The Deficit

Floor Speech

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Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I'd like to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio and all my colleague here tonight. I'm going to carry this conversation a little further about fiscal discipline because all of us elected last year, Democrats and, interestingly enough, Republicans, have supported fiscal discipline, but got way off track over the last 10 years. It's now the Democrats, many of us, who are sort of leading the fight. We are the fiscal hawks. We are the ones saying this is totally unacceptable for all the reasons you heard tonight.

I think the gentleman from Vermont already mentioned this, but it's worth restating. The Bush administration is responsible for the five biggest deficits, and that total is a staggering amount. But I want to just take that one step further because this is the kind of change that we are going to deliver.

Given the opportunities over the next couple of years, hopefully in a bipartisan way, that is the way we get things done here, but looking at this figure here, this is a chart that says: Taxpayer spending on Iraq war versus Federal spending on other priorities. This is for last year, fiscal year. It has the cost of the Iraq war, $150 billion.

The cost of NIH funding, that is all the research that government does, all the research on cancer and heart disease and Alzheimer's, all the things that afflict our families and our communities, it is a substantial amount of money. But that figure, plus all the college tuition assistance, everything we do to try to make sure that kids get into school and get a college education, which we know is so important in the world economy, plus the cost of all the children's health care we provide in the United States, and all the cost of all the bridge repairs and road building and all the things that go on in every single one of our communities, sewers, roads, bridges, all those kinds of things, if you take the cost of roads and bridges, the cost of research, the cost of all the college tuition and the cost of all the health care, that total sum is less than what we spent on the Iraq war.

Now, we debated at length whether the Iraq war is a good war or not or has accomplished a lot. I personally believe, and I serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee, that, unfortunately, the real threat against our national security is in Afghanistan. And it still boggles my mind and most Americans that Osama bin Laden, who committed the worst crime against Americans in our history in the United States, is still free somewhere in the world perpetrating additional threats against the United States through al Qaeda.

The problem, of course, is that he and others most likely are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the mountain areas there. Unfortunately, we took our eye off the ball. But let's put that issue aside. Hopefully we will be able to deal with that in the near future with the next President.

Let's just talk about, we have spent $650 billion. I want everybody to remember this number, that is $339 million we are spending each day on the war in Iraq, $339 million per day. Let's think about what we could do with that money. I mean, we could have a debate at length here, and I am sure everybody listening tonight on the floor and throughout our country would have lots of good ideas that are legitimate priorities for our country. Yet we are spending that amount of money.

Now, is there an answer that the Democrats have put forward? You bet there is. What was this war sold to us on in terms of how it was going to be paid for? Oil revenues. Iraq sits on the third largest oil revenues and reserves of oil in the world; $80 billion, it is reported, in banks, some of which is in New York. Eighty billion dollars. That money was supposed to pay for the cost of reconstruction of Iraq, the cost of our military fuel and the cost also of the retraining of the military in Iraq, our military training their military. All legitimate things. Yet what has happened? President Bush has refused, the Republicans have refused to do that.

Now, I introduced a bill, H.R. 1111. H.R. 1111. I said it is number one, put Americans first. I think most Americans would agree with that. Let's take the money that Iraq has, it is $80 billion, and let them pay for the cost of their reconstruction, the cost of our men and women training their military, and our fuel costs. That is common sense. That is what we were told in the beginning. They have got the money.

Let's get on with it. That is how we can start putting Americans first and all the priorities that are so important to fixing our economy, getting jobs created, getting an educational system, getting health care put back together, Social Security, Medicare, all the priorities that make America strong on the inside first.

So I think that is a very important point, and we finally got a little bit of discussion on this. But the reality is this is the kind of leadership we are offering and we are providing.

