John Tanner

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate LT Bart Doyle on his graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 2. A history and philosophy major, LT Doyle finished his studies in the top 25 percent of his class. LT Doyle graduated from Union City High School in 2000. Having wanted to be a pilot since he was in elementary school, LT Doyle entered the U.S. Air Force Academy, one in a class of only 1,250 other bright young men and women. Having graduated in June, LT Doyle now is stationed at Hurlburt Field at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where he serves in the Air Force Special Operations Command. He schedules training for crews of AC-130 Spectre gunships. LT Doyle will begin his pilot training in the spring, with the goal of completing his studies in 2006. 1 congratulate him on what he has accomplished thus far and wish him continued success in the future. I know he is an inspiration for young people not only in Union City, but throughout the 8th District of Tennessee.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a longtime friend of mine, a great Tennessean and an outstanding American, Mr. Ike Peel, Jr. Ike was born to grocery store operators Ike and Ethel Peel on June 22, 1918. He graduated from Dyersburg High School in 1938 and attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville on a football scholarship. There he met Judy ``Jewell'' Lady, whom he married on August 22, 1942. Ike graduated from UT with a degree in agriculture in 1942. An ROTC member, Ike was called to active duty on August 28, 1943. He was sent to South England to join the 4th Infantry division in March of 1944, and in May, 25-year-old Ike was made second lieutenant of a 54-man command-assault section. The group of young men, mostly 19 and 20 years old, was part of the first wave that invaded Normandy on December 6, 1944. Ike's unit landed on Utah Beach, close enough to witness the fighting that was taking place on Omaha Beach. But Ike's section did its job: to go inland and meet the paratroopers from the 101st Airborne. Ike later served with General George S. Patton for six weeks before returning to the infantry. He was released from active duty on February 20, 1945. Ike returned to coach at the University of Tennessee until 1957, when he, his wife and their two children returned to Dyer County. Ike ran the family business and began raising cattle on a farm that spanned 500 acres. Ike retired in 1984, selling the farming business that had grown to engulf more than 2,400 acres. Now 86, Ike continues to be a vibrant part of the Dyersburg community, speaking to the Kiwanis Club about his D-Day experience on July 7 of this year. What an inspiration he is to us all.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I wish to include in the Congressional Record this Tennessee Municipal League resolution honoring and commending George R. Harvell, Jr., who will retire in December after 20 years as mayor of Millington, Tenn. Mr. Harvell has been more than a mayor, of course. He also has been a friend to his community and to me. He has been a very successful mayor, and he continues to be great man and a true friend. Resolution Whereas, the Tennessee Municipal League proudly recognizes and acknowledges George Harvell for his outstanding leadership, vision, and dedication throughout his thirty-six years as an elected official of the City of Millington; and Whereas, George Harvell served with distinction as Mayor of the City of Millington from the year 1985 until his retirement in 2004; and Whereas, George Harvell ably served as a City of Millington Alderman beginning in the year 1968 and continuing until his election as Mayor in 1985; and Whereas, George Harvell demonstrated his commitment to building a strong, vibrant, and vital city and always remained optimistic in the face of numerous challenges, including serious economic hardship and population loss resulting from the closure of the Millington Naval Air Station where he was instrumental as Chairman of the Millington Naval Base Re-use Committee which guided the planning and re-use of over 1,800 acres of surplus United States Department of Defense property; and Whereas, George Harvell was nationally recognized for his innovative approach on an extensive flood control program following torrential rains where the City of Millington saw massive flooding; and Whereas, George Harvell did a great service to the towns and cities of Tennessee by leading the Tennessee Municipal League as President in 1998 during one of the most challenging periods in the League's long and proud history; Whereas, George Harvell dedicated nearly 20 years to the advancement of municipal government in Tennessee through his service as a member of Tennessee Municipal League Board of Directors since the year 1985; and Whereas, George Harvell played a pivotal role in protecting public resources by serving ably as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the TML Risk Management Pool from the year 2003 until his retirement in 2004; and Whereas, George Harvell served as an ex-officio board member of the Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund from the year 1998 to 1999 while serving as the Tennessee Municipal League President and continued as an alternate board member of the Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund until his retirement in 2004; and Whereas, George Harvell devoted his energy to advance municipal government throughout the United States by serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities from the year 2002 to 2004; and Whereas, George Harvell started his service to the nation early in his life by