Washington, Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, the Tropical Forest Conservation Act is a $20 million-a-year program, and perhaps one of the most outrageous of any that I have seen so far. It calls into question any of the claims that we can't possibly spare a dollar from this section of the budget.

Under this program, the United States, staggering under the biggest peacetime debt in the Nation's history, a debt so large that the United States of America would now be denied entry into the European Union because of our excessive debt, nevertheless is paying down the debts of developing countries if they do restoration and conservation work in their own rainforests. Really?

The deficit this year alone puts an average family of four on the hook for about $20,000 of additional debt that they must repay through their future taxes just as surely as if it appeared on their credit card, and part of that debt will be used to pay down the debt of developing countries if they develop their rainforests.

Now, of course if they cut down their rainforests to grow corn, they can get American ethanol subsidies, but that's a subject for another day.

History is screaming this warning at us, that countries that bankrupt themselves aren't around very long.

Before we pay down the debt of developing countries, I would like to make this modest suggestion: perhaps we ought to tend to our own.

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