Gene Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, if I may.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. For the record, for the fiscal year 2001, the Treasury has already spent $144 billion on interest on the national debt. That is the first 5 months of this year. Contrast that with fiscal year 2000, the Treasury spent $362 billion on interest. That is almost a billion a day. That is 20 percent of every dollar that was spent. By comparison, the military outlays total $281 billion, $81 billion less than we pay on the interest. Medicare outlays were $218 billion, $144 billion less than we spent on interest on the national debt. Again, Mr. Speaker, again Senate Majority Leader, Mr. President, please come tell me that there is a surplus, because you are dealing with projections and I am dealing with reality. The people of America are now $5.7 trillion in debt from rosy projections. The debt is real. The interest payments on the debt are real. What we owe to Social Security, what we owe to Medicare, what we owe to the military retirees, what we owe to our own civil servants is real. Let us pay our bills first before we start making new promises.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration, with a Democratic House, Republican Senate, increased by 15 percent payroll tax on working Americans toward Social Security and Medicare, because they realized, because of the demographic change, with fewer and fewer working people, more and more retired people taking money out, fewer people putting money in, that by 2014 the money that was being paid in on an annual basis to Social Security would no longer pay the money that is being taken out. So with Alan Greenspan as the Chair of a commission, they recommended, it passed through Congress, an increase on payroll taxes with the idea being that the money would be collected now while we have a relatively large workforce, set aside to pay those benefits then for Social Security, for Medicare, for military retirees, for civil service retirement. The problem is that money was spent, every penny of it. What we are trying to change and what we will have an opportunity to change tomorrow, I hope, if the Committee on Rules makes it in order, is to say that the provisions of this tax bill tomorrow only take place in years where we fully fund our annual obligation to Social Security, to Medicare, to military retirement and civil servants. If that does not happen, then the tax increase does not take place. I happen to think that is totally in keeping with the President's vow and promise that he made to Congress. He mentioned Social Security by name, he mentioned Medicare by name. He did not mention our military retirees, he did not mention our civil servants, but I am sure he would want to protect their funds as well.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Despite the promises made by Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan in the 1980s when they raised individual taxes by 15 percent on working Americans to pay for these things. The gentleman is exactly right. If I may, and I know everyone else wants to speak so I am going to be real quick. It is even worse than that, because in their attempts to disguise the true nature of the public debt, within 8 days of the Bush administration taking over the running of this country, a report that had been coming out monthly for decades called the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the U.S. right here that shows that our Nation was over $5.7 trillion in debt. Within 8 days of the President taking over, they changed the name. It is no longer the Statement of Public Debt, it is the Statement of Treasury Securities. Most of us are from the South. Most of us know what coffee houses and truck stops are like. We all could imagine going into one in Texas or one in Mississippi or Alabama or Arkansas and going up to one of those guys and saying, ``How would you like some public debt?'' I think everybody would say, ``No, thanks, I don't want any.'' But if you asked most of the guys we know if they would like some Treasury securities, there is a pretty doggone good chance that they would say, ``Yeah, I'd like some. That sounds like a good deal.'' It is all part of the scam. I resent it as an American. I hope every American resents this. I hope they resent the fact that the Social Security Trust Fund has been plundered, that the Medicare Trust Fund has been plundered, that the military retirement trust system has been plundered and that the Federal employees' retirement system has been plundered. And I do not think we ought to be doing anything until we pay those systems back.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Florida for this opportunity. If I were to walk into a town hall meeting and tell the people there that I discovered this magic cure to where our Nation can quit wasting a billion dollars a day, I would think that they would be excited about it. People always say how about stopping wasteful foreign aid, which is about $13 billion, or why can we not cut back on food stamps which is about $30 billion. A $1 billion a day is $365 billion a year. If I can tell you that I had a way to quit wasting $1 billion a day of your tax money, I think you would be excited about it. It is that easy. We just pay off the national debt. Each day this Nation squanders $1 billion in interest on the national debt. We did it yesterday, we did it the day before that, and we will do it tomorrow; and by the way, we are going to do it every day for the rest of your life until we pay off the national debt. With that money do we educate a child, build a road, contribute to national security, fulfill our promise of lifetime health care to our retirees, no. That is why it makes it the most wasteful thing that we do as a Nation, is squandering your tax money in interest on the national debt. What troubles me in this whole tax cut debate is how many of my colleagues from the Republican party are ignoring the fact that this Nation is $5.7 trillion in debt. All of us have a tendency to think, well, I am 47 years old so I guess my generation has done my share of that debt because the Nation has been around for a long time. I wish that was true; but it is not. You see, almost all of the debt has occurred since 1980. And I think 1980 is a magical year. I hope we will keep it in mind during this whole debate. People say the Reagan years were a model for prosperity. They cut taxes and revenues went up and everything got better. Not quite true. Actually during the Reagan administration with a Democratic House and Republican Senate, the debt doubled. All of the debt in the first 200 years of our Nation doubled in those 8 years. It set in motion a series of events which continued to get worse and only got better this last fiscal year when the Nation, for all of the talk of huge surpluses, had