'm not going to use the word 
``corruption'' for an $18 million Web page. But it sure smells funny, 
and it sure shows you that the money is wasted, and it sure 
demonstrates why it has not created jobs. And we could go on and on and 
on and on about money going to campaign consultants, stimulus money 
going to campaign consultants.
  And what is the answer? Is the answer of this administration, of this 
Congress, ``Let's take a step back. Let's look at what we've done. It 
hasn't worked. Our debt is unsustainable, and everybody has told us 
that''? When Europe tells us that our debt is unsustainable, that 
becomes pretty evident and pretty obvious; right? When they tell you 
that we're spending too much money, the Europeans, for God's sake, tell 
the United States that we're spending too much money and we are 
incurring too much debt, that should make us at least take a step back. 
Let's take a step back and figure out it hasn't worked. The 
administration has spent all this money. They said it would keep 
unemployment at 8 percent. It is now way over that. They said it was 
going to create 3.5 million jobs. That hasn't happened. The only jobs 
created were bureaucrats in Washington.
  So you would think they would take a step back and say, okay, the 
American people have suffered enough through this irresponsibility. 
Let's do something different. No. They continue to do more of the same 
thing. They continue to double up, because it's not their money. It's 
the American people's money. So they say, Let's just double up on it. 
We wasted all this money and it hasn't created jobs? We're going to do 
more. We're going to waste more of the taxpayers' money. It is, 
frankly, totally unacceptable.
  I just want to throw out some numbers, and I will yield back. I want 
to thank the gentlewoman for allowing me to have this time.
  What's the problem here? Look, in 2010, the President's budget, what 
he submitted--and, by the way, Congress did--was $3.6 trillion. That's 
the budget that was submitted. Here's the problem: The revenues for 
that year were $2.4 trillion. It doesn't require a NASA rocket 
scientist to understand what the problem is. But that wasn't enough. 
This year, the President submitted a budget--the President did--and he 
submitted a budget that's $3.8 trillion. But here lies the problem: The 
estimated revenues for this year--remember, $3.8 trillion. That's what 
he submitted after he did it last year again, and all of the reasons 
why last year was a special year and all the past sins and that's why 
it had to be done last year. Well, now, this year he submits a budget 
for $3.8 trillion. But what are the revenue estimates for this year? 
$2.6 trillion.
  Now, if that was a company or if someone did that at home, they would 
be bankrupt. And that's precisely where this is leading the greatest, 
most prosperous, most generous, most decent nation on this planet. And 
that's not acceptable. That's why even the Europeans are saying, What 
are you guys doing? And not only are they doing this, but we have 
results to show how well it's worked. It has been a dismal failure--not 
because I say so. Because the President established the benchmark, and 
under the President's own benchmark it has been a dismal failure. There 
are consequences of this misspending of money. There are consequences 
for this debt.
  I just want to leave you with one last number. Just in the interest 
payments alone--not the principal--to pay the interest payments by the 
year 2020, the American people are going to have to pay almost $1 
trillion just in interest payments. That's the President's budget. 
That's what they claim is going to be the expensing, the cost, the 
numbers that are going to have to be paid by the American people just 
to pay the debt that they are incurring.

                              {time}  1830

  You know, I want to thank the gentlewoman for bringing us here today 
to explain, to talk about, this is not monopoly money. This is real. 
This is our children's and our grandchildren's future. This is the 
future of this, the greatest country on Earth. And we can take a step 
back. We can salvage the situation. We can create jobs. We can stop 
this path towards bankruptcy. But we need to do so now.
  And the reason the Democratic Congress is not even going to present, 
it seems, not even going to try to attempt, it looks like, to pass a 
budget out of the House is because these numbers--they're not my 
numbers, they're the official numbers--and they must be embarrassed to 
show the American people the truth so, therefore, they're not even 
going to present a budget.
  I haven't been here that long. But, in the time that I've been here, 
that's

