Why a Budget is Needed

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, why does this country need a budget, and why does this House need a budget? It is very, very simple. We are looking at a $20 trillion debt in less than 10 years; $20 trillion. What is the yearly interest going to be on that in 10 years? Over potentially $1 trillion; $1 trillion in interest in one year that we are facing.

This year, Washington is going to spend a record $3.6 trillion, and at least $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion is going to be in the deficit. The CBO and OMB when they testified before the Budget Committee, their directors both said that the spending is unsustainable. Unsustainable. But what happens here? We don't produce a budget. How do you get this under control?

Our kids and their kids are going to be paying for it. It is tough to look these kids when they come to Washington in the face, when they are out here on the Capitol steps, look at them and ask where are they going to be in 10 years? It is not going to be what we did for them; it is what we have done to them.

When we look in the future, it is getting worse, because right now when you look at this little chart that came out from the Treasury, 47 percent of our debt today is foreign-owned.

This has got to stop.

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