a tiny $8 billion surplus after we take into account the trust funds. One of the things that I fear my Republican colleagues are doing, and I hope I am wrong and I want to give them an opportunity to tell me I am wrong, is misleading the American public as to the true nature of the debt. These are trust funds, and the key word here is trust. People in the military trust that money is set aside to pay for their retirements which adds up to $163 billion. They trust that that money is set aside and will be there to pay for their retirement. Mr. Speaker, Americans know that a portion of their salary is taken out every month in their Social Security payment; and they trust that that money is being set aside so that when they retire, it will be there to pay their benefits. Americans who have a job also know that they are paying into the Medicare trust fund. Again, they are trusting their Nation to take that money and set it aside so when they get old, and if they get sick, we are going to help them with their medical bills. Those people who work for our Nation have a trust fund as well. It is called the Federal Employees Retirement System. Again, money is taken out, it is supposed to be set aside so it is there to pay their benefits when they retire. The net value of all of these trust funds is $2.348 trillion. But let me tell you the bad part. There is not a penny of it anywhere in any bank anywhere in the world. All there is for the $2.348 trillion are a bunch of IOUs. So when my Republican colleagues and our new President talk about all of this money laying around in Washington, I challenge them to show me where that $2.348 trillion is. It is not there. And so would you not think that since honesty is going to be the order of the day under this administration, the most honest thing that we could do is pay back the money that we owe them. The military retirees who defended our Nation in places like Vietnam, Korea, Kosovo, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, do you not think that we ought to honor their commitment by paying them back the $163 billion that we owe them? How about the folks that have paid into Medicare with the assumption that that money is going to be there when they get old. Do you not think that we ought to pay that money back? And it is to date $228 billion that we owe. It is gone. All we have is an IOU. How about Social Security. Between old age survivor's insurance and the disability under Social Security which you paid into, we owe you $1.66 trillion. How can there be a surplus when we owe you that much money. Their buzz word is it is your money. They are right, and I think we ought to pay it back. I think that is a higher priority than giving some Americans a tax break. The groups that I talk about constitute every American, and the most honest thing that we can do is pay you back. So let me tell you what has happened in the first 11 days of the Bush administration that troubles me. This publication used to come out at the end of the month for decades. It was called the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt. It was available on the World Wide Web for every American to see on a monthly basis, whether the politicians were paying down the debt or making it bigger. Within 11 days of the Bush administration taking over, what forever was called the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States was changed to the Monthly Statement of Treasury Securities of the United States. Now, I have just got a hunch if I were to walk into a restaurant or coffee shop anywhere in America and went up to an unsuspecting couple and said would you like some of the public debt, they would probably tell me, no. That is your problem. But if I went to that same couple and said how would you like some Treasury Securities, they would probably take me up on that deal. Do you remember the book 1984 where when there was a word they did not like, they came up with a new word to disguise the nature of it and they called it ``news speak.'' Folks, this is news speak. This is an attempt by the Bush administration to mislead the American people as to the true nature of the public debt; and it is wrong. I have written the President. I do not think that he personally did it. I think somebody in his administration did it, but I want him to be aware of it. I think it ought to be changed. Mr. Speaker, I think it is time we as a Nation were honest with the American public and paid them back the Social Security that we owe to them; paid them back the Medicare that we owe to them; paid the military retirees the money that we owe to them; and paid the Federal employees the money that we owe to them. Mr. Speaker, after we fulfill those commitments, then we start looking for new ways to give some American tax breaks.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I thank the gentleman. Just two last points I would like to make because I know the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) has been very patient waiting on us. Number one, getting back to defense. I would gladly compare the last 6 years that the Democrats ran the House versus the first 6 years of the Republicans. In the last 6 years of the Democratically controlled House, this Nation funded 56 new naval vessels. In the first 6 years that the Republicans ran the House, they funded only 33. I have heard people this day give speeches about Democrats being weak on defense; and yet in the 6 years, the last 6 years we controlled the House, we built almost 20 more ships than the present majority. I would also remind people that as we begin to look at paying off this horrible debt, I would ask every American from a patriotic point of view to keep one thing in mind. Almost $5 trillion of this $5,676,178,209,886 worth of debt occurred in the lifetimes of those of you born since 1980. One of the common misperceptions is that, well, if we are this far in debt and our Nation has been around for almost 200 years that we somehow have done a proportional share of that debt. That is wrong. Almost all of this debt, if you have been born since 1980, has occurred in your lifetime on benefits that were there for you, either winning the Cold War, building roads, taking care of health care, whatever. I think that this generation has a moral obligation to pay our bills. I am the father of three. I am not going to stick my children with my bills. To do so would be morally wrong. As a United States Congressman, I think it is morally wrong for this generation to stick the next generation of Americans with our bills. I would pray that those seeking this office, I would pray that those seeking the office of the Presidency of the United States, would come to the conclusion that before we talk about trillion dollar tax breaks, mostly geared towards those people who could write thousand dollar contributions to their campaign, or before we talk about new spending for new programs that have traditionally been handled by the States, that we pay our bills and not stick our kids with our expenses.