[[Page 12059]]

never happened. It's never happened. Not even attempting to present a 
budget because the numbers are so dismal under their watch. This is not 
inherited. Under their watch the numbers are so dismal that they don't 
even want the American people to see those numbers.
  Well, you know something? The American people are wise. They're not 
dumb. You can try to hide the facts, but the facts are there. You can 
try to not show the numbers, but the numbers are there.
  So, again, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak to the 
American people, directly to the American people, as to what their 
government is doing with their money, with their children's money, with 
their grandchildren's money and with the future of our Nation. I'm sure 
that we'll be able to reverse it, but we need to start now.
  Thank you. I yield back.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Diaz-Balart, for 
his very succinct summary of why we haven't seen a budget and why we're 
not going to see a budget this year. And the answer, of course, is that 
it is so out of balance, we are spending so much more than we take in 
that there is a level of embarrassment. Instead of cutting spending, 
instead of even making a beginning to cutting spending, the answer of 
the majority party is to not present a budget at all.
  I return, again, to the Budget Committee chairman's own words: If you 
can't budget, you can't govern.
  I understand that there used to be, within the Congress, a committee 
that was, in essence, a counterbalance to the Appropriations Committee. 
Since the Appropriations Committee spends money, that there was 
actually a committee that would determine where we could cut, what 
Federal agencies could be eliminated, which ones could be downsized, 
which ones could be more efficient. And maybe that's an idea that needs 
to be resurrected. If you believe that, please go to 
Americaspeakingout.com and let us know. Weigh in on these ideas. Give 
us your creative ideas.
  I want to especially encourage people who have served in their state 
legislature to go to Americaspeakingout.com.
  States are the great incubators of good ideas. States try out ideas 
that give the Federal Government a chance to see whether they work or 
fail. New Jersey's doing that right now. New Jersey's taking the lead. 
New Jersey's cutting spending. New Jersey's doing it at the request of 
their constituents. The people in New Jersey are once again in control 
of the government in New Jersey. And if it works in New Jersey, it's 
certainly worth a try here in Washington.
  One other point I'd like to make that the gentleman from Florida also 
hit on, and that is, when we're borrowing money from other countries, 
and have to pay it back with these extraordinary numbers, such as $1 
trillion, every time we borrow we're putting ourselves in the position 
where we have to pay higher interest.
  In the last month, the U.S. Treasury issued some Treasury bonds, and 
that issue went undersubscribed, which means there were not enough 
buyers to buy U.S. Treasuries at the interest rate at which they were 
being offered.
  Now, the alternative we have when that occurs is to raise the 
interest rates because, for heavens sakes, we're on track to need the 
money, to have to borrow the money. The Treasury can't come back to 
Congress and say, we couldn't sell them at that interest rate. You all 
are going to have to cut. That's not the Treasury's job.
  The Treasury's job is to issue U.S. treasuries to cover our debt. But 
when nobody will buy them at the rate for which they're being offered, 
their only alternative is to raise the interest rate and issue them 
again.
  So the borrower, the purchaser of those debts gets a higher return, 
and they get it from people who are paying taxes. So more and more of 
your tax dollars is going to go to pay interest on the national debt.
  Problem is, as the gentleman from Florida pointed out, we're not 
taking in enough money this year to pay what we're going to spend this 
year. We didn't take in enough money last year to pay what we spent 
last year. We're not going to take in enough money next year, under 
current projections, to pay what we're spending next year. And on and 
on and on.
  This is a structural deficit, in other words. There's no end in sight 
to spending more than we're taking in every year. The only way to fill 
the gap is to borrow more money. And when we can't sell those debts at 
an interest rate that will attract buyers, we have to raise the 
interest rate to attract more buyers. The circle is vicious. It is 
ugly. And the American people are going to foot the bill, especially 
the young people that are coming up. And they don't want this on their 
tab. We're hearing from younger Americans now. They don't want this on 
their tab. I don't want this on their tab either.
  I yield again to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I think you just brought up, 
frankly, something that's very scary, should be very scary to us. And 
you mentioned what happened there is--that's how it started in Europe. 
That's how it started in Greece, and eventually it basically started to 
collapse, which is why then the European Union had to bail out Greece, 
and then they had to talk to Spain about not spending any money, about 
cutting their spending, et cetera. And so when we talk about how--and 
not us, when economists--around the country, now even around the world, 
and leaders around the world say it's unsustainable, it's because 
that's where we are headed if we don't change that.
  But you know what adds insult to injury to me?
  I represent the great State of Florida. I will tell you it's probably 
the greatest place to live in the entire planet.
  We have a lot of senior citizens, many of whom depend on Medicare for 
example. Well, we know that Medicare will be going insolvent in I think 
just, you know, a handful of years--2016 or 2017 is when it goes 
insolvent. So here we are borrowing and borrowing and spending and 
spending and borrowing and spending. Are we using that money? Is the 
Speaker and is the President using that money to shore up Medicare for 
our senior citizens? Are they using that money to shore up Social 
Security for our seniors?
  No. They've now created a new entitlement that we know we can call 
the mother of all entitlements. So not only are they not solving the 
problems that we have, they're creating new entitlements, which is 
going to add to the fiscal problem that we're already in. So not only 
are they borrowing and spending more, they're doing so recklessly, 
while not dealing with the issues that we all know, everybody knows we 
have to deal with. So that just adds insult to injury.
  And when you mentioned that about remember what happened in Greece, 
it got to the point where then the market said, we're not going to--
your debt is so high that we're not going to buy it unless you pay much 
higher interest rates. And it gets to the point where then it becomes 
this vicious circle where all you're doing is paying interest, you 
know, like people get into with credit cards. This administration, this 
President are doing exactly the same thing to our country. And the 
American people are starting to understand.
  World leaders are starting to tell the United States, slow down. What 
are you guys doing?
  And yet, this Congress, and our President who, I guess--I don't 
know--I just don't exactly understand what they're looking at. They're 
looking at the same numbers that we're looking at. And the things 
they've done have been dismal failures. I mentioned obviously the 
stimulus.
  But let's talk about one more. How about the billions of dollars that 
the taxpayers dished out to the car companies, automobile companies? 
Remember, in order for them to not go bankrupt, all right? So what 
happened? They didn't go bankrupt? No, they actually did go bankrupt, 
but after the taxpayer, who's struggling, by the way, and they're 
losing their jobs, and