serving honorably in the United States Army during the Korean Conflict; and Whereas, George Harvell has been an advocate for high- quality public education in Tennessee, including steadfast support of his alma mater, the University of Tennessee, where he earned bachelors and masters degrees in geology; and Whereas, George Harvell and his wife of over 40 years, Virginia, have raised two sons and are the proud grandparents of six grandchildren; and Whereas, George Harvell received the Tennessee Municipal League Mayor of the Year award in 1993 further designating and exemplifying himself as a public servant at its finest: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Tennessee Municipal League honors and commends George Harvell for his leadership of the City of Millington, the Tennessee Municipal League and all the towns and cities it serves, and towns and cities of this great nation.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a longtime friend of mine, a great Tennessean and an outstanding American, Mrs. Catherine Carter. At the age of 85, Mrs. Carter still puts in a full day's work six days a week at Grandma's Store in Mansfield, Tenn. Her father, Willie Thompson, built the store in 1935 and, with his wife Euna's help, ran the store until his death in 1969. Mrs. Carter has managed the store since her son Rex bought it and fixed it up for her in 1979. Mrs. Carter is a lifelong resident of Mansfield. In fact, she grew up in the house next door to the store. She now lives down the road from the store. Mrs. Carter remembers when Mansfield was a busy place. When she was a little girl, the town had a telegraph office, a railroad depot, a cotton gin and a potato house, where they stored potatoes until they were ready to be shipped. Mrs. Carter and her mother rode the train to Bruceton and to Paris. These days things are pretty quiet, but Mrs. Carter still opens the store between 6:15 and 6:30 a.m. six days a week and stay open until 6:30 p.m. She sells everything from hunting supplies to household items. She also offers barbecue, bologna, ham and turkey sandwiches, as well as hamburgers. Patrons can wash down their food with ice cold Coca-Cola or Frostie root beers out of an old-fashioned metal cooler with sliding doors on top. Mrs. Carter is an institution in Mansfield, and her service to her regulars as well as passersby and newcomers is to be applauded. What an inspiration she is to us all.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I am going to answer that question, and I guess now is as good a time as any. The foreign-held debt in January of 2001 was $1.01 trillion. The foreign-held debt in July of this year was $1.81 trillion. That is a difference of $800 billion since 2001, a 79 percent increase in what foreigners hold. If we look at this chart, in 1980, of our debt foreigners held 17 percent of it. Last year, they held 37 percent of it. That is over a 23-year period. But look at this one. In just 1 year, through July of 2004, it has gone from 37 to 42. That is what I am talking about when, on page 2 of the story, we will hear this, oh, well, this deficit is not any greater than it has been in times gone by as a percentage of the gross domestic product. That may be true, but what they do not tell us is that, in those times before, it was Americans buying war bonds. It was Americans buying T-bills and Americans buying notes. That is not true any longer. We are now dependent on the infusion of foreign capital to buy our notes, our T-bills and our bonds to finance this government. This is a recipe for financial disaster. It has to be. One of the heart-breaking things about this is that people just do not focus on it and do not understand the magnitude of the problem. We think about the foreign aid bill. Do my colleagues realize that this year we will ship overseas four times the amount of the foreign aid bill in interest alone? Eighty-four billion dollars we are shipping out of this country to foreign-held debt. This is something that I think people ought to be aware of. And this chart will show who owns our debt. In July of 2004, we owed the Japanese $695.8 billion. We owe mainland China $166.9 billion; United Kingdom, $130.4 billion; Caribbean banking centers, $90.9 billion; Korea, $61.5 billion; Taiwan, $57.6 billion; Hong Kong, $50.4 billion; Germany, $49 billion; Switzerland, $48 billion. We owe OPEC $43.9 billion. We owe Mexico $34.1 billion; Canada, $33.3 billion; Singapore, $26.1 billion. We owe Luxembourg $26 billion; Ireland, $18.2 billion; Brazil, $16.2 billion; Italy, $15.7 billion; Turkey, $15 billion; India, $14.9 billion; the Netherlands, $14.6 billion; Belgium, $14.6 billion; Thailand, $14.3 billion; Israel, $13.8 billion; France, $13.6 billion; Spain, $11.9 billion; Sweden, $10.4 billion; Australia, $9.7 billion; others, $7.5 billion. We owe $1.813.1 trillion out of the $4 trillion to people who are not Americans and who may not see the world as we see it in the future. And therein lies, I think, an unacceptable risk that we are putting our country in. We are creating a financial risk to our country that is, in my view, unacceptable. The percentage of debt that was in foreign-held hands when President Bush took office has gone up, as I said, $800 billion. And the percentage of the 2003 deficit last year that we had, do my colleagues know what happened? Seventy percent of our deficit last year was financed by foreigners. Not us. We are not paying for it. We are not paying for anything. Foreigners are financing our deficit spending. And if you do not think that is dangerous, then you have not studied history. I yield further to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm).

