Federal Government Racks Up Record-Breaking $1 Trillion Deficit

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Ms. FOXX. My colleague from Virginia promises jobs from the cap-and-tax bill. If you believe that, then you probably believe the Democrats when they promised that the stimulus bill would provide jobs.

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats promised that their trillion-dollar stimulus would create jobs immediately and unemployment would not rise above 8 percent. But since the stimulus bill passed, 1.96 million Americans have lost their jobs. I suspect that we'll do a lot worse than that under their cap-and-tax bill.

Let me fill you in on some of the economic statistics that we have right now. At the beginning of July, our national debt clocked in at $11.5 trillion. If you don't have a calculator in hand, that's $37,609.23 for every man, woman, and child in America.

But the real news is not simply that the national debt is more than $11.5 trillion. The real news is the Treasury Department announced yesterday that for the first time the Federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion. The first time in our history.

To clarify, the deficit is different than the debt in the sense that the deficit generally refers to the amount of overspending in a given year. That means so far in fiscal year 2009, the Federal Government has spent $1 trillion more than it has collected in taxes.

Rather than trim our budget and make do with less, like the rest of America, Congress has decided to up the ante and will not just maintain current government spending levels, but will significantly increase spending in the coming year.

This kind of runaway spending is part of why we're hearing reports that our $1 trillion deficit is just the beginning of the story. In fact, some experts are predicting that the deficit could reach $2 trillion this fall.

What do these record deficits mean for Americans? Massive deficits can only continue for so long. I think we've all heard stories of how crushing debt has forced some businesses or families into bankruptcy. At some point, the pile of cards is coming down, either as the interest rates on the debt spirals up higher, or as those who lend to America run out of cash to loan or simply out of patience for Uncle Sam's spendthrift ways. The American people are hurting. Millions are out of work, and hundreds of thousands lose their jobs each month.

The government spent $18 billion in June just to pay the interest on the national debt, which works out to $600 million a day in interest payments. Eventually, American families are going to have to foot this bill.

American people know we cannot borrow and spend our way back to a growing economy. As a record-breaking $1 trillion deficit causes the national debt to increase at an historic pace, Congress will either have to slash spending in unprecedented ways or raise taxes. And judging by how the current Democrat majority in Congress has proceeded thus far, I'm very skeptical about any meaningful spending cuts. You can probably guess what that means. Let's just say that the tax hike forecast doesn't look good for the American people.

Democrats are on the side of more government and more taxes. Republicans are on the side of the American people.

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