Recognizing National Debt As Threat to National Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding time.

I thank the two gentlemen from Texas for introducing the topic to the American people. This is something every American should be aware of.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Every American should look at a few pictures about our national debt.

This first picture is a 110-year period going from 1930, before World War II, to 2050, just 30 years away. It shows what our national debt has looked like as a percent of our economy, and it is pretty striking.

For the first 90 years of it, there is one huge peak: World War II, a world at war. At that time, our debt exceeded the size of our gross domestic product, the size of everything produced in the United States. Our debt rose to that amount after World War II.

The Greatest Generation spent the next 30 years paying down our debt and growing our economy, so that we had an affordable debt.

We had a little bit of rise in the 1980s and 1990s, as we defeated communism--again, a war situation.

Then, following 2008 and following the last administration, we have skyrocketing debt once again to the point where, within 5 years, we will approach the debt we had during World War II, fighting the largest war this world has fought.

Then, by 2048, 30 years from now, actually having a debt that is 150 percent of everything we make in this country, that is the level we see with failing economies, some of the economies like Greece, Italy, the ones that have unsustainable debts. We are on a clear path to that.

Now, let's talk about the size of our national debt. This chart goes from 2010. This is just 18 years, starting from 2010 and going to 2028. This is the interest payment on our national debt because, Madam Speaker, like every American knows, if you borrow money, you have to pay interest on it.

The fact of the matter is that right now, our interest, total interest payment, is about $200 billion.

But, Madam Speaker, every American family knows, every senior who has saved for retirement knows that interest rates right now are very low. If you go and get a CD, what are you getting, a 1 percent, 2 percent return. Those interest rates will return to normal.

And as the gentleman from Texas mentioned, we are accruing debt at $1 trillion a year, so that by the time we reach 2028, the interest payment on our debt alone, due to the increased size of our debt and the increased interest rate is going to approach $1 trillion a year.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, Madam Speaker, there are a lot of things that the government funds. Those of you who are interested in the safety of Social Security, of Medicare and Medicaid, of Federal pensions, they know that we are approaching a zero sum game. We can't keep this debt going forever.

In fact, this final chart I am going to show is 10 years, starting now, it shows the percent spending of GDP, so relative to our economy, what our net interest on our debt is; and then other things, like Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, things that we think are important, defense. The yellow line, the defense budget, nondefense, discretionary spending, all these are relatively constant. All of them are going to be crowded out by net interest on the debt.

Madam Speaker, Americans understand, you can't borrow forever. You can't do it on your cars; you can't do it on your houses; you can't do it on your credit cards; and we can't do it here in Congress anymore. This threatens our security, when, in 5 years, we will pay more interest on our national debt than we pay defending this country. We can't do it.

Congress has to get its act together, clean up its act, and get our budget in balance.

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