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I see our friend from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) has joined us. I thank the gentleman for coming down. Some of us sometimes feel like a canary in a coal mine. They send a canary in a coal mine to see if it can live because of the gases and so forth. We have been talking about this, the Blue Dogs and others, for at least a year. I think maybe with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), what he said about USA Today, maybe we are getting through now and people are beginning to see. As I said earlier, the citizens of this country need to know this. I do not think they really fully know, because nobody has talked that much about it, but we are on a road to financial Armageddon. What we are doing around here is just plain wrong. I thank the gentleman from Mississippi for joining us tonight.

Mr. TANNER. Or just pay the interest on it and let them pay it off.

Mr. TANNER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm).

Mr. TANNER. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for joining us. I got interested in this, it has been 2 years ago now, and I have learned more about the Nation's debt structure and so forth than I ever thought I would. And the more I think about it, the more concerned I become. And we are talking about this gross federal debt. Let me try to boil it down. Of the last year, we paid gross interest on the $7.3 trillion of $318 billion. If we do the math, that is, 17.8 percent of every dollar that comes into this town is going out in interest. That is a 17.8 percent mortgage on our country. If we just talk about the $4 trillion, the hard dollars, and take away the money we owe each other, we have got almost a 9 percent mortgage on the country now, and it is going up every single day.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, if this has not depressed us enough, this year, so far, in 2004, the increase in the privately held debt is $380 billion. The increase in foreign-held debt is $370 billion. Ninety- seven percent of the increase in privately held debt is in the hands of foreigners. There is a fellow, Alan Sloan, who wrote not long ago in The Washington Post about us financing our government with borrowed money from anywhere on Earth where people will let us have some in exchange for our IOU, and he said this: ``Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.'' What of course he was talking about is, as the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) pointed out, when you are in hock all over the world, but particularly to Beijing, and look at what they have done; I cannot believe that this is just happenstance. Just since 2000, they have increased their holdings of our debt 119 percent. Now, there is a reason for that, and it is not because they see the world the same way the United States does every day. I am not bashing China, other than to say, we are creating a financial liability, a financial vulnerability that is tantamount to a national security issue. There is no other way we can say it. To point that out, there is a former official of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, who was recently quoted and said the U.S. dollar is now at the mercy of Asian governments. I want to tell my colleagues, we not only have a horrendous balance of trade situation with Asia but, if this is true, then we are no longer the architects of our own destiny financially. There is no way this country can be strong and free and put in the position we are in, in hock all over the world, getting worse by the day. Mr. Speaker, 97 percent of the privately held debt this year increased by foreigners.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his comments. I hope that we have communicated the breathtaking magnitude of this federal debt, $7.3 trillion in a $10 trillion economy. We cannot sustain that. It is like, if one makes $50,000 a year and they owe 70 percent of that in debt, they are in deep trouble, and I will talk about that in a minute. But the gentleman from Washington has joined us. Mr. Speaker, would he like to say something before I get into whom we owe?

