Gene Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding to me and giving me this opportunity. For about 12 hours now I have asked my colleagues, who were all elected by roughly the same number of people as I have been, for an opportunity for an up-or-down vote on whether or not we ought to have another round of base closures. I am adamantly opposed to base closures. After the first three rounds of base closure, we cannot name one weapons system that has been purchased with base closure money. We cannot find one general, one admiral, one Secretary of Defense, one undersecretary, who would name one base that they think ought to be closed. Yet my colleagues, particularly on the Republican side, have steadfastly refused even the simple courtesy of an up-or-down vote. Last year the Senate, by the narrowest of margins, passed base closure language. The House never voted on it. It was part of the defense authorization bill which was brought to this House in the conference report well after September 11, when we were given the opportunity to say we are for the troops or against base closure. That really was not a fair fight, and they knew it was not. Base closure ruins the lives of those military retirees, and over half of them, over half of them have retired near a base so they can use the commissaries and the hospitals. When we close the base, the commissary goes, the hospital goes; and we basically have ruined their lives. They are too old to move again. Base closure puts every single employee in the Department of Defense wondering, starting tomorrow, whether or not his job is in jeopardy, whether or not he ought to borrow the money to send his kid to college or buy another car or fix up their house. For all the reasons that Members oppose A-76, they ought to be against base closure. All I have asked is one simple thing today, because I think it is real fair that the business sections around America, all those cities and counties that we all used to serve in the local government that are spending millions, if not billions, of dollars trying to save those local bases from closure, all we want is an up-or-down vote. We asked for the opportunity to stand up for our constituents. As a matter of fact, most of us begged for the opportunity to stand up for our constituents: send me to Washington so your voice can be heard loud and clear. Why is it tonight that they hide behind the Speaker? Why is it tonight that they hide behind these silly rules, nine members of the Committee on Rules who will not give a straight up-or-down vote whether or not they think it makes sense to close bases? We are in a war. How many times have I heard it tonight? Every one of the service chiefs says they need more people, not fewer. Right now, the military is looking for a base to put the Joint Strike Fighter. They are looking for a base to put the F-18E and F. There is a base in Florida that has three 8,000-foot runways. It has a fourth runway that is 10,000 feet long. The planes can take off and they go straight out over the Atlantic Ocean. They can make all the noise they want. They can do all the dogfighting they want. God forbid, if something goes wrong and they have to eject, they know they can eject without fear of that plane falling on someone's house or a busload of kids. That base is called Cecil Field. It is outside Jacksonville, Florida. It was closed by a previous round of base closures, and now the taxpayers of America are going to spend over $1 million to replace it because we gave the property away, just like we gave away the property at Governor's Island, just like we gave away the property at the Presidio, and just like we spent $13 billion, let us remember, a thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand times 13 to clean up the bases that we gave away from the first three rounds of base closure. If Members think that is a good idea, then have the guts to vote for it. But if Members think it is a bad idea, or if they think those of us who think it is a bad idea, who got elected by just as many people as them, ought to have an up-or-down vote on it, I thought I would ask just once tonight to give us a vote. That is all I ask. If we lose, I understand the rule of the majority. But I think the Members of this House, when those bases start getting padlocked, ought to have the opportunity to look the citizens who are going to lose their bases, who are going to lose their jobs, I think we ought to have the opportunity to look them in the eye and say, I voted to keep this base open, or I voted to shut it down. But do not hide.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

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