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), my colleague, for joining me tonight. Madam Speaker, I have come to talk about what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to our Nation, and that is the horrible debt that our Nation faces and the absolute reluctance on the part of both Presidential candidates and almost everyone who seeks higher public office to deal with it. Mr. Speaker, when I go down the street in my home State of Mississippi and folks ask me where do their tax dollars go, they are almost dumbfounded when I tell them that the largest expenditure of their Nation is interest on our Nation's debt. Yesterday our Nation spent $1 billion on interest on the national debt. We did the same thing today. We did it 3 days ago. We did it 5 days ago. We have done it every day for the past year. Unless we change the way we are doing business here in our Nation's capitol, we will spend at least a billion dollars on the national debt tomorrow, the next day, and every day for the rest of our lives. What do we get for that? It does not educate one child. It does not build one inch of highways. It does not build one war ship to defend our Nation. It does not pay the kids in uniform. It is squandered down a rat hole and most appropriately, and something most Americans would find very disturbing, is about one third of the interest on our Nation's debt is fully paid to foreign lending institutions. See German and Japanese lending institutions actually control the papers on about one third of our Nation's debit. For my father and your fathers, those who fought the great World War II to save us from the tyranny of then Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, you have to imagine how upset they would be to realize that the nations they saved us from now control America's financial future because they control our debt. Madam Speaker, I often wonder how this incredible misperception of a big budget surplus could come from, because we hear it every day. I hear otherwise educated people talk as if they are mindless idiots. So when they talk about an alleged surplus, I really wonder again where it comes from. I think I know one of the places that it came from. This was an ad that was run in several national publications, including the USA Today. It was run December 6 of 1995, and it features then head of the Republican National Committee, a face that most of you would remember, a guy named Haley Barbour from the State of Mississippi. It is a full-page ad. He is holding a million dollar check, and it says up top, heard the one about the Republicans getting Medicare? It says down here the fact is that the Republicans are increasing Medicare spending by more than half. I am Haley Barbour. I am so sure of this fact that I am willing to give you this check for a million dollars if you can prove me wrong. He goes on down here to have the actual terms of that challenge. Here is why you have no chance for a million dollars. The Republican National Committee will present a cashier's check for $1 million to the first American who can prove the following statement is false, in quotations, in November of 1995, the U.S. House and Senate passed a balanced budget bill. It increases total Federal spending on Medicare by more than 50 percent from 1995 to the year 2002 pursuant to congressional budget standards. Madam Speaker, what was called to his attention in a hand-delivered letter just a few days later is that the bill that they passed for that year to run the Nation was not a balanced budget bill. For you at home, for me, for our Nation, for my State, a balanced budget is when you spend no more than you collect, where you are collecting your salary and what you spend or what this Nation or my State collects in taxes and what they spend. If you spend more than you are collecting, then it is not a balanced budget, that is a deficit budget. Remember this change was made on a budget that passed in November of 1995, so that would have been the budget for the fiscal year 1996, running from October 1 1995 through September of 1996. As we can see, and this is for those of you who have your computers at home, the source for this is the United States Government annual reports for the fiscal years 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, all taken from the monthly Treasury statements for the month of September for those years. What you can see is for the fiscal year 1996, the first year that the challenge would have been in effect, the Republican Congress passed a budget that was $221 billion, $960 million in deficit. That is almost a billion a day that they were spending more than they were collecting in taxes, so maybe they did not get to the balanced budget quite as quick as they thought they could. For fiscal year 1997, Federal funds were $145,217,000 in deficit. As you can see, these are the trust funds, things like the Social Security trust fund, but for the Federal trust funds, the real portion that we determine, there was no balanced budget. Fiscal year 1998, $88,088,000 in deficit. Fiscal year 1999, $82,998,000 in deficit. All of these years later, the Nation finally turned a surplus in September of the year 2000. It was not easily accomplished. I came to the House floor in the month of July to point out that through the end of June, our Nation was running an $11 billion annual operating deficit. Again, these are from the monthly Treasury statements, Department of Treasury, table 8, page 30. What you do not see is and what you do not hear is when they talk about a big surplus, they are not telling you that that surplus is in the Social Security trust fund, the military retiree trust fund, the Medicare trust fund, the highway trust fund. The key word in each of these sentences is the word trust. These are taxes that are collected from a specific group of people and set aside by people who trust our Nation to spend them on nothing but that one purpose. When my young daughter teaches sailing lessons during the summer and she pays Social Security on that paycheck, she trusts that money will be set aside so that years from now when she is a senior citizen that money will be available for her Social Security. When you go to the gas pump and pay gasoline taxes, you trust that that money will be set aside to build roads. When a military person serving our Nation in places like Korea, places like Bosnia, Kosovo pays into his trust fund, he trusts that that money will be set aside for when he retires so that his retirement check is sent every month. When someone pays into the Medicare trust fund, all of us are counting on that money being set aside so that when we need those services, that money will be there. The