[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12326-12327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about our current fiscal 
situation and how we got to where we are today. The thought that 
America would default on its obligations is unimaginable.
  This afternoon, we're going to begin a debate on Speaker Boehner's 
debt ceiling legislation, and I'll comment later on why I oppose the 
Speaker's approach. But before we begin that debate, I think it's 
important to acknowledge, step back, and review how we got to where we 
are.
  The success of the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, which was vehemently 
opposed by our Republican friends, led to a decade of prosperity and 
surplus. President Clinton balanced the budget for the first time since 
1969 and ran surpluses for 4 years. Between 1998 and 2000, the publicly 
held debt was reduced by $363 billion, the largest 3-year pay down in 
American history. Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, the debt

[[Page 12327]]

held by the public quadrupled. By the time Bill Clinton left office, 
the budget was on track to pay off the entire publicly held debt on a 
net basis by 2009. Remember, Alan Greenspan warned us that we were 
paying down the debt too quickly. The clock in Times Square, which 
chronicled the deficit, was actually turned off at the end of the 
Clinton years. But, unfortunately, there were those who thought that we 
should shift course.
  Economic growth averaged 4 percent during those Clinton years, 
compared to an average of 2.8 percent during President Reagan's years. 
The economy grew for 116 consecutive months, the most in history, 
fueled by more than 22.5 million jobs that were created during those 8 
years, the most jobs ever created during a single administration and 
more than were created in the previous 12 years.
  On January 20, 2001, when George W. Bush took the oath of office, the 
CBO estimated that the total budget surplus for 2002 to 2011 would be 
$5.6 trillion. And their campaign began to spend that surplus in 
earnest, despite warnings. President Bush began taking us down that 
fiscal path by enacting tax cuts, first in 2001 of $1.3 trillion, and 
again in 2003, $1 trillion, that cost the government going forward 
almost $4 trillion. The other major expenditure in those years was our 
idea that you could simultaneously engage two wars and cut taxes by 
$2.3 trillion. Remember the argument about weapons of mass destruction 
that took us to the unnecessary war in Iraq.
  While some question tax cuts in wartime, including people like Mr. 
Lincoln, others thought it brilliant. The Republican leader at the time 
or the deputy leader at the time said it was patriotic to cut taxes in 
a time of war. Well, I wonder if the 2.2 million more veterans who have 
served us with honor and distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan are going 
to feel that way when proposals come down the road to draw back on the 
benefits that they've earned. During the Bush years, our country spent 
$1.5 trillion in Iraq and on national defense.
  The turnaround in our budget picture during the Bush years was 
remarkable. In October of 2008, CNN reported that the debt clock had 
run out of numbers. The debt clock actually had exceeded 13 digits that 
had been allotted, so the clock had to be revised.

                              {time}  1040

  According to one report at the end of the Bush term, the number of 
jobs in the Nation increased by 2 percent. That's the lowest or most 
tepid growth at any time since data began to be collected seven decades 
ago. Gross domestic product was at the lowest pace for a period of that 
length of time since the Truman administration. And the price that 
America has paid for the theology that suggested during all of those 
years that tax cuts paid for themselves, you can't find a mainstream 
economist in this town today who will acknowledge that argument. And 
yet we hear now more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
  By the time that the Bush years ended, the debt had increased to 
$10.6 trillion, setting a record for any administration. And 
incidentally, the TARP vote that we hear so often, that took place in 
October of 2008, that's a very important consideration. That was during 
President Bush's years.
  But let me give you a quote that I think sums up much of what we did 
during those years. Dick Cheney told the Treasury Secretary at the 
time, Paul O'Neill: Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won 
the mid-term elections, this is our due.
  We embraced the prescription D Medicare benefit that we're paying a 
price for today.
  So here we are. My Republican colleagues try to place the blame for 
this situation on the current administration. There were many of us who 
saw what was happening with the reckless expenditure during those years 
and the price that America paid.
  We need to vote to raise the debt ceiling. It's the responsible 
position for all of us to take.

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