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I come here to the floor tonight to talk about something that is not very pleasant to think about, much less talk about, but as President Jimmy Carter once said, the highest office in this land of ours is that of citizen, because the citizen makes the determination as to the course that our country's leaders take. All of us are citizens, and therefore, all of us ought to be aware of what I consider to be a grave and growing danger, maybe second only to terrorism in our country tonight. The issue that I am referring to is our Nation's overwhelming Federal debt. I do not believe most of our citizens, the highest officeholders in this land, realize just how bad this debt and deficit is and how much it is rapidly deteriorating in terms of our Nation's financial balance sheet. We have embarked for the last 4 years on an unprecedented and unsustainable borrowing binge that is going to place our citizens in hock not only from the standpoint of paying ever-increasing taxes just to service the debt, much like we do our credit card debt, but what we are doing to ourselves, to our country and to our children and grandchildren. Let me talk to you a little bit about mind-numbing figures, numbers. I will try to limit that, but let me just try to explain. We hear two different debt numbers. We hear of our Federal debt being $7.3 trillion, and it is. That is the total obligation of our country vis-a- vis our deficits, our budgets and so on. About $3 trillion of that $7.3 trillion is money basically that we owe to each other; we owe to the Social Security trust fund that we have borrowed from; we owe to the veterans' organizational trust funds that we have; the airport trust fund; the highway trust fund; on and on. That $3 trillion is money that we the people, the citizens, owe to the various trustees, and we have to make good on that in the future. That is not the part of the $7.3 trillion I want to talk about tonight. I want to talk tonight about the $4.3 trillion that I call hard money, hard dollars that we have actually borrowed from individuals and corporations in this country and from around the world that we will talk about in a few minutes. I hope before you turn off listening to us, you will listen to what we have to say about that, because it is truly frightening. I do not know, reading history, of any country that has managed to remain strong and free and bankrupt. My friends, my citizens, that is where this country is headed. The deterioration of the Federal balance sheet in the last 4 years is truly breathtaking. These numbers right here, we have borrowed in the last 45 months or so $1 trillion if we add all of this up, $1 trillion. I do not have to tell all of us, myself included, who have debt on our house, our car or our credit cards, what $1 trillion means. It means, at 5 percent interest, we have actually increased taxes on the American people in the last 45 months by $50 billion a year each and every year. That is called a debt tax that we will talk about later. It must come off the top. It must be paid. It cannot be repealed, and that is where we have put ourselves collectively in the last just 4 years. This second chart shows how much the debt limit levels have increased just since 2001. In 2001, the debt ceiling was $5.9 trillion. In 2004, it will be $8.07 trillion, and by 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office projection, that is assuming that everything stays the same, it will be $13 trillion. I suggest to you that, if you are in an airplane, you are in a death spiral financially on this chart right here. If you do not do something different, if we do not do something different, if you do not demand that the leaders of this country in this one-party government we have now do something different, we are going to hit the ground. There is no way this country can sustain and service this kind of debt. I talked about servicing the debt. Last year, on this $4 trillion plus, we paid $159 billion in interest. We wrote checks for $159 billion. This will go on as we see under present law. By the end of 2008, we will be spending $1 trillion a year just to service our debt. It is clearly unsustainable. There is no way that you can take that much money out of our economy just to service debt for which we get no military prowess, no education, no health care, no highways, no bridges, no anything but just the privilege of paying taxes so we can pay debt. At this point, I want to again emphasize, if you are just talking about debt, we are in an unprecedented and unsustainable headlong dive into bankruptcy. I want to ask my friend from Texas now to talk a little bit about what we do. But after he does, please stay tuned because we are going to talk about who owns it, and that is truly frightening. My friend from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) is one of the leaders here in the Congress for financial responsibility, for commonsense approaches to government in terms of what we can afford. He has been so for over 20 years. He is the father around here of the balanced budget amendment. He introduced it, I guess, as soon as he got here, and he is one who has unquestioned credibility and credentials on our Nation's debt, deficit, financial balance sheet, you name it. I am glad the gentleman has joined us tonight.

Mr. TANNER. And if they stop, we have a crisis.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor).