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote, and pending that, I make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record this statement of the public debt that shows that our Nation's debt has increased by $232,291,656,313.85 since the passage of this measure 12 months ago. Our Nation now has a record $6 trillion debt for which we squander $1 billion a day on interest. Simple Truths About the Budget and the Debt Updated Through March, 2002 Monthly Statement of the Public Debt and February, 2002 Monthly Treasury Statement The Federal debt is still growing. At the close of business on March 31, 2002, the total public debt was $6,006,031,606,265.38, or $6.006 trillion. The public debt increased by $232 billion in the twelve months since March 31, 2002. Of the $6 trillion debt, $2.55 trillion is owed to various federal trust funds. These funds were collected and earmarked for specific purposes, but all their surpluses have been borrowed and spent in exchange for government securities. There is no surplus except in trust funds. Through five months of Fiscal Year 2002, federal trust funds accumulated a total of $82.2 billion in surpluses, while non-trust fund accounts ran a deficit of $156.6 billion. For Fiscal Year 2001, which ended in September, trust funds had $224 billion in surpluses. Outside the trust funds, the federal government ran a deficit of $97 billion. The trust fund surpluses are obligated for future benefits. Most of the surplus funds are collected for Social Security, Medicare, military retirement, federal employee retirement, and unemployment benefits to save and invest to pay future obligations. We spend a billion dollars per day on interest. In the first five months of Fiscal Year 2002, the Treasury spent $150.4 billion on interests in 151 days. Over the same period, military spending totaled $129.9 billion, $20.5 billion less than interest costs. Medicare spending totaled $101.4 billion, $49 billion less than interest costs. In Fiscal Year 2001, the Treasury spent $359.5 billion on interest on the debt, an average of almost one billion dollars per day. In the same twelve months, military spending totaled $291 billion, $68.5 billion less than gross interest. Medicare spending totaled $241.4 billion, $118 billion less than gross interest. Debt Increase in past 12 months Total Public Debt Outstanding March 31, 2002; $6,006,031,606,265.38. Total Public Debt Outstanding March 31, 2001: $5,773,739,949,951.53. Increase in Public Debt Outstanding in 12 months: $232,291,656,313.85.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Florida and those of you who are watching back home for the opportunity to talk about the President's desire to raise the debt limit. One of the most moving books I ever read was called ``The Winds of War.'' It is a novel, but it talks about the events leading up to World War II, the American participation in it. One of the many things that is going on in this book is a family member of the participants who is in a concentration camp, and he is thinking to himself, how can it be that the Americans do not know that this is going on? We have smuggled information to America showing the Jews and Gypsies and other people that the Nazi regime wanted to get rid of, that these horrible things are happening, and somehow the Americans are not responding. The author called it ``the will not to believe,'' and I guess, to a certain extent, it hits all of us, whether it is finding out that a family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, or maybe your favorite football team lost to a team you did not think they could possibly lose to. I bring these numbers to the floor tonight that have been updated as of the end of this month to show the American people what I keep in my congressional office. It is a constant reminder sitting right by my desk as folks come to me and say can you help us with this tax break or can you help us with this additional spending. It is a constant reminder that I point to as different constituents come to visit me of just how far in debt our Nation is, how much farther in debt we have gotten in the past 12 months, because it really is within all of us. I see it in my town meetings, when I walk the Wal-Marts and the KMarts and the hardware stores in my district, when I visit with shrimpers, or people at the other end of the economic scale. It is just hard to believe that our Nation is now $6 trillion in debt. In fact, last year at this very time the President of the United States and a lot of folks in the media were running around saying Washington is awash in money. There are surpluses as far as the eye can see. Well, apparently the people who said that, both inside and outside of government, never took the time to look at this, because one year ago right now, our Nation was $5,735,859,380,573 in debt. Unlike the previous speaker, I voted against most of those proposals that came up last year, because none of them paid for themselves and almost all of them would add to the debt. That was my gut conclusion. It turns out my gut conclusion was better than whatever economists the President and some others were calling on, because the amount of debt increase in just one year, in the past 12 months, is $267,593,636,009.87. Now, most of this is because of the tax breaks that were passed last year by Congress. Some of it is because of the war in Afghanistan, but that is $1 billion a month. Mr. Speaker, $1 billion a month would be, since September about 6, $6 billion of this. The rest of it was increases in spending in the President's budget. And let us remember, the President got his budget. At