Blue Dog Coalition

BLUE DOG COALITION -- (House of Representatives - March 28, 2006)

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank both Mr. Ross and the Blue Dog Coalition for focusing on what I believe to be one of the most critical problems confronting our country. I am going to speak a little bit about that.

I lament the loss of one of the great leaders of the House, one of the great leaders of the Blue Dog Coalition, Charlie Stenholm. No Member with whom I have served over the last 25 years, a quarter of a century, has been any more focused on trying to instill fiscal responsibility in the policies of this House than was Charlie Stenholm.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friends in the Blue Dog Coalition for organizing this important Special Order hour. The Blue Dogs have long been focused on this issue of fiscal responsibility, and I believe there is no more important issue in our Nation today.

I do not make that statement lightly. It is not hyperbole. I realize that our Nation is at war. Our gulf coast is still reeling from the worst natural disaster in American history. We are struggling, nearly 5 years after 9/11, to address our homeland security vulnerabilities.

Forty-five million Americans have no health insurance. Health care costs, gas prices, and college costs are all up for our citizens; and median household income, at the same time, as you know, Mr. Ross, is down. These are many of these critical issues that we face today. However, what the Blue Dog Coalition knows, and what every American needs to know, is that these issues that we face will all be impacted by the dangerous fiscal policies that we are embarked on.

Why? Because the record Federal budget deficits and exploding national debt that have been instigated over the last 5 years will affect our ability to address virtually every issue confronting the American people. That is why this matters.

This is not just some pie-in-the-sky issue that Mr. Ross and I are talking about. Mr. Ross made it very clear what he could do with just 3 days' interest in terms of bringing economic vitality to an area that needs growth and jobs and help with prosperity. Other issues such as the war on terror, homeland security, health care, education, Social Security and Medicare are all going to be impacted by these incredibly huge deficits that we are creating.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I know you are interested in these comments, but here is what David Walker had to say, the Comptroller General of the United States. He told the Senate Budget Committee on February 15, and I quote, "Continuing on this unsustainable fiscal path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living and, ultimately, our national security." Now, that is the gentleman whom we have appointed as the watchdog for the Congress on the finances of this country to make sure we don't waste money. What he is saying is, these policies are unsustainable, dangerous and will undermine our national security.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me no pleasure to say this, but I believe it is an undisputed statement of fact. This administration, through its insistence on unaffordable tax policies, is the most fiscally reckless administration in American history. Just listen to former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, who told the Wall Street Journal in January of 2004, and again I quote, "I'm sitting here and I'm upset about the deficit, and I'm upset about spending. There is no way I can pin that on the Democrats. Republicans own the town now." That was the former Republican majority leader saying, Republicans are responsible for this reckless, irresponsible fiscal policy that worries Dick Armey.

Simply look at the facts. When President Bush took office in January 2001, he inherited a projected 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion. That is what he said. It is not what we said. He said that in a statement to the Congress.

President Clinton reduced the budget deficit every year during his first term, and then, Mr. Speaker, in his second term, presided over four straight budget surpluses. That hadn't been done for 70 years prior to that time. The first time that happened was 70 years ago. In fact, the Clinton administration paid down the national debt by $453 billion during that second term. In fact, the surpluses were over half a trillion dollars. But we paid down the debt by $453 billion.

So, not surprisingly, President Bush issued this bold prediction on March 31, 2001. Before I get to that, my friend has put up on the board, Mr. Ross, the distinguished gentleman from Arkansas, has put up on the board the deficits over the last 25 years. Now, I have been in Congress every one of those years, Mr. Speaker. 17 of those have been with Republican Presidents, 17 of those years. Eight of those years have been with a Democratic President.

Now, Mr. Speaker, some say, oh, well, 9/11 happened. It did. It cost us. It was serious. We needed to respond to it. But, very frankly, from 1982 to 1993, 9/11 didn't happen. Did we go to war in Iraq? Yes. And the good news was President Bush and Jim Baker went around the world and said, this is an international problem, and the international community paid for it. We didn't.

But if you will look at those figures that Mr. Ross has put up, every year, every one, without fail, under a Republican President over the last 25 years has been a deficit year.

And then you get to the Democratic year. Now, frankly, Mr. Ross has them in blue, but the first four numbers are, in fact, red numbers. We ran deficits. Why? Because we were pulling ourselves out of the deep debt that had been created by the prior two administrations. And then when we did that, it then took us into surplus for 4 straight years. But here's the good news.

Seventeen years, it is the bad news first; 17 years under Republican administrations, $4-plus trillion of deficits. Under Bill Clinton, $62.2 billion of surplus. That is an amazing record.

But here's what President Bush issued, a prediction in March of 2001 inheriting these surpluses, quote: ``We will pay off $2 trillion of debt over the next decade.'' That is what President Bush said, over the next 10 years. He has now been here 6 years. Two billion dollars of debt over the next decade; that will be the largest debt reduction in any country, ever. Future generations, President Bush said, shouldn't be forced to pay back money.

Now, I want, Mr. Speaker, I know you will be interested in this and others will be interested, other colleagues. President Bush said this: "Future generations shouldn't be forced to pay back money that we have borrowed. We owe this kind of responsibility to our children and grandchildren."