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues for coming, and we will wrap this up. But there are three things that I hope people who have listened to this tonight will come away with. Number one, we are in an unprecedented spiral of debt. We are borrowing money now faster than this country has ever borrowed it. There is not a reputable economist in this land that thinks that growth can catch up to this debt curve that is plunging us into bankruptcy. Not one reputable economist will say that growth will catch up with this. As I said earlier at the top of the hour, we are in an airplane; and if we do not do something different, we are in a death spiral. It is going to hit the ground. It is that simple. No question about that. The second thing is I hope people will realize that as bad as this is, what is worse is who is financing it. Back in World War II, back in World War I, back any time we had a national crisis in this country and we had to raise money through borrowing, we did it with war bonds and so forth, and people in this country invested in the good of the Nation. That is not happening. We are now mortgaging our country, 90 percent this year. It has gone up 79 percent in the last 4 years. We are borrowing from people who do not have America's best interests at heart. I hope that is the second lesson that comes out of this tonight. Please, if you think that is important, if you know, as I do, that we are creating a financial vulnerability second only as a matter of national security to the war on terrorism, because we will lose control of our own financial destiny, control of our economy if this is not quickly reversed. And third, the way to reverse it is to immediately establish the rules of pay-as-you-go. Every family does it. If I want to spend some money over here, I have to cut somewhere over here. It is that simple. We all do it. They refuse, the Republican leadership here refuses to put what we call PAYGO rules back in. They work. If you have a good idea, that is fine. How are you going to pay for it? You have to cut somewhere else to do it. We ought to demand, the citizens, the highest officeholders in our land must demand financial accountability that has been sadly and, in my judgment, heart-breakingly absent here. I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi.

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, we want to thank the staff. We apologize for keeping them here this late. This is a message that we hope people will begin to think about.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to George Harvell, Jr., who, after 20 years as mayor of Millington, Tennessee, has decided not to seek reelection in November. Mr. Harvell was born in Covington, Tennessee, but has lived in Millington since he was 3 years old. He was spurred to public service in 1968 after hearing an alderman dismiss the effects of U.S. Highway 51 going through the city because it would not affect him personally. Mr. Harvell ran for alderman that year and served 16 years before becoming mayor. As mayor, Mr. Harvell dealt with a 1987 flood, paddling through town in a boat to check on residents. He also turned the 1993 closing of the town's Naval Training Station into a positive thing for Millington by building a subdivision to attract more upscale housing. He recently helped recruit the University of Memphis to Millington, where classes on a satellite campus began this fall. Known for his cool demeanor and fierce integrity, Mr. Harvell will be missed when he adjourns his last meeting December 6. I know he is looking forward to traveling and hunting as well as spending more time with Virginia, his wife of 50 years. But his departure certainly will be a loss to Millington and to the 8th District. Mr. Harvell has been more than a mayor. He has been a friend to his community. He has been a friend to me. Mr. Harvell also has been more than a public servant. He has been a public example of the impact a single person can have on his community when he sets his mind to it. Mr. Harvell has been a great mayor. He continues to be a great man and a great friend. I applaud his success and appreciate the time he has given and the commitment he has shown to Millington.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to a long time friend of mine, a great Tennessean, and an outstanding American, Philip Roseman. Phil recently celebrated his 86th Birthday on August 30th, in Nashville. Philip Roseman was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to parents who had immigrated from the Ukraine and Romania. On that day, August 30, 1918, the doctor that came to his parents' house to deliver the baby, forgot to register the birth for a month. The family has always celebrated his birthday on August 30th but official records indicate he was born on September 30th. It was only when he signed up to go into the military in 1942 that he discovered his ``official'' birthday. As a youth, Phil attended local Cambridge schools and graduated from Cambridge High and Latin. For a while he played for the Boston Braves on their farm team but eventually went into the newspaper business. He became a sports reporter and advertising editor for a local Cambridge newspaper. