House Proceeding 02-04-10 on Feb 4th, 2010 :: 0:20:00 to 0:40:00
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Speech By: Steven Kagen

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Steven Kagen: mr. jones of new york. mr. moran of kansas. mr. defazio of oregon. mr. burton of indiana. ms. kaptur of ohio.

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mr. gohmert of texas. mr. mcclintock of california. mr. gingrey of georgia. mr. baron of georgia.

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-- mr. broun of georgia. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from missouri, mr. akin, is recognized for 60 minutes athe designee of the minority leader. mr. akin: thank you, madam chair. the next hour, we'll be talking ab the attention of americans.

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it's generally speaking a boring subject, but now it's not become boring anymore. that is the problem with the federal government overspending, the problem with the budgets thatave been proposed, the problem of the financial trajectory of our country, and the threat that

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that trajectory poses. i'd like to step back in time a little bit, as a republican, to talk about the fact that over a 12-year period, republicans had a deficit spending in a number of years at about $100 billion or maybe a little more. if you put that all together

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over 12 years, you have over $1 trillion amount of deficit spending. what we're looking at in one year now is over $1 trillion. in other words, the democrats are spending more in one year than we did in 12 years, or you could say that they're spending enough in one month to

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compensate for every year of the republicans. now the past president was criticized that he overspent he spent too much money. his biggest deficit was in 2008 with the pelosi congrs. about $450 billion of excessive spending. just the number of billion

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dollars, it's hard for us to recognize how does that relate to something, so let's put it in perspective and take a look at it as a percent of the grosdze domestic product of our country. the $450 billion or $460 billion deficit with the pelosi congress and president bush,

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that number would be about 3.1% of g.d.p. that's actually fairly average for many different years and different presidents. the 2008 deficit was followed by 2009, of course, and it was again the pelosi congress, but this time the obama administration.

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after all kinds of criticism of the republicans for spending too much money, the budget was $1.4 trillion of deficit. that is, three times worse than the worst year of president bush. w we have heard all kinds of complaints that it was the republicans' fault and all

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these kinds of things, and yet the choice to spend that much deficit was still a choice. a choice made by our president and our current congress under speaker pelosi. $1.4 trillion. now let's connect that, because $1 trillion is an awful lot of money, very hard for us to understand how much does that

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connect to gross domestic product? it turns out, it was $9 -- it was 9.9% of our gross domestic pruct was in debt. that's almost that's the highest level since world war ii. that's an incredible level of deficit spending.

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now the question in people's minds becomes, i'm not used to thinking in terms of billions and trillions of dollars. so howo we put ts in perspective and what does it mean to just the average citizen on the street? one of the things it means is that we are really pushing the financial solvency of our country.

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we're getting to the point, we were spending money so rapidly beyond our means, that we are driving ourselves into a condition of bankruptcy, which could use a massive collapse of our entire economic system. nody knows exactly when or what could trigger that kind of event.

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but these are very serious questions, we're going to be discussing those in the next hour and i'm thankful to see congressman wolf, a highly respected congressman from this area, and he is also going to share with us something about the situation with his budget and what it means.

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madam chair, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from virginia, mr. wolf, is recognized for 54 minutes as the dedsig knee of the minority leader.

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mr. wolf: madam speaker, p.t. barnhoff, executed for his work against the naught sees said the ultimate test for a society is the kind of world it leaves to our children. this is true today as we struggle to confront our growing national debt. the release of president

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obama's fy-2009 budget is 12.6% of economic output. i'm convinced that addressing ballooning debt is not only an economic issue but there's a moral component of this issue that goes to the heart of who we are as americans. yet i wonder if we in congress, america's political leaders, have lost the will to make the tough decisions necessary,

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Frank R. Wolf: decisions that could well require sacrifice. the generation of americans who came of age during the era of detrick bonhoeffer has been called the greatest generation. many have made sacrifices including their lives and that of tchare

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Speech By: Frank R. Wolf

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Frank R. Wolf: children and children's children. . it will not be easy but that which is worth doing rarely is. should the 11th congress fail to address the financial tsunami approaching our shores, it will