only surpluses that are out there are in the trust funds. So to say that I am going to have a big tax break or we are going to spend a whole lot more money because of these big surpluses, my question to those people are, who are you going to steal it from? Are you going to take it from people's Social Security trust fund? Are you going to take it from their Medicare trust fund? Are you going to steal it from the military retirees? Are you going to steal it from the people who bought gasoline and paid the tax on that? Madam Speaker, the one bright light of this year, I think, as far as this Congress is concerned is that for the first time in 30 years, the Nation collected more than it spent. It collected about $8 billion more than it spent on expenditures for the Nation. So for the first time in 30 years, there actually was a surplus. What that fails to note is that there was an extraordinary amount of money collected in the month of September and a reduction in normal operating expenditures. It was an accounting game that was played so that we could have a surplus. One of the games that was played was a very unfortunate trick to the people who serve our Nation in uniform. They are normally paid on the last of the month, but because September 30, 2000 fell into fiscal year 2000 and October 1 was in fiscal year 2001, Congress voted to delay their pay to October 1, so that that $2\1/2\ billion accounting cost would go on this year and not on last. If you are a Congressman, and everybody knows congressmen make good money, having to wait between a Friday and a Monday for your paycheck, not that big of a deal. But if you are an E-3, an E-4, an E-5 out there, if you are a young lieutenant with a couple of kids running around the house, that weekend of waiting to buy baby formula or Pampers or whatever was an incredible inconvenience to them. So from my Republican colleagues who are regularly telling me that they support the troops, I ask my colleagues if they support them so much, why did they delay their pay just so they could pretend to balance the budget? Madam Speaker, this is the American financial portfolio that the next President of the United States will inherit. There is no surplus. Our Nation is almost $6 trillion in debt. The public debt on September 30, 2000 was $5,674,178,209,887. For George Bush or Al Gore to say because we had an $8 billion surplus that we should go out and start great, new spending programs or cut taxes by over a trillion dollars is literally like a fellow who has not made his way for 30 years. He has not broken even 1 month for 30 years, and he finally clears a profit of $1,000 and he is getting ready to celebrate with that $1,000 and going on a spending spree, totally ignoring that during those 30 years he has grown the equivalent of $686,000 of credit card debt, $686,000 versus 1; that is what $8 billion compares to this debt that we owe and we continue to pay a billion dollars interest every day. Madam Speaker, that is the public debt of the United States, again, contrary to what my Republican colleagues are saying, they are not paying it down. It increased by $17,970,308,271.43 last year. For those of you who doubt my figures, I would encourage you on your computers http://www.publicdebt. treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm. It is public record, that is what we owe. Mr. Barbour, since my Republican colleagues have made such a good point about the need for people to be honest, to be forthright, to stick to their word, I am asking you tonight on national television to stick to your word. You made a promise. You made a pledge. You laid down a challenge. I accepted your challenge. I hand delivered my response to the Republican National Committee a couple of blocks from here. Your response to my challenge was to sue me and about 80 other Americans who did nothing more than to answer your challenge. I am a Congressman. It is pretty easy for a Congressman to find a lawyer. Some of the people that you sued served in the United States military. Many of them were retirees on fixed income. I call that low- balling tactics. So in response to your suing me, I have also had to hire an attorney. But I will make this promise to you when you keep yours. And after I have to pay the attorneys that I had to hire because you sued me, I will take that million dollar check and what I do not have to pay to the lawyers and donate it to the University of Southern Mississippi. But I am going to remind every American that I do not want to hear you or any of my Republican colleagues talk about honesty in government until you keep your word. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm).

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I thank the gentleman from Texas. The gentleman from Texas and I come from different parts of the country and therefore represent different interests. The gentleman from Texas comes from an extremely agricultural part of Texas. He chose to serve on the Committee on Agriculture. As a matter of fact, he is the ranking Democrat on that committee. I come from an extremely patriotic part of the country. I happen to be fortunate enough to know two living Medal of Honor recipients, and we have a number of military installations and defense contractors in south Mississippi, one of them being Ingalls Shipbuilding, built over half the ships in the fleet. One of the misstatements that is often said on this House floor is that it is somehow President Clinton's fault that the fleet is shrinking, that there are fewer airplanes, fewer people in uniform. I would like to remind my colleagues that say that, and I am sorry that none of them are on the floor here tonight, to read the Constitution of the United States. Article 1, section 8, that part that gives Congress its responsibilities, says it is Congress' job to provide for the national defense, that it is Congress' job to provide for the Army and the Navy. I would further remind my colleagues that article 1, section 9 of the Constitution, and I encourage all of you to read it at home, says that no money may be drawn from the Treasury except by an appropriation by law. So what does that mean, when they say the President did not build enough ships, he did not build enough airplanes? No, what it really means is that they have not put enough money in their budget that passed with an overwhelming majority of their votes to build those ships. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the American public that on January 1, 1995, the day the Republicans officially took over the responsibility of running both the House and the Senate, our Nation's fleet had 392 ships in the Navy. Today, the fleet is 318 with the Cole being out of commission. So it is 317. Our fleet is now the smallest it has been since 1933. This with a Republican majority in the House and the Senate that can put all the money they choose to, if they choose to, into the defense budget. Mr. Speaker, my criticism is that in search of tax breaks geared mostly toward the wealthiest Americans, you have shortchanged the troops. We have got kids flying around in old helicopters 30 years old. The newest Huey out there that our soldiers are flying around in is over 30 years old. The newest C-141 out there that our Air Force crews are flying right now is nearly 30 years old. We have the smallest number of ships that we have had since 1933 during the Depression. Again, article 1, section 9 says that no money may be drawn from the Treasury except by an appropriation by Congress. Now, somebody out there will say, maybe the President vetoed those defense bills. And he did veto some of them. But never over spending. He vetoed them over social issues, and I disagreed with him on those social issues. I do not think we ought to be performing abortions at military hospitals. I was not for the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy. But those are social issues. He never vetoed a defense bill over spending. So when I hear people come to the floor and say, Well, it's Clinton's fault, I beg to differ. It is your fault. In search of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, you have shortchanged America's defense, and I will scream it from the highest mountaintop because I know it to be true. One of the things that I hope the next President will concentrate on is America's defense, because again I hear many of my Democratic colleagues talking about everything but defense, and quite frankly I hear far too many of my Republican colleagues talking about everything but defense. We have a Nation that wants to get involved in school construction. Where I come from that has traditionally been a local responsibility. We are talking about getting involved in all sorts of things that are normally State and local responsibilities when the greatest national responsibility is to balance our budget and defend the Nation. That is what we ought to be doing, and that is what we ought to be doing very well. I want to point out to my colleagues that I do not think my Republican colleagues have done that very well.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, the citizens of America entrust us with running their Nation. We are going to be asked in less than 3 hours to vote on a 960-page document that was just delivered to the House. No one knows what is in it. There could be a tax on handguns; there could be a tax on cigarettes; they could bring back prohibition. Neither the Speaker of the House nor the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) have any idea what is in this bill. But if the House votes for it and the Senate votes for it, it becomes the law of the land, until it is repealed. That could take 1 year, that could take 100 years. This Nation squanders $1 billion on interest on the debt. I hear my Republican colleagues say we finally turned a profit. We have an $8 billion surplus for the first time in 30 years. I would tell you that surplus compared to the debt is like a person who, for 30 years, has been charging things to his Visa card and finally breaks even at the end of 1 year and has $1,000 left, and says, ``Honey, let's go blow it,'' ignoring the fact that he is $686,000 in debt on his credit cards. That is the comparison of this year's surplus to the accumulated debt of $5.7 trillion.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, this is an accumulation of five bills that were introduced yesterday. It is 960 pages in length. I can tell my colleagues what my gut tells me, and I am quoting from a colleague in the Mississippi legislature: There are enough snakes in this bill that it would take a herpetologist to sort them all out. We are dealing with people's retirement, and one provision of this bill would allow the person who is rolling those retirement funds over to pocket the profits for 60 days. Grandma does not get them, he gets them, not the person who deserves them, the guy who convinces grandma that she needs to roll it over. That is just one provision. There is another provision that on a casual reading of this bill that I showed to over a dozen Members of Congress and an equal number of members of the press would have us believe that we get a tax deduction for paying bribes. Now, I say to my colleagues, if it is our job to make the tax laws simpler and more understandable, why on the last day of this session would we parade out a bill that is going to add 965 pages to the Tax Code that no one fully comprehends?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) for joining me in this. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) for the great job he has done of serving our country over the many years. He has represented his District in Pennsylvania with great distinction, and we are all going to miss him, and he is a good sport to stay here so late tonight on what could possibly be the last week of his service to our Nation. Mr. Speaker, I really came to talk about the myth of the budget surplus. When folks stop me on the street back home, it is a very common question to ask me, where does their tax money go. Without exception, people are shocked to learn that the biggest expense to their Nation is interest on the national debt. See, today our Nation squandered $1 billion of your money on interest on the national debt. We did the same thing yesterday, the day before that, the day before that. We will do it tomorrow, the day after that. Every day for the rest of your life, your Nation will squander $1 billion on interest on the national debt until we pay it off. That is pretty mind boggling. The biggest expense to our Nation last year, interest on the national debt, was $360 billion. So when we hear people talk about the surplus, we have got to kind of wonder where it all came from. I know one of the sources. It was an ad run in the paper, the USA Today, dated December 12, 1995. It is a photo of the former chairman of the Republican National Committee Hailey Barbour, who said ``Heard the one about the Republicans cutting Medicare? It is a million dollars challenge.'' He offers a million dollars to someone who could prove the following statement false. ``Here is why you have no chance for the million dollars. Republican National Committee will present a cashier's check of $1 million to the first American who can prove the following statement is false: In November of 1995, U.S. House and Senate passed a balanced budget bill, period. It increases the total Federal spending on Medicare by more than 50 percent from 1995 to 2002, pursuant to the Congressional Budget Office standards. Responses must be postmarked by December 20, 1995.'' So that was the budget that was going to be for the fiscal year of 1996. The key here is, it said they passed a balanced budget