[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14615-14616]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              DEFICIT DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Smith) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, Deficit Day is the symbolic day 
each calendar year when the Federal Government runs out of money and 
begins adding to the already enormous debt. Despite the $2.7 trillion 
the government is estimated to collect this year from taxes, tariffs, 
fees, and other sources on a calendar-year basis, the money ran out 
this past Wednesday, September 25.
  As the debt limit approaches in mid-October, the Federal Government 
continues to spend money it does not have on things that Americans do 
not want. Washington is projected to spend over $10 billion per day; 
and from this point until December 31, every dollar that it spends from 
this point on adds to our enormous national debt, which is already 
nearly $17 trillion. In the last 4 years, Congress has raised the debt 
limit seven times; and, today, the debt for every man, woman, and child 
averages over $53,000 per person.
  Mr. Speaker, families and small businesses from across the United 
States are forced to live within their means. The Federal Government 
should be held to the same standard. If my friends back in my home 
State of Missouri can successfully balance their budgets each year, we 
should be capable of doing the right thing here in Washington, D.C. 
That is why I introduced an amendment to the Constitution to require 
the government to produce a balanced budget each and every year.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with all my House and Senate 
colleagues to pass a budget, to balance a budget, and to reduce our 
national debt.

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 24, 2013]

                      Happy Deficit Day, Uncle Sam

                (By James R. Harrigan and Antony Davies)

       ``Deficit Day'' is here again, marking the day the U.S. 
     government runs out of money and begins adding to the 
     nation's already-enormous debt. Despite the $2.7 trillion the 
     federal government collects every year from Americans in the 
     form of income, payroll, corporate, estate and excise taxes, 
     as well as tariffs, fees and other sources, on a calendar 
     year basis the money runs out Sept. 25, at around 3 p.m.
       Washington is spending at the rate of over $10 billion per 
     day and from this point until Dec. 31 every dollar it spends 
     will add to the nation's debt--which is already nearly $17 
     trillion. (This is a separate calculation from the overall 
     federal debt limit, which will be reached in the next few 
     weeks.)
       The closer the government comes to balancing the budget, 
     the further it pushes Deficit Day toward the end of the year. 
     So it's good news that the federal government runs out of 
     money 16 days later this year than last. But the underlying 
     reality is much less rosy: Despite the repeal of the payroll-
     tax cut--a move that cost the average American family $1,000 
     this year--there are still 97 days left in the year for which 
     the federal government has no income.
       Income, or no income, the government certainly won't stop 
     spending.
       This is not fiscal responsibility. Through the payroll tax, 
     the government has simply raised tax revenues at the expense 
     of people who are already overtaxed. Had the government 
     simply held spending constant from last year, Deficit Day 
     would have been shifted 30 days into the future, not 16. But 
     a politician with more money in his hand is a politician who 
     will soon be on a spending spree.
       In the 54 years since 1960, the federal government has 
     managed to achieve a unified budget surplus only six times. 
     And what, you may ask, is a ``unified budget?'' It's when the 
     government treats the $33 billion that it will borrow from 
     Social Security this year the same way it treats tax revenue, 
     instead of the debt it is. Imagine borrowing from your IRA 
     while you are still working and calling the borrowed money 
     income. The government managed to get by without such a fudge 
     only six times in half a century.
       This year's Deficit Day of Sept. 25 is the fifth earliest 
     we have had since 1960, which puts current spending in grim 
     perspective. Since 2009, though, Deficit Day has actually 
     crept steadily forward at the rate of about two weeks per 
     year. If that trend continues, we can expect Deficit Day to 
     hit Dec. 31, finally, in about eight years. But that's 
     assuming Washington can go eight years without instituting 
     any new spending.
       In a fiscally responsible world, the $2.7 trillion in taxes 
     the federal government will collect this year would provide a 
     hard limit on spending. But in the world our leaders have 
     created, the federal government will spend over 35% more than 
     this in 2013. After that it will just keep right on spending 
     money it does not have, passing the debt and the hard 
     political choices to citizens yet unborn and politicians yet 
     unelected.
       There are only a few possible eventual outcomes if this 
     continues: The government will either print money to pay for 
     its deficits, unleashing unprecedented inflation; it will gut 
     social programs like Social Security and Medicare; or it will 
     dramatically increase taxes on everyone down to, and 
     including, the middle class.
       The laws of mathematics can't be rewritten by political 
     desires or ``unified budget'' accounting gymnastics. Our 
     leaders need to face the truth and get our country's fiscal 
     house in order before Deficit Day becomes Bankruptcy Day.

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