Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about
America’s debt problem. The fact that we
are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership
failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a
sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries
to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.
Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by
$3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is
money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from
China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers.
And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the
President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion. Numbers
that large are sometimes hard to understand.
Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why:
This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on
interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll
spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is
more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on
education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined.
It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the
devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.
And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing
expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy,
robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like
bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical
investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the
retirement and health security they have counted on.
Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not
going to investment in America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a
significant tax on all Americans—a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to
talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country,
we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible
fiscal policies. But we are not doing
that. Despite repeated efforts by Senators CONRAD and FEINGOLD, the Senate
continues to reject a return to the commonsense Pay-go rules that used to
apply. Previously, Pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending
and to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the commonsense budgeting principle
of balancing expenses and revenues.
Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the
demands of budget discipline apply only to spending. As a result, tax breaks have not been paid
for by reductions in Federal spending, and thus the only way to pay for them
has been to increase our deficit to historically high levels and borrow more
and more money. Now we have to pay for those tax breaks plus the cost of
borrowing for them. Instead of reducing the deficit, as some people claimed,
the fiscal policies of this administration and its allies in Congress will add
more than $600 million in debt for each of the next 5 years. That is why I will
once again cosponsor the Pay-go amendment and continue to hope that my
colleagues will return to a smart rule that has worked in the past and can work
again.
Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate
Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to
run up only $1 trillion of foreign- held debt. This administration did more
than that in just 5 years. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from
foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign
nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims
of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and
internationally. Leadership means that
‘‘the buck stops here.’’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad
choices today onto the backs of our
children and grandchildren. (emphasis added by TheFundamentals)
America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
Americans deserve better. I therefore
intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.
SENATE March 16, 2006
2 comments:
As an interesting bit of history, the article is terrific. It does, however, miss the point. Obama has shown leadership on managing spending. In 2010, Obama without any Republican support signed the Paygo Act, which requires what he was asking for in his speech.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/13/politics/main6204926.shtml
What we have is a deficit that is rising due to long standing statutory increases in entitlement programs and a bloated defense budget along with lower than expected revenue due to the severe recession. If income is down, the deficit will expand.
What Obama, along with Senate and House leaders on both sides, needs to do is to manage entitlements and defense. The level of growth is not sustainable in the long run. The problem, of course, is that Americans want to get more out for themselves than they put in. The perfect example is Medicare. Medicare beneficiaries on average pay 30 to 35% of the value of their benefits. This is a direct transfer from the young to the old. Ask for a reform to this program and the person asking will be voted out at the next opportunity.
People, unfortunately, get the government that they want.
Today marks the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
In that time, 55,000,000 children have been put to death. In the time it took the deranged gunment to gund down 22 children in Connecticut, 0ver 1,000 abortions were performed across the U.S. It kind of jars one'd perspective, doesn't it?
Furthermore, the Left has controlled the education system here for the last two generations. Our schools in that time have fallen far behind other industrialized countries in core subjects to the point where it's impossible to ever catch up to them.
Add to that the staggering debt we keep piling up on our children's backs and you wonder "Gee maybe we're just bad parents."
As the hypocrite-in-chief wipes away the crocodile tears from the Connecticut tragedy, he enslaves our children with mountainous debt, coupled with an education that renders them incapable of understanding what it is he is doing to them.
Those lucky enough to make it throught the birth canal, that is.
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