[[Page 12060]]

there's no Federal bailout for them, and they're losing their homes, 
and there's no Federal bailout for them. No, no, no. Take their money 
to bail out the auto companies because we can't let them go bankrupt. 
And they went bankrupt anyway.

                              {time}  1840

  So I don't know. That's not a failure? Only in Washington do you say 
I'm going to spend all this money and it's going to stop unemployment 
from going above 8 percent, and then it goes way above 8 percent and 
they don't call that failure. Only in Washington. Only in Washington do 
you take taxpayers' hard-earned money, say that you are going to stop 
these auto companies from going bankrupt, and then they go bankrupt 
anyway and you say, oh, we got to do more of the same. It's nuts. It's 
insane.
  But everybody has realized, everybody, including world leaders--again 
I repeat myself, and then I will stop--but when you have world leaders 
of France saying to the United States of America you are borrowing and 
spending too much, if that's not a wake-up call, then what will it take 
for this President and this Congress to wake up? And you are right, 
that's why they are not presenting a budget, because their numbers are 
frankly unsustainable. The American people would go ballistic if they 
saw their proposals. But you know something? The American people know 
what's going on anyway. Thank you for your time.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman from Florida. Mr. Diaz-Balart has 
been a powerful spokesman for responsible Federal budgeting.
  I now once again would like to recognize my colleague from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), who will be talking further about this 
issue. And I want to remind people, please do go to 
AmericaSpeakingOut.com. Also go to the whip's Web site, Mr. Cantor, who 
has YouCut on it. Or you can go to the Republican Conference Web site. 
YouCut is the icon you want to click so you too can vote on ways to cut 
the Federal budget.
  We have identified half a trillion dollars' worth of cuts, and we 
want to know whether you think they are the right cuts. So please go to 
YouCut in addition to AmericaSpeakingOut.com.
  And again I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
  You know, there is a very important number here that the American 
people need to identify with, and it's a number that brings it home. 
It's a number that's very personal in terms of personal responsibility, 
and that is over $40,000 per person. That's the amount of debt that 
each man, woman, and child in this country is responsible for. And that 
doesn't include entitlements. If we got into Medicare and Social 
Security, that number would be much larger. But just keeping it within 
the scheme of excluding entitlements, over $40,000.
  Now, you look at the young people that we have today, and the fact is 
that we are not--we don't come to each American and collect a check. If 
we did that, it all would be divided up evenly. And that's a heck of a 
lot of money. That's a tremendous amount of debt to start your life out 
with for a young person.
  But the fact is, that's not how we do things. You know, we kind of 
kick the can down the road, as I heard you use that phrase earlier. You 
know, we divide things up. You know, not everybody pays the same 
amount. And so this legacy of debt we are really following the next 
generation, our children, our grandchildren, future generations 
disproportionately. So what was $40,000 today will just grow 
exponentially.
  And that legacy of debt is not a legacy--you know, there is not a 
generation that doesn't want to leave this country better than what we 
received from our parents. But we are failing. With this Congress, with 
this President we are failing at the legacy that we are leaving: today, 
in 2010, a debt of $40,000 per person.
  Now, I really appreciate you pointing out AmericaSpeakingOut and the 
YouCut. YouCut is just a wonderful tool. It gives the American people 
voice. Because you know who the experts are in terms of cutting today? 