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, he immediately volunteered for service and was sent to England as part of the Army Air Force, 834th Engineer Battalion. There he helped build a secret air base in a small hamlet called Matching Green. He also served as an aide to the colonel. Just before the invasion of Normandy, he was sent back to the United States. He stayed in Brooklyn and trained in intelligence surveillance. After mustering out of the service, Phil married Nettie Weiss of Brooklyn. About this time, articles about the ``sunbelt'' captured the young man's imagination. Thinking of the prospects of plentiful energy and labor resources and the chance to start his own business, Phil climbed into his eleven-year-old Packard in 1948 and set a course south. He literally ran out of gas in Union City, Tennessee where he found genuinely friendly and helpful people. He knew right away the South was where he wanted to stay. His plan was to start a garment factory making jackets. After asking around, he decided to approach the townfathers of tiny Trimble, Tennessee, population approximately 400. They listened to this young man from the North and showed their confidence in the spunky and likeable ``New England Yankee'' by pledging $100,000 to finance a factory that would bring employment opportunities to this farming community. Hard work and dedication soon led to success. By 1955, Phil had outgrown the original plant at Trimble and needed to relocate and expand. He again approached the townfathers but this time in Hickman, Kentucky and convinced them he had a viable industry that would offer townspeople employment. That plant, too, became very successful. Eventually he started a third plant in Ridgely, Tennessee. He also ran outlet stores in the region. During the Viet Nam War, his plants supplied military outerwear. In all, he employed over 700 people in the West Tennessee region. Phil Roseman was successful not just in his business. He and his wife, Nettie, had three children who grew up to become successful professionals, one of whom is a nationally known doctor. His wife worked alongside him for fifty years building their business. She died shortly after their retirement and move to Nashville. He has recently remarried and lives in Nashville. The greatest tributes to this man are the loving memories that family, friends and former employees are quick to share about his unlimited kindness, his gentle nature and his unfailing cheerful disposition. This is how I remember Phil Roseman and I know many others do also.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, it has been 1,168 days since President Bush and the Republican Party embarked on their economic plan for our country. During that time the national debt has increased by $1,636,400,551,909.99. According to the Web site for the Bureau of the Public Debt at the U.S. Department of Treasury, yesterday the Nation's outstanding privately held debt was $4,228,487,022,143.12. Foreign holdings, debt held by foreign governments and others, not Americans, now total $1.5 trillion. This is an increase of $740 billion since January 2001 and is now 41 percent of all privately held debt.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to adopt as part of my remarks the comments that the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) made before me. The Blue Dogs have tried repeatedly to do something about this abuse of our country and what is going on here with regard to the Nation's balance sheet. I do not think that people of this country realize fully how bad it is and how quickly it is deteriorating. And I am talking about our Nation's financial picture. We cannot be a strong and free country if we are in hock to every other country on Earth. We cannot be strong and free if we are broke. We cannot fix the problems our society faces as long as we are engaged in this financial madness that has been going on around here for the last 3\1/2\ years. Let me just tell you something that is going to scare you. It is not fun to talk about and nobody talks about it because it is not much of a comfort to us as Americans when we beat on our chests and say how great we are. Let me tell you what we are doing. The privately held debt, that is the debt not held by government agencies, the debt that we write checks on every year as interest, in January of 2001 was $2.96 trillion. Of that amount, foreign interest, foreign governments owned $1.01 trillion; 34 percent, in other words, of our debt in 2001 was held by foreigners. Today, that privately held debt is $4.22 trillion. Foreign interests own $1.75 trillion. It is now 42 percent of our Nation's debt, outstanding debt held by foreign interests. That is a 73 percent increase since we had a one-party government here the last 3 years. Can you imagine what we are doing in the name of cutting taxes for American citizens and without the PAYGO rules to discipline ourselves on spending, which the majority party will not allow the Blue Dogs to bring up? They have increased what we are in debt to the rest of the world by 73 percent in the last 3 years. Last year alone the deficit was $374 billion. Do you know how much foreigners lent us so that we could keep on spending? $260 billion. Seventy percent of the deficit last year that we spent right here on this floor was lent to us by foreigners who we are now writing interest checks to. This is the most irresponsible financial game plan for this country in my lifetime, maybe in the country's lifetime. What is happening here ought to enrage the American people. They will not let us bring up PAYGO so we can stop the spending. They keep on spending, keep on reducing revenue, and borrowing it from foreign interests. You talk about patriotism. We are in hock. Let me read you a few, if you would like. Do you know how much Japan owns of our paper? $668 billion. China and Hong Kong together, $216 billion. Almost a trillion dollars by two countries. Caribbean banking centers, we owe them $72 billion. Korea, $58 billion. Germany, $49 billion. Switzerland, $49 billion. OPEC, $48 billion. Mexico, $41 billion. Canada, 33. It goes on. We owe Brazil almost $13 billion. The Netherlands, $13 billion. Belgium, $13 billion. Turkey, 15. India, 15. And just the other day we had a foreign aid bill. What is happening for the last 3\1/2\ years here financially is an outrage. It is not only what we are doing to ourselves now. I contend that this Congress has raised taxes more than any other Congress in history. Why? Because they borrowed so much money that we have got to pay interest on, not just once, but every year, every year. So far this year we have spent $130 billion just to write interest checks to people. I tell you what, unless the American people get on to this scheme that is going on around here about borrowing and spending so that we can hold down taxes or so we say in which we are doing the reverse, we are raising taxes because we will have interest payments on all of this borrowing every year, not to mention the sad fact that we are in hock to every nation that lends us money. I will tell one thing to the American people that was said in the Wall Street Journal, ``Whose bread I eat, whose song I sing.'' We are in hock all over the world, and we had better stop right now.