Increasing the Public Debt Limit
INCREASING THE PUBLIC DEBT LIMIT -- (House of Representatives - November 18, 2004)
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 856, I call up the Senate bill (S. 2986) to amend title 31 of the United States Code to increase the public debt limit, and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas described a situation here 3 years ago before we went on this borrowing binge. What he conveniently neglected to point out was that President Bush and the Republican Party inherited the strongest economy in the history of America that was expected to post a $5.6 trillion, 10-year surplus. And he conveniently neglects to point out that it is the $2 trillion that they have taken from the budget through tax cuts that have helped to put us in the situation that we are in. Talk about amnesia.
In just 4 years of Republican management, the country's fiscal situation has collapsed to the tune of nearly $9 trillion, draining the entire Clinton surplus and digging a deficit of $3 trillion, the largest deficit in the history of the world. And today, for the third time in 4 years, the country's fiscal situation has become so dire that we bumped up against the legal limit on how much we can borrow. So we are going to raise the limit or the government will default. All of this from the party that in American history has preached fiscal responsibility. So we have to come up with enough money now for their tax cuts, the war, and, by the way, just think of this, two wars with four tax cuts. That defies human history.
And the President has very big plans for the next 4 years. He says he is going to spend a lot of capital that he has earned. So we are going to create private accounts for Social Security, which would cost more than $1 trillion, more than the current system might offer; and we do not even have enough money in the current system so that we are going to borrow this money tonight.
The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), who is a nice enough fellow, he mentioned a couple of moments ago the situation that we are in. I want to remind this body that 8 years ago the Republican Party was going to impeach Bob Rubin for doing precisely the things their Secretary of the Treasury is doing this evening.
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