The experts at living within their means, of pulling that belt a little 
tighter? That's the American citizens and the American families. They 
are the ones that live within their means. They know that in difficult 
times you have to make difficult choices. That's called showing 
leadership. That is not something this Congress has done.
  And so YouCut, and YouCut, it really is brand new. It's 5 weeks old. 
It hasn't been around that long. The gentlelady from Wyoming pointed 
out that you can access that through the Republican whip's Web site. 
And in the first 5 weeks we have identified over $100 billion in cuts 
to government. Now, that's the way to tighten the belt on the budget. 
And that's something the American citizens, the American families do 
each and every day. They live within their means.
  And so that's what's so exciting about AmericaSpeakingOut and YouCut. 
This gives the American citizens a voice in this process. The Federal 
Government and the budget is not something that they are removed from. 
It's something that they have a voice, they are able to weigh in and 
share their ideas. And I can't wait to hear what ideas they submit in 
the future. And as those ideas come in, they get vetted, they may see 
their ideas wind up on the YouCut list, where they will have a chance 
to really, they can vote, go in and pick on where are the next level of 
cuts that we should levy in terms of making sure that the Federal 
Government lives within its means just like the American families do.
  So I thank the gentlelady for just pointing out those very important 
resources for the American citizens.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining me 
this evening, in addition to the gentleman from Florida.
  We have been trying to point out the structural deficit and debt that 
this country can no longer absorb and that we have to address. So it 
does my heart good to see the gentleman from Pennsylvania get so 
excited about the notion of cutting spending. And we want the American 
people to share our enthusiasm for cutting spending. We want the 
American people to weigh in. AmericaSpeakingOut.com and YouCut are two 
ways that you can do that.
  I talk to people in Wyoming every weekend when I go home, and they 
share with me their thoughts about reducing spending. They see 
irresponsible spending, inefficient spending. They know where it is. 
And there are people all over this country who know where it is. So 
please share with us your ideas so we can create an exciting new agenda 
for this country that actually takes a slice out of inefficient 
government, and we get leaner and more able to maneuver, and give more 
room in our economy to a growing entrepreneurial sector that can create 
jobs and that isn't shackled by oppressive taxes, but pays an amount of 
taxes that are commensurate with their ability to unleash their 
creativity and create jobs and have the money available to borrow and 
expand and grow and create a vibrant America in our communities, in our 
churches, in our States, where the great incubators of ideas, where the 
great spirit of entrepreneurism is really alive and well.
  I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining me. Do you have 
any concluding remarks?
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Well, I thank the gentlelady. Just the 
fact that we have, as our good friend from Florida pointed out, there 
are many nations across the western world that are working very hard to 
put their fiscal house in order. They have actually recognized that 
they have to stop the spending. They have to stop the borrowing. They 
can't be levying these tremendous taxes on the shoulders of their 
citizens. They have taken a better path, a path of fiscal 
responsibility.
  Yet in this Congress, with our President, that's not a path we have 
taken. He went to the G-20 trying to encourage the other world leaders 
to spend more, to spend their way into prosperity. And really what you 
do when you spend too much, you spend your way out of prosperity. And, 
frankly,

