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. 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.
- Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006
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