bill. Congress can only appropriate money for 1 year at a time. So a balanced budget, as all of us know from our household checkbooks, is when we spend no more than we collect in taxes. It may surprise my fellow citizens, after the chairman of the Republican National Committee made such a statement and such a challenge that, in that year, the fiscal year increase to the public debt was $250,828,000,000. The Nation spent $250 billion more than they collected in taxes that year that they claim to have balanced the budget. So maybe it took a little bit longer than they thought. So in fiscal year 1997, the Nation spent $188,335,000,000 more than it collected in taxes. A year later, the Nation spent $113,046,000,000 more than it collected in taxes. This is 3 years since Mr. Barbour's promise that the Nation had a balanced budget. The following year, the Nation spent $130,077,000,000 more than they collected in taxes. So when I presented Mr. Barbour with the information that it was not a balanced budget, his response was, not only not to pay me, but to sue me for answering his challenge that was in a nationwide publication. That is Republican accountability. That is Republican honesty. It makes one kind of wonder, does it not? In fairness to Mr. Barbour, that was not the only year. I think it is important that we be honest, that I be honest. I came to the House floor at the end of July and said that, for this fiscal year, so far, the Nation was running an $11 billion annual operating deficit. I came back in August, actually in the month of September, and showed where the Nation was running a $22 billion annual operating deficit. In fairness, I have to mention that something that I guess every Congressman should be at least partially happy about, we did finish the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2000 with an $8 billion surplus, but only after, incredibly, record collections of $157 billion and expenditures of $125 billion. See, they were able to slow down spending for that 1 month to make up for that $22 billion. One of the ways they slowed down spending, interestingly enough, we hear all this talk about being for a strong national defense, is they delayed the pay for the troops from the last of September to the 1st of October. So that bill did not go towards last year, it goes towards this year. So this year's deficit will be even bigger. But last year's deficit turned into a surplus by that accounting gimmick and others. So I guess something that I am very proud of, having run on the basis of trying to balance the budget, is that, for the first time in what we think is 30 years, the Nation ran the smallest of surpluses, about $8 billion out of a $1.5 trillion budget. We hear talk of big surpluses. But those surpluses are all in the trust funds: the Social Security Trust Fund, the Medicare Trust Fund, the Military Retirees Trust Fund, the Black Lung Trust Fund, the Federal Employees Trust Fund. These are all monies that have been collected for a special purpose, and people trust us to set that money aside and spend it only for that purpose. To spend it on anything else, to give it away to someone else in a tax break is a violation of that trust. Someone who has understood the issue of the tax breaks and their impact on the Federal trust funds better than anyone else in this House is the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm). Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm).

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Again for those of you on the West Coast, this is almost 10 minutes to midnight in Washington so I not only thank my colleague for staying up so late but all the employees of the House. I know there is a lot of mistrust about government. I would ask people who question these numbers to access their computers www.publicdebt.treas.gov and look for yourself. One of the big lies is that the public debt is going down. The fact of the matter is in the 1 year between September 30 of 1999 and September 30 of 2000, the public debt increased from $5,656,271,000,000 to $5,674,178,000,000. I realize that is pretty mind-boggling for almost everyone, but that is what it looks like on a chart. It continues to go up. And again as long as we owe money, we have to pay interest on that debt just like every other business and every other individual and that interest payment is $1 billion a day. If you want to access these numbers, it is www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd.opdpenny.htm. Folks, that is what your debt looks like today. So before any of my colleagues talk about huge spending increases or any presidential candidate, or any of my colleagues start talking about huge tax cuts, this is what we owe. If you were to look at this in 1980, it would have read about $1 trillion instead of 5. That means that $4.674 trillion of that debt has been added in this generation's lifetime. I as a father am not going to stick my kids with my bills. I would ask that those people who seek the highest office of the land, the President of the United States, do not stick their kids with their bills. I would ask that my fellow Congressmen and the Members of the other body, do not forget these numbers and let us not stick the next generation of Americans with this generation's bills. Before we talk about big spending increases, before we talk about big tax cuts, let us pay off the debt that has been run up in our lifetime and let us start defending the Nation in a way that in reality matches the rhetoric. I would tell the gentleman from Texas that when the Republican majority took over Congress, there were 392 ships in the American fleet. Today the number of ships in the United States Navy are 318. They talk about the big defense increases, but as a matter of fact the last 6 years that the Democrats ran the House, we funded 56 new warships. In the first 6 years that they have run the House, they funded only 33. For all the rhetoric about being tough on defense, good for defense, the Republican Congress built fewer ships in their first 6 years than the Democrats did in our last 6. Even this year they talk about President Clinton being weak on defense. President Clinton asked the Congress to fund eight ships. The Congress only funded six. The United States Navy is now the smallest it has been since 1933. So in addition to not balancing the budget, they have failed to look out for the common defense. Mr. Barbour, I hope you are watching tonight. I have still got your ad; you have still got my letter. You still owe me a million dollars. I realize you found a judge up here in Washington that said, yeah, that wasn't really for real, but when someone runs a statement in a national publication challenging people to prove them false and have their statements proved false not just for 1 year or even 2 years but for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years running, then I have proven your statement false. And if you are a man of your word and if your party is a party of its word since you are making such a big deal of credibility and honesty and trustworthiness, then I think you ought to keep your word and honor your pledge. For my part, after I paid the lawyer that I had to go hire because you sued me, the remainder will go to the University of Southern Mississippi so we can educate a lot of good kids back home.