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Frank R. Wolf: be judged by history as a dysfunctional, fundamentally broken institution neglected its responsibilities not only to its constituents we came here to serve but to future generations of americans. we are on that precipice. it is almost four years since i

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Frank R. Wolf: proposed an independent bipartisan commission to address unsustainable federal spending. the commission would secure america's economy and plate in an authentic and transparent way holding public meetings to hear from the american people. it would put everything on the table, entitlements, all of the

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Frank R. Wolf: spending and tax policies. its recommendation would not be made in a vacum or over a weekend locked up at andrews air force base. at the time of the introduction until today, it is the only debt reduction commission legislation in play that mandates public engagement on this scale.

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Frank R. Wolf: it wld force congress to vote up or down on a legislative package borne from the commission's work. there would be no avoiding hard choices. when i first introduced the bll in the spring of 2006, i discussed the looming financial crisis facing our country and said that the longer we put off

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Frank R. Wolf: fixing the problem, the more bitter the mid sin required to fix it would be. i some have said the problem was too big to fix, too risky, particularly in an election year and and difficult occasion of congressional responsibility. there may be some merits to some of those objections, but the

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Frank R. Wolf: arguments ring hollow. they paralyze the congress from moving forward. they allow the congress to blindly continue to pend. they provide an excuse for the status quo. they allow us to stick our heads in the sand. consider that from 201-2020, the congressional budget office

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Frank R. Wolf: projects cumulative deficits of $6 trillion. our nation is broke. the national debt is now over $12 trillion and growing at rates that haven't been matched since world war i. the house earlier today followed the senate action to increase the federal debt limit to a

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Frank R. Wolf: staggering $14.294 trillion. these deficits are not first and foremost wartime deficits. we have amassed unfunded obligations to ensure future entitlement benefits that when added to liabilities total nearly $57 trilion.

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Frank R. Wolf: every man, woman and child owes $184,000. legitimate credit rating agencies have threatened in recent weeks to downgrade the united states from its current a.a. bond ratings. the latest warning came this week from moody's reacting to the president's budget. moody issued a report saying,

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Frank R. Wolf: quote, unless further measures are taken to reduce the budget deficit further or the economy rebounds more vigorously, the federal financial picture presented in president obama's february 1 budget will put pressure on a.a.a. government bond ratings. this comes on the heal of the

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Frank R. Wolf: news from spain, dubai and greece seeing their credit rating reduced. it will make it dificult to borrow money and lead to a situation where the dollar is no longer the primary international reserve curnssi. if that were to happen, prices including oil, would go up. the "washington post" featured a

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Frank R. Wolf: piece by alan sloan, senior editor at large who focused on a report from the congressional budget office that showed for the first timen 25 years social security has taken less in taxes than it is spending in benefits. he writes, and i quote, instead of helping to finance the rest of the government, our nation's

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Frank R. Wolf: biggest social programs need help from the treasury to keep benefit checks from bouncing, in other words a taxpayer bailout. he concludes, this year's cash wind fall shortfall is a watershed event. until this year, social security was a problem for the future, now is a problem for the present. social security and medicare are

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Frank R. Wolf: amassing huge deficits and are ill prepared for the coming flood of new baby boom retirees. when our retirement programs were established, the ratio to workers supporting each retiree was 10 times the number supporting retirees today. the american people understand

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Frank R. Wolf: the country's spending problems. and acknowledge the need to deal with this issue. a national survey taken in november revealed that 70% of those polled said a bipartisan commission is the best way to tackle the growing budget deficits and national debt. 70% is a pretty convincing number. every member of congress knows how serious the federal

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Frank R. Wolf: government spending is, but where are those willing deal with it? the song "the boxer," man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. that describes the mood on capitol hill when it comes to addressing federal spending. every day that passes where

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Frank R. Wolf: entitlement spending continues to diminish vital discretionary dollars, where will the money to meet the needs of the american people come from if these dollars continue to shrink because mandatory spending has taken a growing piece of that pie. we do not be begin to rein in spending, every penny will go to

