The Budget

Floor Speech

THE BUDGET -- (Senate - May 21, 2008)

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, as we conclude the discussion on the budget, in which the Presiding Officer participated so eloquently just a few moments ago, I wanted to come to the floor because there is a significant feature in America's fiscal picture that affects this budget considerably but has not really gotten the attention it deserves; that is, the debt of the United States of America that has been run up by President George W. Bush. It is a frightening legacy, really, because of the weight, the fiscal burden of it that will weigh on our children and our grandchildren.

If I may, we calculated the Bush Debt at $7.7 trillion, and we did it this way. We took the projections for the U.S. budget on the day George Bush took office, which, as the Presiding Officer may recall, projected that we actually would have no debt left at all in our country by as early as fiscal year 2009--and, indeed, there was economic debate among America's leading economists wondering if it is really good for our country for America to be completely debt free. What is the ideal level of debt? Should we maintain some level of debt? Are there potential problems if the United States were to be completely debt free? That was the discussion. That was what America was looking forward to.

The nonpartisan, professional Congressional Budget Office had a projection on where that budget was going to go on the day George W. Bush took office, and that is the top line of our projection. We call it the Clinton budget landscape because it resulted from the economic policies of the Clinton administration which left this country in such good health for President George W. Bush. That was what could have been. The other line is what he did, what this country has done to itself fiscally under George W. Bush. When you compare the difference between the upper line, where the country was going, and where George Bush took us, the difference is the Bush Debt, and it amounts to $7.7 trillion. To me, that is an almost unimaginable number. So just to kind of give an idea of how many zeros that will be, this is what it looks like. That is $7.7 trillion. Even in the great State of Michigan, where the Presiding Officer hails from, that is a big number. To somebody like me, from Rhode Island, it is almost unimaginable. So I asked my staff to give me some means of comparing, some way of thinking about how big that number is.

This is a penny. And I asked my staff: If a penny was $1 billion and you put a stack of pennies on my desk here, how high would that stack of $1 billion pennies go to make $7.7 trillion? Well, they found out that the stack of $1 billion pennies would have to go 39 feet high to amount to $7.7 trillion. I don't think the television camera can take this in, but from here to the very top of this room is about 39 feet of $1 billion pennies. That is the enormous burden on our country from the improvident, wasteful, feckless policies of the Bush administration.

I have a credit card. The distinguished Senator from Michigan has a credit card. If we borrow money on our credit cards, we have to pay interest. American families across the country work to pay interest on mortgages, on credit cards, and on loans of various kinds. Well, guess what. We have to pay a lot of interest on a debt such as we have. And in the recent budget, as the Presiding Officer will recall, that we just passed in the Budget Committee and that we are discussing on the floor, there is $260 billion in interest, much of it paid to foreign countries, on our national debt--$7.7 trillion of it run up by one administration, the administration of George W. Bush.

Now, that $260 billion is another pretty big number. So I asked: What could we do with $260 billion if we didn't have to give it to the Saudis and the Chinese and the Mexicans and everybody else we have borrowed money from to fund George Bush's $7.7 trillion debt? Well, here is what we could do: For starters, we could pay for health insurance for everyone. We would have universal health care in this country. And you know what, there would be money left over. With the money that was left over, you could also add a million children--a million children--to Head Start Programs. Universal health care for everyone, a million extra children getting Head Start, and still there would be money left over. You could double every Pell grant, which helps kids in America pay for college and reach out and seize their futures. Universal health care, a million extra kids in Head Start, and doubling every Pell Grant. And there would still be money left over. With that last bit of money left over, you could repair or replace 95 percent of the bridges that currently need repair and reconstruction in America--not 100 percent, only 95 percent. You would have to wait until next year to do that last 5 percent.

That is what the cost to us is of an administration and a Republican Congress that ran up $7.7 trillion in debt.

So I appreciate very much the ranking member who spoke eloquently last week about the problem of that last $9.6 billion in discretionary spending we authorized in the Senate-passed budget above the $1 trillion mark. We wouldn't need to worry about that $9.6 billion if his colleagues and President Bush hadn't run up $7.7 trillion in debt for Americans to have to pay in the future because this administration, frankly, was too cowardly to pay its own way and has borrowed from future generations to pay for the war in Iraq and to pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans. In a country where the difference between the wealthy and the poor, between the CEOs and the workers is growing dramatically, is straining the very fabric of our society, instead of bringing us together, what was the President's solution? Lots more tax cuts for the very richest people, who are doing the absolute best already, the ones who have nothing to worry about except whether they take the Lincoln or they take the Benz. They are the ones who need the tax cuts in this country? I don't think so. But the President did, and he didn't even have the guts to pay for it or find the cuts. He borrowed the money. That is why we are at $7.7 trillion.

So I think it is fascinating that we are having this budget discussion. I want to salute our chairman, Senator Conrad, who is absolutely brilliant with the budget.

He works so well with people in this body and has such enormous credibility that he is able to work through issues in a very special way--in large part because of his personal character and his credibility. We all benefit from his being able to do that.

But he has had to work very hard to try to bring this budget into balance, 3 or 4 years out from now. It is not easy work, putting this budget together.

When people come to the floor and criticize his efforts and try to knock $9.6 billion off and worry that this might not be fiscally prudent, it is astonishing when those remarks come from the people who aided and abetted George Bush in running up $7.7 trillion in money that we owe now to the rest of the world, that we will have to pay off indefinitely, that will be a weight and a burden on the shoulders of this country for decades if not generations.

I actually think we need to do something about the $7.7 trillion Bush Debt. I recommended that we have a formal commission of some kind, an authority whose job it is to take the best and the brightest people who understand our economy and figure out how we pay down $7.7 trillion. It is really a disaster.

Some of us have served in State government before we came here. Some of us have served in municipal government. If there is a crisis at the State government level--an economic crisis--if a municipality has a terrible fire in a facility and has to rebuild, you take that problem and you set it aside and you create a revenue stream and you deal with it. You don't try to force it through the regular operating budget of the State or of the municipality.

We may be at the stage where the Bush Debt of $7.7 trillion is so serious for us fiscally that we should start thinking about getting together a group of the most learned economists, the people who care the most about America's future, who see the hazard to our welfare, to our national security that this kind of debt creates, and can think creatively about how we can set up special revenue streams to pay it down and begin to bring our country back in balance.

I appreciate the courtesy of the Chair in listening to these remarks. I did think as we closed out the budget debate it was important to remind everybody that, for all the big talk the Bush administration may make about fiscal prudence and about being responsible, it is the most fiscally imprudent and the most irresponsible administration in our history. Indeed, President Bush alone has borrowed more money from foreign countries than all 42 Presidents who preceded him--not any one of them, all of them. If we add up everything they borrowed through the entire history of the Republic, in just one Presidency he has them beat.

It takes a little brass to be able to come and argue for fiscal prudence and responsibility and not mention that President Bush and the Republican Congress ran up $7.7 trillion in debt. I thought we should think about it and reflect on that as this debate concludes.

I appreciate working with the very distinguished Senator from Michigan. Her work on the Budget Committee is very valuable. She is a wonderful colleague to me, and I appreciate the indulgence this evening.

I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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