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the previous speaker and every speaker, every person who serves in this body, that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says it is Congress' job to provide for the national defense. It goes on to say in Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution that no money may be drawn from the Treasury except by consequence of an appropriation by Congress. If there are too few ships, if there are too few planes, if the people are underpaid, living in poor housing, it is because Congress has failed its job. It is that simple. Mr. Speaker, the day the Republican majority took over Congress, there were 392 ships. At this date, it is 318. In the last 6 years the Democrats ran the House, there were 56 ships put in the budget. In the past 6 years, the Republican Congress has put in 33. We have done some great things on health care. We have done some great things on other things, but there is a heck of a lot of work to be done. Tonight there will be a presidential debate. Both candidates will unfortunately spend all their time talking about tax breaks of a nonexistent surplus. Mr. Speaker, I would remind them that until we get kids out of 30- year-old helicopters, till we get those young Americans who are serving our country out of 30-year-old airplanes, until we get to a point where we are going to have more than a 200-ship Navy, because at the present procurement rates, that is where we are going to be at no time at all, then there is no money for tax breaks, because the highest priority for this Nation, the highest priority for this Congress should and must always be to provide for the common defense. Mr. Speaker, I am going to vote for this bill because it does a lot of good things, but before one of my colleagues comes to this floor and says we have plenty of money for tax breaks, let me remind them of all the work that still remains to be done.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, for the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), the good doctor, I would remind him that, again, article 1, section 8 calls upon the Congress to defend the Nation. Article 1, section 9 says that no money may be drawn from the Treasury except by appropriation by law. If there is not enough money in the defense budget, it is Congress' job. The President may not have asked for enough, and I will agree with that, but the bottom line is this Congress has passed over $900 billion worth of tax breaks the President did not ask for. We do lots of things the President did not ask for. The bills the President vetoed on defense were over social issues, never underspending.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, one of the challenges of being one of 435 is that we rarely get to speak when we feel like speaking or when we think it is appropriate. So I find myself responding to some previous speakers who talked about the big surplus, how the Republican Congress is paying down the debt. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage them to read the Treasury report. Because the Treasury report that came out on August 31 of this year shows that the national debt has increased this fiscal year by $22.896 billion. This is public information. I would hope that my colleagues would take the time to look at it. Additionally, it shows that, for this fiscal year, the difference between what is being collected and what is being spent is $22.896 billion. Now, my great friend the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) just talked about these trust funds, the only way we can cut taxes is to steal from the trust fund. So my question to those of my colleagues who just last week were saying they are for big tax breaks is, whose trust fund were they going to steal it from, the military retirees, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? Whose trust fund are they going to steal it from? Now they are talking about this week debt reduction, they are going to set aside 90 percent of a nonexistent surplus in debt reduction. Tomorrow we have a hearing on readiness where Republican colleague after Republican colleague who took over a fleet in 1995 of almost 400 naval ships and now after 6 years of their stewardship is down to about 312 naval ships want to tell us that they do not have enough money for defense. Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues that they have to get focused. They cannot keep spending money. Mr. Speaker, the reason that this Nation is $5.7 trillion in debt, up from only $1 trillion 20 years ago, is that we are spending more than we are collecting in taxes, that this generation is sticking future generations of America with our bills. I would hope that we could start by being honest with the American people and admitting that there is no surplus this year, that the only surpluses are in the trust funds, and we have a responsibility to spend those trust funds on only the things that we are supposed to, Social Security taxes for Social Security, Medicare taxes for Medicare, military retirement fund for military retirees. I encourage my colleagues, as they work on this continuing resolution, let us be honest with the American people and let us get back to the priorities that made this Nation great and let us quit sticking our kids and our kids' children with today's bills.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, a preliminary inquiry. Mr. Speaker, my parliamentary inquiry is how would I have this document from the Bureau of Public Debt published on June 30, 2000, how would I have this document that shows the public debt increasing by $40 billion inserted at the Record at this appropriate time?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Treasury report of June 30, 2000 that shows that the public debt has increased by $40 billion in the past 12 months be inserted at the Record at this point.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for a publication of the Treasury Department to be inserted in the Record.