Providing for Consideration of S. 2986, Increasing the Public Debt Limit
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF S. 2986, INCREASING THE PUBLIC DEBT LIMIT -- (House of Representatives - November 18, 2004)
Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 856 and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, that did not take long. On just the third legislative day after the election we are yet again confronting a need to raise the Nation's debt limit. It is interesting that even though this problem has been apparent for months the Republican leadership chose to wait until after the election to bring this issue to the floor, interesting but not at all surprising.
Once again, the historic fiscal mismanagement of this Republican Congress and the Bush administration is on display, and, once again, we are reminded that we are passing on a massive, unpaid credit card bill to our children and our grandchildren, and the numbers are staggering.
In 2002, the Bush administration came to Congress asking for a debt limit increase of $450 billion. In 2003, they asked for another increase of $984 billion, an unprecedented increase, and this year's request will increase the debt ceiling by another $800 billion. Amazingly, this increase is only expected to last the Treasury 1 year, which means that unless this Congress gets its act together we will be back here next year debating yet another multibillion dollar increase in the national debt limit.
In the last 18 months, this Nation's debt has gone up by nearly $1 trillion, $1 trillion. Today's debate proves once again that the promises made by the Bush administration when they came into office were nothing more than empty rhetoric.
They promised under their plan the debt ceiling would not be reached until 2008. Instead, because they continue to insist on massive tax breaks for the wealthy that are not paid for, the debt limit will have to be raised for the third time in 3 years.
On January 29, 2002, George Bush stood in this Chamber and told the Nation our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short term. I guess he misspoke.
But this debate is about more than numbers, Mr. Speaker. It is about priorities. It is about the kind of country we are leaving for future generations. How will our children be able to afford things like education and health care, homeland security and national defense? How will they be able to pay for us when we retire?
These massive deficits, this huge debt will mean higher interest rates, and that means that the American people will have to pay more for a college education or a new car or a new home. Reckless fiscal policy is not a value. It is a vice, and it has to stop.
Mr. Speaker, the fiscal irresponsibility of the majority and the administration is magnified by the Republican leadership's refusal to institute budget reforms requiring Congress to pay for any new spending. PAYGO simply is a responsible plan that says if you want to increase spending or if you want to give tax cuts to your rich friends, you have got to pay for it.
In the Committee on Rules, several members offered, and I supported, an amendment to increase the debt limit and reinstate the pay-as-you-go spending policies, and it was rejected.
Now I know what my friends on the other side of the aisle are thinking, the next election is not for another 2 years. They think the American people will forget about this fiscal irresponsibility that they are pursuing. Well, maybe they might and maybe they will not, but, in the meantime, they are undermining our economy and they are passing on to our kids a big fat credit card bill and it is shameful.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this rule and vote no on the underlying bill so we can have a real debate on the gross fiscal mismanagement of this Congress and this administration and institute real budget reforms that will provide pay-as-you-go for increased spending and these tax cuts.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. REYNOLDS. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I just refer him to CBO's report in which it concludes that the tax cuts are the largest legislative contributor to the negative debt that we have right now. I mean, so it runs contrary to what the gentleman is saying.
All we are suggesting here is that when my colleagues pass these tax cuts for their corporate friends and for wealthy people that they pay for them, pay as you go. That is the responsible thing, so we do not pass this debt on to our kids and our grandkids.
Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, in the time of the last 2 years of this Congress we have had a great debate. A guy from the left that believes that there should not be tax cuts, or to have some kind of message for middle America to feel that they might get a piece of it.
I am a guy that believes if you pay taxes, you ought to get a tax cut. We took that referendum, I guess, to the public, and they have ratified an opportunity for this majority to remain.
Now, I also understand majority/minority politics, and I guess if I look through the years of 1940, 1950, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000 when we would find that Republicans controlled the place or Democrats controlled the place, I am sure that there were a few that made the debt reduction or the aspect of all of that debate at the same time they looked at the debt limit.
But also in my opening remarks we heard from Secretary Rubin who said that the aspect of raising the debt limit was not the aspect of addressing the deficit. It was the budget itself. And I will quote him.
As Robert Rubin, then Treasury Secretary under the President said in November of 1995 in that quote, Passage of the debt ceiling is totally unrelated to deficit reduction. The deficit can only be reduced in the budget process.
He reiterated this truth 1 month later in testimony before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services when he said, The debt limit is about meeting obligations already incurred, while future deficits can only be reduced through actions taken in the budget process itself.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. REYNOLDS. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, this is the third time under this administration that we have raised the debt limit, and what we were asking for last night in the Committee on Rules and what we are asking for today is that, before we do this again, that we institute the necessary budget reforms that require pay-as-you-go so that we are not going down this path of fiscal irresponsibility, so we are not passing down to our kids and our grandkids this massive credit card bill.
My colleagues denied us that ability to be able to vote up or down on a pay-as-you-go bill today, and that is what we are urging here today. That is why we are opposing this rule, and that is why I am going to vote against increasing the debt limit. Because there is no reason to believe that my colleagues' bad habits are not going to continue into the next Congress.
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