the time it was proposed, Republicans controlled the House, Republicans controlled the other body; he got his budget. So please do not come back and tell this Member that, well, the reason we have this big debt is because you guys spent money that I did not want to spend. Mr. President, you got your budget. You got your tax breaks, you got your budget, and that is what you have added to the debt with your numbers. What really troubles me about that is, I am the father of three kids and they are going to get stuck with that bill and until then, our Nation is going to squander more money every day on interest on the national debt than we spend pursuing the war in Afghanistan. It costs us about $1 billion a month to pursue the war in Afghanistan. It costs us $1 billion a day to pay interest on that debt and much of it is a direct result of the budget from last year. That is the President's part. Now, what is particularly troubling about this, if I were to bring these numbers up from the 1st of January 1980, that would be a ``1'' and most of these would be zeroes. The first of January, 1980, our Nation was $1 trillion in debt. Now, that is a heck of a lot of money for a guy from Mississippi, but that is $5 trillion less than it is now. One of the reasons this has been allowed is that on a regular basis, Congress has come to this floor, different Presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, and have said, I need to borrow just a little bit more, I need a little temporary fix to get this monkey off of my back. Those are the temporary fixes, the accumulated problem that that has caused. Mr. President, I am not going to vote to raise the debt limit. I also want to point out that one of the reported stories that is coming from this is that your Treasury chairman is considering taking that money from the trust funds. Let me remind the American people that for all of the rhetoric, Democrats and Republicans, people inside the media and outside of the media, with this so-called lockbox for Social Security, and that is a line item on your taxes, that is taken out of your taxes with the promise that it is going to be put aside for your Social Security benefits, there is no lockbox. What there is, is somewhere an IOU that says that the United States of America owes the Social Security trust fund $1.23 trillion. There is nothing there. If you look on your pay stub, you also pay Medicare taxes. Again, that is supposed to be set aside for your Medicare benefits when you reach the proper age to receive them. It is supposed to be in a lockbox. The truth of the matter is, if you were to open up that lockbox, you will find an IOU from the United States for $256.3 billion. Then there is the Civil Servants Retirement Fund. Civil servants, contrary to popular belief, do pay into their own retirement. That money is supposed to be set aside to do nothing but pay for their benefits when they retire. If you found that box and opened it up, you would find an IOU for $532 billion. Now, the reason I mention that one in particular is that the Treasury Secretary now says, Well, maybe we do not have to raise the debt limit if we just steal it from the Civil Service Retirement System. It is just temporary. The problem, Mr. O'Neill, with that is, you have already taken $500 billion out of that account. Where do you stop taking it? At what point does the President come to this Congress with a budget that is balanced? At what time does this Congress pass a balanced budget? About 6 years ago we passed a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. It went to the other body and failed by one vote. You would think a body that on a weekly basis is finding new ways to spend money and driving up the debt would try at least one more time in the past 6 years to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I have recently signed on to the recent attempt by the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Berry) to do that, and I hope that we will have a speedy vote on this, Mr. Speaker, because I think this body should pass it. I think that the American people should know that that is how much we are in debt, that we are squandering over $1 billion a day on interest on that debt, and until then, we are continuing to rob from their Social Security trust fund, their Medicare trust fund, the Civil Service Retirement trust fund and the Military Retirees' trust fund. Mr. Speaker, that is why I am going to vote against raising the debt limit. The other thing I am going to ask the American people to do is check my facts. Last year when all of these people were talking about the big surpluses, did anyone ever tell you to check the facts? I would encourage, and I hope the camera can get this, because this is where the Treasury reports on a monthly basis just how broke our Nation is: http//www.publicdebt.treas.gov. Look it up for yourselves. I have been encouraging the American people to do this for the past year and not one of them has ever written me back and said, Taylor, you are wrong, because I am right on this one. I am not right on everything, but I am sure as heck right on this one. So I want to thank the gentleman for the opportunity to speak on this. If my colleagues would like a copy of this for their offices, when folks come to see you and tell you that we have all kinds of money and we have a project that we just cannot live without, maybe my colleagues here this evening can say, maybe we can live without it for just a little while until we find the money to pay for it. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd) for this opportunity.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, when I was a kid, and when a guy named Mike Parker was a kid, it was fairly common for schoolteachers to talk about a story. We do not know if it is true or not, but they certainly told kids about a young man who, as a child, had a hatchet, and he took that hatchet to his father's favorite cherry tree and chopped it down. And when his father confronted him very angrily over whether or not he had done that, he said, Sir, I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down that cherry tree. We do not know whether or not that is true, but it certainly is an important lesson. The important lesson is that the person who is said to have told the truth went on to become the father of our country, and this town is named after him. I regret to say that that sort of reward seems missing in this town right now. I know of another person who in this town just last week told the truth and for that he was asked to resign. That person is my fellow Mississippian, Mike Parker, a former member of this body who served in both the Democrat and Republican Parties. Mike appeared before the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the Committee on Appropriations last week. As the head of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Under Secretary of the Army for that job, Mike told the Members of that committee that he did not feel that the budget was enough. He went on to say that he felt like the Office of Management and Budget had intentionally underestimated the amount of money that would be needed to run the Corps of Engineers. That is the agency that builds the levees that keeps low-lying communities from flooding; that dredges channels so that inland commerce can take place; that dredges the channels for oceangoing ships; that agency that helps people with their sewage problems, with their drainage problems. He said that the administration's budget did not have enough money in it for him to do his job. He went on to say that he felt like the Office of Management and Budget intentionally low-balled that to try to make the President's budget look a little closer to being balanced than it really was, and knowing that Congress would put the money back in the budget. He even went so far as to say that the Constitution of the United States under article I gives Congress the power to decide where the money goes, not the administration. The administration is certainly correct to request a budget, but it is Congress' job to pass a budget. For telling the truth, my friend Mike Parker was fired. He was actually asked to resign. And what is really interesting about this town of half truths is that it was just 3 years ago on this very floor that a majority of my colleagues and I voted to impeach a sitting President because we felt like he had lied under oath. But when someone just last week tells the truth, he is asked to resign. Mr. Speaker, I think that is a shame, and I think it is a horrible reflection on our Nation. I think it is a horrible reflection on this administration. Mike Parker did the right thing. This town is awash in debt because we are awash in half truths. Finally, somebody came forward and said this is the way to do it. You gave me a job to do. I have left my farm in Mississippi, I have left my business in Mississippi, my wife has left a successful accounting firm to come here all so we could serve our country. I have told you the truth, and my reward for telling the truth is to fire me. Mr. Speaker, it is a shame. So for Mike Parker and all of the folks out there who tell the truth, I want to say I am grateful, the people in Mississippi. I deeply regret that the President of the United States did the wrong thing; but Mike, I know you did the right thing. Just recently there was a book published called ``The Dereliction of Duty.'' I am told it was written by a historian at West Point who researched the early stages of the Vietnam War, and makes a very compelling case that the Joint Chiefs of Staff at that time knew that President Johnson had no intention of winning that war. And what he cites as a dereliction of duty is those generals and those admirals at the time, knowing that the President had no clear plan for victory, were not willing to risk their careers and step forward and say ``This is wrong. I am not going to let the kids in my command die,'' in what they knew to be a failed effort. Mike Parker had the guts to say this is wrong and point out the way that it should be and tell the truth. So, Mike, they may have had a dereliction of duty, but you did not. For the sake of myself and again speaking on behalf of the people of Mississippi, we are proud of you, Mike. God bless you.

