Conference Report on S. Con. Res. 95, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2005

CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. CON. RES. 95, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

This is not a serious attempt to deal with a serious problem. This is a chart that shows the mess we have gotten ourselves into. It is the deficit since the Vietnam War, Reagan, and Bush. The Clinton administration cleaned up the mess, and here we are now with a huge deficit.

If you run up deficits, you have got to pay out interest on the national debt. This is the interest on the national debt we were projected to pay when this administration came in. This is the interest on the national debt we are going to have to pay for messing up the deficit, $300 billion additional interest on the national debt. $300 billion at $30,000 each, that is enough to hire every unemployed person in the country, over 10 million people.

The bill presented today is $367 billion more in debt. The chairman is right, we are not digging into our pockets. We are digging into our grandchildren's pockets.

This bill ignores the PAYGO rules of fiscal responsibility. It is a 1-year budget rather than the traditional 5- or 10-year budget. So a lot of the problems are hidden. It is not a serious attempt to deal with a serious problem.

We should reject the conference report.