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Congressional Record—House H2113

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Congressional Record—House H2113 March 19, 2003 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H2113 a Support Our Troops rally or a reserv- government. And one can just project, through the ceiling. So it is obvious ist center and say, ‘‘Congressman, I if we continue to spend two and three that sooner or later, and I hope sooner will take my $90,000 tax cut now, and I and sometimes four times the rate of for the sake of our children and our don’t care if veterans have to stand in inflation, then government takes over; grandchildren, that we have to bring longer lines, have shortages of beds or and instead of empowering people in our spending into line so that this can’t get into VA hospitals tomorrow.’’ the United States, instead of empow- curve does not continue to keep going We all want to engage in shared sac- ering businesses to encourage them to up and up and up and soak up more and rifice. We are at a critical time in our expand and develop and offer better more of our gross domestic product. Nation’s history. Our first obligation and more jobs, government has been at has to be to our seniors and those the feeding trough to use more of those Now, I would like to for a few mo- fighting for our freedom in Iraq and dollars by increasing taxes across the ments turn our attention to another other dangerous places in the world. country. curve, another set of curves, and these We cannot cut their beds, their budg- How do we deal with a situation curves are just some detail-building on ets; we cannot balance tax cuts on where we have made our taxes so pro- the curve that the gentleman showed their backs. gressive that the lower-paying 50 per- us. What we have here are three curves. So I am hopeful that the Members of cent of income tax payers in this coun- One of them is the gross Federal debt. this body on both sides of the aisle will try only pay 1 percent of the total in- Now, that is the total amount of review these budgets and get back to come tax revenues. So we can see, it is money which the Federal Government the real priorities of America, taking easy to suggest that any tax cut is a owes, and we will note a line here in care of our senior citizens, taking care tax cut for the rich, since the upper 50 the middle, and that is where we are of our veterans, making sure that we percent pay 99 percent. In fact, the now. We will notice that that goes are meeting our obligations to them, upper 10 percent pay almost 84 percent through this debt line at about $6.4 taking care of our children, and mak- of the total income taxes. So we have trillion. That is the amount of money ing sure that their future is not laced put more and more taxes on higher in- we owe. with deficits and that we are not bal- comes to discourage that kind of effort, ancing budgets on their backs as well. and we have put more and more taxes Now, as a matter of fact, we owe f on business. Really, business taxes are more than that now, but that is the b 1900 a tax that that business, in order to amount of money that we owed on the 20th of last month. This debt keeps FINDING SOLUTIONS FOR survive, has got to pass on to con- growing and growing; and right now REDUCING DEBT sumers in the fashion of increased prices for their particular product. So the Treasury Department is having to The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. the increased price we pay for any move monies around so that they can BONNER). Under the Speaker’s an- product we buy, part of that is really a pay their obligations, because we have nounced policy of January 7, 2003, the hidden tax, because you pay it to busi- already exceeded our debt limit ceiling. gentleman from Michigan (Mr. SMITH) ness to pay their tax, and they have to So we need to pass a budget resolution is recognized for 60 minutes as the des- charge a price that is going to allow soon, because buried in that is a mech- ignee of the majority leader. them to survive. anism which will automatically in- Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speak- Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from er, tonight I would like to follow up crease the debt limit ceiling to what- Maryland (Mr. BARTLETT) and I have ever monies the budget would have us the previous Special Order by starting been trying to convince Congress on spend for the next year. out with some comments on the budg- both sides ever since we have been here et, on spending, on the tremendous def- of the unfairness of the increased We will notice that all of the expend- icit that we are leaving to our kids. spending that has resulted in increased itures beyond our current date are ex- Then also, I want to, on this eve of the borrowing that is going to end up leav- trapolations. They are just guesses of war, finish up with some concerns that ing our kids a mortgage. I am a farmer. what we are going to be spending in the I have with such countries as France The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. future. But everything to the left of and Germany and Russia, I think put- BARTLETT) is a farmer, plus a scientist; that are the monies that we have ting our kids at a little greater risk. and in the farming community, you try spent, and so those are real numbers. But first let me react to some of the to pay off some of that mortgage so comments that we have been listening Now, this gross Federal debt, which that your kids will have a better more often is referred to as the na- to, that we need to increase spending chance. Well, right now, we are sort of on some of these important items. tional debt, that debt is made up of two pretending that our problems today are subparts. One of those is called the Let me start with the tax cut. When so great that somehow it justifies debt held by the public, and that is the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. going into the huge debt that we are sometimes referred to simply as the BARTLETT) and I first came to this Con- going to leave our kids and our gress in 1993, one of the first events was grandkids. public debt or sometimes it is the Wall a Democratically controlled House and Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman Street debt. Now, that is the debt that Senate; and with a new Democrat from Maryland (Mr. BARTLETT). the Federal Government owes because President, we increased taxes more Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. it has bought securities and bonds; and than taxes have ever been increased in Speaker, for the next few moments I because it has sold these securities and the history of this country. The tax would like to continue to direct atten- bonds and so forth, it has gotten money cuts that are being suggested now do tion to the spending curve that the from those. But that is not the only not commence to negate that huge tax gentleman from Michigan (Mr. SMITH) debt that we owe, because we owe an- increase that we had in 1993. But let me was just talking about. If we look at other debt which we see started out talk about trying to attract more vot- that curve, we will see that it goes up fairly low and has now been increasing ers by suggesting that Congress should ever and ever steeper. Now, the gen- more and more; and this also, as we spend more money. tleman from Michigan (Mr. SMITH) see, is an exponential kind of a curve, For a moment, look at what has hap- talked about a pretty steady 7.5 per- and we will understand why in a mo- pened over the last 10 years of spending cent increase. ment. This is a debt held by govern- history. This is how much we have Now, one would think with a steady ment accounts, it says here. A simpler been increasing spending. As my col- increase that we ought to have a curve way to understand that debt is that leagues can see, fairly level, and it that is going up at the same rate, but that is the trust fund surplus debt. started to go up more and more in 1995, it does not do that. This is a phe- That is the debt we owe to trust funds 1996, and 1997, and started taking off in nomenon called the ‘‘exponential 1998. Discretionary spending of the curve.’’ Every time we have an interest which have accumulated surpluses. United States has increased an average rate like this or a growth rate like Now, how do we have trust funds that of 6.3 percent each year since 1996 and that, the curve will go up ever steeper are accumulating surpluses? That is 7.7 percent each year since budget bal- and steeper. Now, it is obvious when we because we are taking monies from the ance was reached in 1998, showing a look at that curve, it cannot continue paychecks of people and putting it in tremendous increase in the growth of because pretty soon it will go right trust for them, presumably putting it VerDate Dec 13 2002 04:23 Mar 20, 2003 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00157 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K19MR7.156 H19PT1 H2114 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE March 19, 2003 in trust for them, so that the money Now, for about 4 or 5 years, Wash- board.
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