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 encourage my colleague from Louisiana, my neighboring State, to look at these numbers. This is from published Treasury reports. The gentleman said this money comes out of payroll taxes. That is right. Most of the folks I represent pay more in Social Security taxes than they do in income taxes. We would raid the Social Security trust fund to pay for this. Right now we owe the Social Security trust fund $1.230 trillion unfunded liability. That is nothing but an IOU. Members profess to be for the military. We owe the military trust fund $171 billion right now unfunded liability. That is money that was taken, set aside allegedly to pay their retirement. It is gone, just like that Social Security money. We owe the civil servants, the Border Patrol folks, $534 billion. How can Members come to this floor and say there is a surplus when we have increased the debt, mostly through tax breaks and a downturn in the economy, by $221,158,156,000 in the past 12 months? What is the benefit of this versus the cost, because I know the cost is that we never repay those people whose Social Security taxes we have robbed, whose Civil Service retirement we have robbed, whose military retirement we have robbed, and whose Medicare we have robbed. Mr. Speaker, I do not think that it adds up. The gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) gave us some bad numbers last year when the gentleman said we had surpluses as far as the eye can see. I am giving Members the facts right now.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, my hometown newspaper, The Sun-Herald, based in Biloxi, Mississippi, recently printed a feature by noted historian Stephen E. Ambrose. I found Mr. Ambrose's words to be especially insightful at this time when our American troops are at war in Afghanistan. It is a ringing endorsement of the dedication of our men and women in uniform, as well as a testament to the new American diplomacy--one that encourages cooperation among nations and perseverance in rebuilding communities and restoring peace. Most importantly, though, Mr. Ambrose pays tribute to a group of men and women who are often over-looked as defenders of our Nation, protectors of freedom and some of America's finest diplomats abroad-- our National Guardsmen. Each day our nation's guardsmen are performing missions on or above every continent in the world. They are serving alongside their active-duty counterparts in Operations Northern and Southern Watch. They are also playing a vital role in helping, serving, and supporting peacekeeping operations, a vital part of our National Military Strategy. As stated by former Secretary of Defense Cohen, ``Today, we cannot undertake sustained operations anywhere in the world without calling on the Guard.'' And, I am particularly proud that Mr. Ambrose chose to acknowledge the citizen-soldiers from my state, the State of Mississippi. Their work has been tireless, but not thankless. Today, I would like to thank those guardsmen, who continue to represent Mississippi and the United States so well. [From the Sun-Herald, Dec. 10, 2001] Unity Can Restore War-Torn Country (By Stephen E. Ambrose) Tuzla, Bosnia.--My wife, Moira, and I, along with a squad- sized group of veterans of the 29th Division who hit Omaha Beach on D-Day, went to Bosnia for Thanksgiving week. As part of the USO-sponsored trip, we spoke with U.S. Army troops, attended briefings, meals and engagements, and watched former members of the 29th meet the newest members of the 29th here. But mainly we learned. We learned how soldiers of different races, backgrounds, and countries can set aside past enmities and work together to rebuild a region. And while we were reminded that American troops served similar functions in the last century, we realized they will serve those roles in this new century with new methods, new aims and new partners from around the globe. It is a lesson our allies in the war against terrorism would do well to grasp; one we can only hope is soon played out in such Afghan cities as Kabul or Kandahar or Mazar-e- Sharif. Because of all we learned, and the promise for the future it held, this was the best trip ever. We witnessed things we never imagined possible. One day, we stood at Eagle Base, headquarters for the 29th Division, surrounded by Black Hawk helicopters, ready to take off but waiting for two other birds coming in. With us was Major General Steven Blum, the American commander of the NATO peacekeeping operation force here. The troops around us were fully armed. The incoming birds landed. They were Russian, part of the air-landing brigade that serves under Blum's command. They landed about 50 meters away from the Black Hawks. Russian soldiers emerged combat ready in the presence of American soldiers just as ready. But there were greetings, not shooting. The last time that happened was at the German city of Torgau on the banks of the Elbe River in 1945. With this difference: Now, for the first time ever, an American general was commanding a Russian unit. There are