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Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Just to pick up on your point on our men and women serving and our veterans, I'm from Florida. Every one of us in our districts has a huge number of veterans--some from World War II, some from the Korean war, some from Vietnam. Many of our Vietnam veterans today are hurting. Whether it's Agent Orange or just age, itself, it has really begun to impact them. Now we're creating a new generation of an upwards of 2 million new veterans. We don't want to create that next generation of homeless. We know there are huge post-traumatic stress issues associated with it, but I'm particularly proud in working with our local veterans' organizations and national veterans' organizations which gave our leaders the recommendations of what they need in order to eliminate the backlog, to make sure that the care was in place for evaluations of post-traumatic stress or to recognize that, of the many men and women coming home today, back in the Vietnam war, they wouldn't have lived with their damage and with their injuries. That's right. Today, they're coming home, and we have a responsibility. I say this and people understand. Americans understand. We stand up for our men and women who put the uniform on. That's something we feel very strongly about, but we have to recognize that we will have to provide for them for the rest of their lives and that we will have to support their families as well. That new GI Bill is key. It was the right thing to do. For many of the people who don't even know this, it even allows the balance of those benefits to go to the spouse and to the children. Isn't that the right thing to do for the families?

Mr. KAGEN. Yes.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I mean that's the ``thank you'' that Americans want to give the men and women who serve us, but when we are asked to serve in our military, we need to make sure it is the right place and the right time and for our national security interests, which is, unfortunately, what went wrong.

The gentlewoman from Ohio, you have led the fight in this Congress on jobs. I'm from Ohio originally. You and I talk about that. I grew up in Cleveland. Now, as a Floridian, I know we have a different set of economic issues in Florida, but they're very similar in terms of jobs being lost overseas. I want to point this board out real fast here because it talks about jobs created through August in President Clinton's years.

There were 1.47 million jobs created under President Clinton. In President Bush's 8 years----

Mr. KAGEN. In 8 months.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Excuse me. In 8 months. Thank you. In these last 8 months, 605,000 jobs were lost under this administration. You'll hear in the Presidential election on the Republican side the same thing again and again and again, the same economic plan. It's an old plan. It's not getting us anywhere.

I just want to point this out because we can do better. It's one of those areas again. This Congress has already done a number of things, I think, that are very positive. We've passed the biggest increase in the Pell Grants in years. For those who aren't familiar with Pell Grants, it's those scholarships for great students to get into college. The kids in our communities want to get those great college educations. There are Pell Grants and other types of financial incentives for kids to get into schools.

We recognize foreclosures are a big problem in many of our communities. My district in Fort Lauderdale has a huge number of foreclosures. It's not just the individual person who is foreclosed on; it's the neighbors who are impacted, and it's the depression on the value of homes, and it's the communities that are impacted and all of the things that go with it.

And we passed something that the Congresses in the past should have done in the last few years to prevent this from ever happening in the first place. We actually did some things now to help get people back on their feet and fix that.

But look what happened last week again. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another multi billion dollar bailout. And why are they doing this? Well, they have to do it is what we're told.

But the bottom line is again, a legacy of very, very bad economic planning, very bad policies that this administration and previous Congresses were not able to do anything or had no will to do anything about.

The bottom line is, though, we are a resilient people as Americans. We have a resilient economy, and we will get beyond there.

So I'm all for the education part; I'm all for the job training part, our community colleges, our universities, our scholarships, the job training, the skill sets to get everybody back to work and the recognition that if we are going to do some economic stimulus thing, let's get our infrastructure, let's go out there in the community.

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Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I think it's really been an honor and privilege to be with my colleagues tonight. It's been an honor and privilege to serve as the freshman class, as Democrats and serving with our Republican colleagues as well. This is a great institution. Our country is a great country.

We've pointed out, as you said from the very beginning, where we're starting from. That's the reality. I mean, as decisionmakers, if you're in business or you run your household, you always have to know where you start from in order to make good decisions going forward.

And unfortunately, our next President and this next Congress and our country is going to be saddled for a little while with debt. And that's something we can start to dig our way out. And one thing that we did in this Congress, Democrats leading the charge here on our fiscal conservative policies is PAYGO. And that's a principle that everybody operates. You may not know what that means. PAYGO, pay as you go. It's the most simple principle. If you have a checkbook, you can't spend more money than what's in your checkbook. Or if you have a credit card, you can't spend more money than you can afford to pay back every month.