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. I thank the gentleman. I wanted to be here tonight because I think so highly of Doug and Louise Bereuter. I have had the privilege of traveling with Doug and Louise, Betty and I have for the last 8 or 10 years, to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which is arguably now in this age of worldwide global terrorism, one of the stronger links that we have with Europe, one of the most important relationships we have with respect to international cooperation and international help as it relates to our foreign policy. I must tell Members, I know Doug has been a terrific representative for the people of Nebraska while he has served here in the House, but he has made an enormous contribution to this country. As my friend, the gentlewoman California (Mrs. Tauscher), said earlier, his diplomacy and his ability to relate with legislators, parliamentarians from other countries around the world, and particularly in the time that I have been with him in Europe, is something that is going to be sorely, sorely missed. We need the cooperation, respect and the help of other countries as we attempt to lead the world in this war of international terrorism. Doug Bereuter has made a contribution presently serving as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. And I want to pick up on something the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) said. When we go to Europe to the NATO meetings, Doug does not go as a Republican. I do not go as a Democrat. We go as American parliamentarians, American Members of Congress, to try to further our country's interests abroad. He was a quintessential and is a quintessential salesman, a man who is respected not so much because they always agree with him or us, but because he always treats people with the kind of kindness, understanding, and commitment to their point of view that we expect them to extend to us. And so I just wanted to come tonight and say thanks in this formal way to Doug and Louise for their many years of service to our country and particularly for their leadership within the European sphere. He is moving on now to the Asia Foundation, and I would hope and I know that his service there will be as rewarding and as fruitful to the country, to his country, to our country as his time serving in Europe has been. I thank the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) for hosting us tonight in this tribute to Doug. We appreciate it very much.

Mr. TANNER

Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I come over here with a degree of sadness, because the rule prohibits the consideration of the Blue Dog substitute on budget enforcement. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) made a speech a while ago that I could not say any better about why the Blue Dog budget enforcement ought to be passed. My other young friend talked about spending. If we want to talk about wasteful spending, let me just talk about it for a second. In July of 2002, the debt ceiling in this country was raised $450 billion. On Memorial Day weekend last year, it was raised another $980 billion. The other night in the defense bill, we had to raise it again, $650-plus. In the last 3 years, the debt of this country, the debt ceiling has been raised over $2 trillion. At 5 percent interest, what we have done following this economic game plan is raise taxes $100 billion a year every year, and my Republican colleagues want to talk about wasteful spending. I can think of nothing more wasteful than interest, because we get no health care, no military, no education, no nothing. But it is even worse than that. Years ago, when we heard about the GDP, percentage of GDP and the deficit, they said, do not worry about it. Do my colleagues know who was buying our debt then? Americans. Do my colleagues know who is financing our debt now? Seventy percent of our debt last year was financed by foreign interests. I am telling all of my colleagues, sooner or later, the hocking of this country to anybody in the world that will buy our paper is going to, if it is not already, become a national security issue. We are going to not only do a generational mugging on our children and grandchildren by what we are doing here now, but we are going to put future policymakers in a position where there will be leverage on them by foreign powers who do not see the world the same way the United States does in such a way that it is going to be a national security problem for them. I can think of no other better way to control spending than to apply PAYGO to tax cuts. Do my colleagues know why? Because then, when we cut taxes, we have to cut spending. Now, we cut taxes, and I voted for some of them, but we did not cut spending. Spending keeps going up. If we are really serious about cutting spending, apply pay-go to both. Then we will have to cut spending when we cut taxes, and that is what the Blue Dog budget enforcement has in it. Without that, all we are hearing is rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric. It has not worked. It will not work. And I tell my colleagues, when the American people find out what is going on here, I think they are going to be not only disappointed, but appalled.