Tragically, although President Bush said that, his policies have led to exactly the opposite and have

placed, if you add--Mr. Ross says $28,000, but if you add the added debt limit, $30,000 per child, per grandchild, per wife, per husband, and depending upon the size of your family, if it is four, $120,000.

The reality, of course, shows that notwithstanding what Mr. Bush said he was going to do, the President said he was going to do, he has done exactly the opposite. In 5 years, the Bush administration and this Republican Congress, Mr. Speaker, have created the four largest budget deficits in American history: As Mr. Ross pointed out, $378 billion in fiscal 2002, $412 billion in fiscal 2003, $318 billion in fiscal 2005, and a projected $371 billion in fiscal 2006. And the Congressional Budget Office, Mr. Speaker, is projecting deficits as far as the eye can see.

So not only did this administration not reduce the deficit by $2 trillion, it has added $3 trillion. That is a $5 trillion mistake.

As far as paying down the national debt, the administration and this Congress have been forced to raise the statutory debt limit four times in 5 years. As Mr. Ross knows, and my good friend, Mr. Matheson knows, during the last 4 years of the Clinton administration, we never raised the national debt, not once. And, in fact, during the entire 8 years, we only raised it twice.

This administration has raised the statutory debt limit four times, for a total of $3.015 trillion, with a T. The national debt limit now stands at $9 trillion, which means that every man, woman and child in America owes about $30,000 of debt, as I said.

Consider, as the gentleman has pointed out, and he talked about it in terms of a day. We are borrowing $600,000 per minute, $600,000 per minute. In the last years of the Clinton administration, we didn't need to do that because we had responsible fiscal policies that we were pursuing.

Consider, the first 42 American presidents borrowed a total of $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions over 211 years. This administration, in 5 years, now in their sixth, has borrowed from foreign entities, China, Saudi Arabia and others, $1.055 trillion. In other words, this President, in 5 years, has borrowed more money from foreign governments, foreign banks, foreign financial centers than all of the other Presidents America has had, combined.

Mr. Speaker, you don't need a doctorate in economics to appreciate that our Nation's economy and its security is more vulnerable when we are deeply indebted to foreign creditors.

Our deteriorating fiscal condition also has other serious side effects, Mr. Speaker. For example, the interest payments on the national debt are exploding. This is just like the interest consumers pay on their credit cards. In fiscal 2007, those interest payments will total a projected $243 billion.

Now, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, $243 billion is more money than every bill we will pass appropriating money for health, for education, for infrastructure, for environment, for crime prevention, for fighting terrorism, except the defense bill. So of the 11 appropriations bills we will pass, only one is larger than the interest we have to pay on the debt because we are mortgaging our future. In fact, interest payments on the national debt over the next decade are projected at $3 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, our children and grandchildren won't be able to buy anything for that. As a matter of fact, that sum is so large that just with the interest we are paying, we could pay all of Medicare expenses over the next 10 years. Think of that. These interest payments constitute resources that could have been used for national and homeland security, for Social Security and Medicare, for health care and education, and yes, Mr. Speaker, for tax cuts.

Now, Mr. Speaker, let me close by saying it is highly ironic that President Bush traveled the country last year warning of Social Security's imminent demise, while at the same time he was spending every single nickel of Social Security surplus over the last 5 years. $817 billion of Social Security surpluses we have spent. And, in fact, what we have done is, we have taken those FICA taxes from working men and women and given it to some of the richest people in America in their tax cuts. My, my, my, what responsible policy. And, in fact, under the Republican budget policies every nickel of the Social Security surplus will again be spent over the next 5 years, a total of $1.148 trillion in total.

Consider that just a few years ago the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Nussle of Iowa, confidently predicted, now, this is Mr. Nussle of Iowa, our colleague who chairs the Budget Committee, who talks about fiscal responsibility, he said this: This Congress will protect 100 percent of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, period.

This is Mr. Nussle. No speculation, no supposition, no projections.

That statement of course, Mr. Speaker, proved absolutely, undeniably false, wrong. We have spent every nickel. We haven't saved 1 cent of that Social Security surplus. And I hope the Members of this House and the American people will keep this representation and others made by our Republican friends in mind as we prepare to consider this coming budget because they are going to say a lot of things, as they have in the past.

We will likely hear many more confident, bold predictions in the days ahead, predictions that are simply unmoored in fiscal reality. Every single Member of this House knows that the one tried and true method of restoring fiscal discipline is to reinstate the common-sense pay-as-you-go budget rules that were adopted when the Democrats were in charge in 1990. And George Bush I joined in that bipartisan agreement to get a handle on our fiscal posture in America.

Our Republican friends allowed those paygo rules to expire, Mr. Speaker, in 2002. We urged them to keep them. We have offered them in our budget resolution every year. They have been rejected. And our Nation has rued the day that that rule was changed.

I urge my colleagues, join Democrats in supporting pay-as-you-go budget rules. Let us end this cycle of deficit and debt that threatens our Nation's security and future.

And I thank my friend, Mr. Ross. I thank Mr. Matheson, who cochairs the Blue Dog Caucus, for continuing to focus on this issue which, in my opinion, is the most important that confronts our country because every other issue will be impacted by our fiscal irresponsibility.

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