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, through the first 11 months of this fiscal year, our Nation ran a $12 billion surplus. That is available for every American to read. It is a published report of the Bureau of Public Debt. So there is no surplus. The only surplus is in the trust funds. For the past 4 years, for 3 of those 4 years, I have heard the same Congress that controls the purse strings tell our veterans, the very people who gave us the opportunity to even have this debate, that their budget is frozen, for 3 of the past 4 years. In 1994, the last year that the Democrats controlled Congress, there were 404 ships in the United States Navy. After 6 years of Republican control, we are down to 315. Why? Because there is no money. Well, if there is no money for the veterans, if there is no money for the survivors' benefit pension offset, if there is no money for dual compensation for people who are crippled while they become military retirees, why is it that we can afford to give away $200 billion to people who already get a tax benefit the day they get married? The Democrat plan would free up those $200 billion to take care of our veterans, to take care of our military retirees, to build the United States Navy back up. It is now the smallest it has been since 1933, while the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress. Those are my priorities; and, quite frankly, I am not going to steal it from the Social Security trust fund. I am not going to steal it from the military retirees trust fund. I am not going to steal from it the Medicare trust fund, and I am not going to stick my children with my bills.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1775, the Estuary Restoration Act of 2000. Estuaries and coastal environments are precious natural resources that need to be restored and protected. They provide important habitat for numerous fish and wildlife, as well as recreational areas, transportation linkages, and sources of residential and industrial water supplies. It has been estimated that coastal and estuarine waters are worth billions of dollars to this country. Yet, despite the inherent value of these areas, for too long we have viewed our Nation's oceans, bays, and rivers as convenient dumping grounds for waste associated with human life and development. However, as we have fortunately learned, these earlier practices were a mistake, a mistake which we will correct. H.R. 1775 will further assist in this effort, providing assistance to restore habitat and biological health to the Nation's estuaries. I want to commend the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest), from my family's ancestral home, for his efforts in sponsoring this legislation. I support its passage.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, we have no additional requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I am sure every member of the Kidd family thanks the gentleman from California for that great commercial. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the ranking member of the full Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am a fill-in tonight for our ranking member, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood), who was called away because of a family emergency, so the words I am going to read tonight are his, not mine. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 327, a resolution which would honor and recognize our merchant marines. I would first like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Kuykendall) for introducing this important resolution. I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation, which seeks to ensure that our merchant marines receive the recognition that they long deserve. The merchant marines, our first Navy, were instrumental in defeating the British Navy during the Revolutionary War. Highly outnumbered, these brave seamen contributed to the very birth and founding of our Republic by preying on the vast arsenal of British enemy ships and carrying critical supplies to assist in America's battle for independence. Since 1775, the merchant marines have served our country in all wars up to the Persian Gulf War. Whether carrying imports or exports during peacetime, or serving as naval auxiliary during wartime delivering troops and war material, the merchant marine provides an essential service to the well-being of our Nation. Long called our Nation's fourth arm of defense, the merchant marines have always answered the call to duty. During World War II, the merchant marine was responsible for delivering not only our troops, but 95 percent of the supplies that our military forces needed to defeat our enemies in both Europe and in the Pacific. These merchant seamen were at constant risk of having their ship sunk by enemy submarines. As a result of their bravery, the merchant marines had higher casualty percentages than any branch of the Armed Forces. During World War II, one in every 29 mariners perished. Eight thousand, six hundred 51 mariners were killed at sea, and an additional 11,000 wounded. Due to the security and intelligence concerns surrounding our war effort, merchant marine ship casualties were constantly underestimated. Unfortunately, this resulted in inadvertently denying the American people the knowledge of the sacrifices and accomplishments of the merchant marines. Unknown to many Americans, these courageous seamen suffered incredible losses in moving heavy equipment, troops, arms, ammunition, and fuel across thousands of miles of hostile seas. Today, House Concurrent Resolution 327 will finally honor their dedication and sacrifice by recognizing their utter devotion to duty. Congress has acted in the past regarding the merchant marine. The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 officially established the merchant marine as a naval or military auxiliary in time of war or national security. Furthermore, in 1988, merchant marines who sailed on ocean-going vessels from December 7, 1941, through August 15 of 1945 were granted veteran status. Today the men and women of the merchant marine continue to serve with honor. As Members of Congress, we need to continue to educate the American people about the importance and the achievements of the merchant marine. House Concurrent Resolution 327 serves this purpose. I urge all Members to support this important legislation in an effort to ensure that our merchant marines receive the recognition and honor they deserve for sacrificing so much to our Nation. Mr. Speaker, having read the remarks of the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood), I would also say that the best way we can honor our merchant marines is to continue to have a strong American merchant marine. The way we can do that is to continue to protect the Jones Act, continue to emphasize American shipbuilding, and to continue to, when possible, give priority to American-made products that help in our national defense. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Kuykendall) for doing this. Again, I want to apologize for the absence of the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood), but there was a family emergency. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.