fighting men and women from 30 nations under Blum's command. I saw Greek and Turk soldiers patrolling, side-by-side, armed and working together. Germans and Frenchmen. Poles and Estonians. Latvians and Swedes. Lithuanians and Brits. Irishmen and Austrians. They serve in the Stabilization Force, SFOR for short. The large curved sign over Eagle Base's gate proclaims: ``Home of the Peacekeepers.'' Blum's NATO command, the Multi-National Division North (4700 troops) is anchored by the 2672 Americans (down from 20,000 in 1995), part of the 29th Division. It includes regular, reserve and National Guard units. Defending the future The next day we drove to Forward Observation Base Connor, a small outpost of 120 men, 65 of whom were from the Mississippi National Guard. They were young, professional and spoke with charming accents. They come from a state known for its defense of the past. But they are now preparing for the future. The Guardsmen wore American flag shoulder patches. They were black, brown, yellow, red, pink, white. All religions and ancestors. When off duty, they wore baseball caps that proclaim on the front, ``Hard Rock Cafe: SFOR Bosnia,'' and on the back, ``Love All. Serve All.'' That is not how things used to be in the Mississippi National Guard, but it is now. The Guard is helping rebuild and restore peace while setting an example for Bosnia's Croats, Serbs, and Muslims on how different people can work, serve, live and survive together. ``That American flag on the troops' shoulders is what the people of Bosnia respect--and they don't mess with them,'' Blum said. ``Our soldiers have been social workers one minute, combat soldiers the next . . . No other army in the world could do this.'' What these soldiers and their foreign counterparts are doing--all of it--is wholly new. An international force working to keep peace and commanded by an American was a dream of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower a half century ago. Now it is here. These troops are setting the precedent for much of what lies ahead in modern American foreign and military policy. A similar base in Afghanistan might be built. There will be many others. In Bosnia, American troops are protecting Muslim civilians. While not very far away, in Afghanistan, we are attacking Muslim terrorists. Under strong leadership Blum has a unique task. He is 55. He has made 1500 airdrops and has had open-heart surgery. He speaks so well, thinks so swiftly and knows so much that he reminds me of Eisenhower in 1945, when Ike was 55. At all times, Blum was at full concentration. He is an outstanding military commander and diplomat, as good as Ike was in Germany at the same age--but on a much smaller scale. ``Bosnia has more weapons per person than anywhere else in the world. So many, that to celebrate a wedding they throw grenades and shoot their AK-47s,'' Blum said of the region, divided by three peoples and three armies: Muslim, Croat and Serb . . . ``Our aim is one country, one army.'' Eagle Base is Tuzla's largest employer, providing construction and service jobs, as well as others, at fair wages. Muslim works beside Serb works beside Croat. They see in their own eyes, black and white, yellow and brown Americans working together. Clearing mines, for example. The American teams go out to remove them using mine- sniffing dog teams. The fields are everywhere, with mines killing or maiming a civilian a day. Blum showed us the site of the Visoko airfield raid, called Operation Dragnet. On September 27, elements from the 10th Mountain division of urban warfare specialists carried out a search-and-seize mission. Along with confiscating illegal arms. They arrested six Algerian associates of Osama bin Laden. On October 28, in Operation Omaha, Blum's troops made a ground-air assault on two sites, where the found illegal weapons, including an underground cache of six surface-to-air missiles. He also took us to a mass gravesite. ``Same thing as 1945,'' he said, ``just new names.'' More than 200,000 people were killed in Bosnia. No one knows how many others were injured. There are now more than a million refugees. To escape shelling, women, children and elderly fled by following the power lines from the cities across the roughest mountains. This was Europe's worst fighting in 50 years. The 1995 Serb assault on Srebrenica killed more than 7000 people. The town was shelled--including a mortar round that exploded on a soccer filed filled with boys. That impelled Western powers to take action, and put the troops there under U.S. command. Restoration and liberation The American presence in war-torn countries and its role in helping rebuild, restore, and democratize them goes back to 1945 and Japan, West Germany, and later South Korea. Now it is being carried out in Bosnia with a multinational force. America sends her best young men not to conquer, not to destroy, but to liberate. The American military presence had a most remarkable effect in Japan and Germany from 1945 on, and in South Korea after 1953. It wasn't the Coke or the blue jeans that left lasting