[[Page 12061]]

this is a country that we have always been the most prosperous Nation 
in the world, and we are on the wrong path to sustain that. That's 
something we need to change.
  You know, when I travel home, people talk about the spending, they 
talk about the borrowing, they talk about the taxing. And the thing 
that they talk about most as a result of that is the word 
``uncertainty'' and how this has created uncertainty within our 
economy. There are over 20 million small businesses in this wonderful 
Nation of the United States of America. And these small businesses were 
created and are grown by entrepreneurs who are willing to take a risk. 
They work hard, they work long days, they work most days. And many 
times they do that and take no revenue for themselves. They reinvest in 
their business to grow the business and grow more jobs and create jobs, 
family-sustaining jobs.
  But today, because of the policies we've seen over the past 18 
months, they choose--they are uncertain. They don't know what's coming 
next. Is it more health care mandates? Is it a premium on energy under 
cap-and-tax, cap-and-trade? Is it more taxes levied on small 
businesses? You know, many small businesses are organized as limited 
liability corporations in such a way that they have been the victim of 
the increased taxes that this Congress, the Democratic majority, has 
passed in the past 18 months; the burdens, the tripling the size of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, agencies such as that that put 
tremendous regulatory burdens on our job creators.

                              {time}  1850

  Well, this uncertainty has created--these folks are, you know what? 
They're sitting on the sidelines today because they're afraid of what's 
coming next. As opposed to being a company, an organization, that 
normally would take a good portion of their profits--and that's not a 
bad word; that is a good word--and reinvesting those profits--instead 
of taking those profits, they reinvest them in their company and grow 
the company; they buy new capital; they build new facilities; they hire 
more people--they're not doing that right now, and that's why any kind 
of an increase that we're seeing in rebound in unemployment, which 
obviously isn't much because we're just under 10 percent, it's been 
public. It's been all those temporary jobs of the census workers. It's 
been temporary jobs sustained by the stimulus. And yet the private 
sector has really been suffering under uncertainty, and the American 
people deserve better.
  I just thank the gentlelady for hosting this hour this evening.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining me.
  You've been hearing about our concern that this year, for the first 
time since we had the Budget Act in 1974, we are not going to pass a 
budget in the U.S. House, and it's because the majority party does not 
want the American people focused on how serious the situation is, how 
huge the gap is between the revenues we take in and the amount of money 
we're spending.
  Imagine a Congress that gets together and is more excited about 
reducing spending, saving money, finding efficiency, reducing the debt, 
cutting the deficit, and celebrating it with the American people, in 
concert with the American people. Imagine going to a tea party where 
everyone is celebrating the fact that for the first time ever the 
Federal Government cut spending. That's going to be something to 
celebrate. That will be something to be proud of.
  You can help with it. Go to americaspeakingout.com; go to YouCut, 
give us your ideas. Let's build the momentum so this Congress can 
celebrate with the American people the return to a more stable, 
vibrant, robust American economy, driven by the American people. The 
American people are still in control of this country. It can get really 
discouraging sitting around here voting and getting defeated on vote 
after vote after vote. That's been happening to me for the last 18 
months. But the great reward is I know the American people are in 
control, and I thank you for the opportunity to discuss these issues 
with you this evening.

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