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Frank R. Wolf: interest on the debt and entitlement spending by 2028. the implications are standing. the "new york times" ran an article the day after the president's budget was submitted to congress which captured this approaching reality and said unless miraculous political

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Frank R. Wolf: compromises create some unforeseen change in the next decade, there is no room for domestiinitiatives. what does that mean in real terms? do you care about national defense and homeland security and post-9/11 world, there will not be any money left. do you care about improving our nation's crumbling

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Frank R. Wolf: infrastructure? there won't be any money left. do you care about returning a man to the mon? there will not be any money left. do you care about this country leading the way in scientific innovation and technological advancement? there will not be any money left. do you care about finding a cure

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Frank R. Wolf: for cancer, alzheimer's lyme disease? there won't be any money left. do you care about taking care of orphans, widow, h.i.v. patients? there won't be money left. do you care about natural disasters? there won't be any money left.

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Frank R. Wolf: zero. every peny will go to pay the interest on the debt. the size of the national debt is astounding but the narrative that will accompany these numbers will be even more devastating. its implications are not just

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Frank R. Wolf: economic, but threatening our homeland security. it was written, the federal budget deficit has grown from newsance to headache to presing national concerns. now, however, it has come large and persistent and time to think of it as a national security threat.

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Frank R. Wolf: foreign lenders already own 40% of our domestic economy. our biggest bankers are china and japan and oil-exploiting countries like saudi arabia. saudi arabia was the home to the 9/11 terrorists. saudi arabia brand of islam is fought in some of the radical mosques and madrasas, including

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Frank R. Wolf: the pakistan-afghan border. saudi arabia continues to have floggings and be dele headings. they persecute women. the textbooks are filed with hateful mesages. is this a country that we want to be be holden to? what about communist china that

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Frank R. Wolf: violates basic human rights and religious freedom, where catholic bishops and pastors and monks are jailed for practicing their faith. i have seen how they have plundered with my own eyes. china's attempts to penetrate usaid are the most aggresive of

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Frank R. Wolf: all foreign intelligence organizations. according to the report, it poses a significant threat both to the national security and come proposal migse of u.s. critical asets. weapons that china supplied to iran were found to have been transferred to iraq and afghanistan.

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Frank R. Wolf: china is a major ams supplier and source of economic strength to the regime in sudan. they have been the major obstacle to ending the genocide in darfur. our efforts to exert diplomatic pressure against iran's nuclear weapons program have been thwarted by china, opposition to u.n. security council sanctions.

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Frank R. Wolf: do we realy want china to be our banker? these foreign countries with vastly different aims than our own couldegatively influence u.s. foreign policy by dumping our currency in the world market. this would not be historical. recall 1956 and the suez canal

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Frank R. Wolf: cris when it signaled the end of britain and france's world powers. each announced they were going to nationalize the canal and devised a plan to use military force to keep control. u.s. wanted to avert war and president eisenhower threatened to sell the british reserves

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Frank R. Wolf: which would result in the collapse of the british currency. the british changed course. is it conceivable? is it conceivable to for china to dump our curency? simply put, we are presently borrowing hundreds of billions

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Frank R. Wolf: of dollars from countries whose aims that are at odds with our national interests and values both directly and indirectly. how did america reach this unsustainable spenng level? there is plenty of blame to go around, from lack of action from both political parties. it has been an equal opportunity spending society.

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Frank R. Wolf: i tried to get the bush administration on board from july 2006 to april eight. i wrote treasury secretary paulson imploring him to embrace the bipartisan process. president-elect obama took the oath of office, i asked him.

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Frank R. Wolf: congressman jim coper and i were advocating the best way forward. last week, after years of effort, the commission finally got its debate on the senate floor and we are close to creating this bipartisan panel legislatively. the senate considered a measure put forward by senators conrad

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Frank R. Wolf: and greg and companion legislation. during the debate, senator conrad pointed to a "newsweek" cover story "how greatpowers fall" deep debt, slow growth and america could be next. he quoted from the article. this is how empires decline. it begins with a debt explosion.