Well, why should Congress, in the last 6 years under the administration, operate under this principle of because we can print money, they just keep printing?

Well, fortunately last year a new principle is involved here. And now, when we pass a bill, unless it's an emergency, we have to make sure the money is in the budget. No, based on speculation that in the next number of months we're going to have all this new revenue in here. Things have slowed down a little bit, so we have to be realistic. That's exactly what the American people expect, and that's the kind of leadership we're delivering.

So I am pretty excited about the fiscal policies under this Congress, and we're beginning to get them where they should be. A new president with new policies, not tied to the old policies as we've been talking tonight will deliver on that on our health care, on Social Security, on Medicare, veterans' benefits will continue to be the highest priority and understanding that comes first.

Getting our foreign policy, which I serve on the committee, and many of you do, getting that re-established in a way that we earn the respect and work well with our partners around the world to really make sure that our national security is protected. And most importantly, get our economy, our American families in Ohio, in West Virginia and Wisconsin and Florida, in Seattle, everywhere, all over the country, that we will get them back in shape and give those Americans the opportunities that they've always had. And every generation, that principle of every generation having it a little better than the last generation. It's what my parents fought for. It's what my grandparents fought for and it's what we fight for our children.

So I thank our President, Madam Betty Sutton from Ohio, Peter Welch from Vermont, Mr. Perlmutter from the great State of Colorado, Dr. Kagen from Wisconsin, Mr. Murphy from Connecticut. It's just a small representation of a great group of people that really are working very hard to do the right thing by Americans and get our country back on track.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

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Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I think it's really been an honor and privilege to be with my colleagues tonight. It's been an honor and privilege to serve as the freshman class, as Democrats and serving with our Republican colleagues as well. This is a great institution. Our country is a great country.

We've pointed out, as you said from the very beginning, where we're starting from. That's the reality. I mean, as decisionmakers, if you're in business or you run your household, you always have to know where you start from in order to make good decisions going forward.

And unfortunately, our next President and this next Congress and our country is going to be saddled for a little while with debt. And that's something we can start to dig our way out. And one thing that we did in this Congress, Democrats leading the charge here on our fiscal conservative policies is PAYGO. And that's a principle that everybody operates. You may not know what that means. PAYGO, pay as you go. It's the most simple principle. If you have a checkbook, you can't spend more money than what's in your checkbook. Or if you have a credit card, you can't spend more money than you can afford to pay back every month.

Well, why should Congress, in the last 6 years under the administration, operate under this principle of because we can print money, they just keep printing?

Well, fortunately last year a new principle is involved here. And now, when we pass a bill, unless it's an emergency, we have to make sure the money is in the budget. No, based on speculation that in the next number of months we're going to have all this new revenue in here. Things have slowed down a little bit, so we have to be realistic. That's exactly what the American people expect, and that's the kind of leadership we're delivering.

So I am pretty excited about the fiscal policies under this Congress, and we're beginning to get them where they should be. A new president with new policies, not tied to the old policies as we've been talking tonight will deliver on that on our health care, on Social Security, on Medicare, veterans' benefits will continue to be the highest priority and understanding that comes first.

Getting our foreign policy, which I serve on the committee, and many of you do, getting that re-established in a way that we earn the respect and work well with our partners around the world to really make sure that our national security is protected. And most importantly, get our economy, our American families in Ohio, in West Virginia and Wisconsin and Florida, in Seattle, everywhere, all over the country, that we will get them back in shape and give those Americans the opportunities that they've always had. And every generation, that principle of every generation having it a little better than the last generation. It's what my parents fought for. It's what my grandparents fought for and it's what we fight for our children.

So I thank our President, Madam Betty Sutton from Ohio, Peter Welch from Vermont, Mr. Perlmutter from the great State of Colorado, Dr. Kagen from Wisconsin, Mr. Murphy from Connecticut. It's just a small representation of a great group of people that really are working very hard to do the right thing by Americans and get our country back on track.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

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