impressions, but rather the understanding of right and wrong, the safeguarding of rights for women and the encouragement to create free and prosperous societies. The U.S. Army's role in these countries is one of the great success stories of the 20th century. A sequel is happening right now, at the beginning of the 21st century, in Bosnia. And one hope and prays, soon in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) for this opportunity to speak to the American people tonight. I would ask Members to try to remember back a year ago. A year ago right now the President of the United States was saying that we were going to have surpluses as far as the eye could see, that nothing that could happen in Washington could keep that from happening, and, doggone it, there ought to be tax breaks because we have all these surpluses. Washington is awash in money. His words, not mine. Back then I said it was not true. I knew it was not true then. It is certainly not true now. A year ago in August, just think back to August, the President wanted to give 3 million illegal aliens amnesty coming to the country. Now he is on the right track saying we need to tighten our borders. I want to commend him for that. A year ago the President had waited until the last day of July to submit his budget for defense to the Committee on Armed Services. Most Presidents, including President Clinton who was never accused of being pro-defense, would do it in February so we would have a chance to look at it, to scrub it, to try to make it better. President Bush chose to make it his lowest priority, I am sorry to say. I want to commend him when this year he makes it his highest priority. I want to commend him for getting right on tightening our borders and not letting illegal aliens in and giving them amnesty. There is one thing that the President continues to do that I need to point out and say, Mr. President, you have changed your tune on two things for the better; I am hoping you will change your tune on the third. Mr. President, after some soul searching a couple of years ago I voted to impeach a guy who I felt lied under oath. We do not need to get into the details of that, but I felt like he lied under oath and he did not deserve to be President anymore. When someone talks about non- existent surpluses, it is probably just as good you did not say that under oath. When somebody talks about that we can go back temporarily to deficit spending, it is okay, it is probably just as good you did not say that under oath because I do not think that is true. You see, Mr. President, what you totally ignored a year ago, and you cannot ignore now is right now, as we speak, our Nation owes the men and women of America, the working people that we all profess to represent, $1,210,000,000,000. Let us remember a million is a thousand thousand. A billion is a thousand million. A trillion is a thousand billion. It is pretty mind boggling. We have a tendency here in Washington to think of something as 1.2 apples. No, it is 1 trillion, 200 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars that right now hardworking Americans have had taken out of their paychecks since the 1980's and even before with the promise as recently as the Reagan administration when Social Security taxes were increased with a Democratic House, a Republican Senate, a Republican President. They raised the amount that was taken out of people's paychecks for Social Security with a solemn promise that that money would be set aside to use for nothing but Social Security. The much-discussed lock box on this House floor, if you could get to that lock box and open it up, all you would find is an IOU for 1 trillion, 210 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars. They did the same thing with Medicare. Again, the taxes went up on individuals. The taxes went up on employers. This happened during a Republican President, Reagan, a Democratic House, a Republican Senate, with the promise that that money would be set aside to pay nothing but Medicare bills for when people get 65 years old and when they get sick and need some help. If you were to find that nonexistent lock box, all you would find is an IOU for $249,700,000,000. It is not there, not one penny of it. We take money out of the folks who work for our Nation, not just the folks here on this House floor but the folks who are out there every day being park rangers, the folks being border policemen, INS agents, Customs Service agents. A little bit of money is taken out of their paycheck every month with the promise that it is set aside for their retirement. They have been doing it for a long time. If you would finally go through the hoops and find that account and open up that box, all you would find is an IOU for $537,500,000,000. There is nothing there. For our military retirees it is a little bit different. They invest with their lives. They invest with their time away from their families. They invest with the thought that they could be killed any day at any moment, even in so-called safe places like the Pentagon, which we learned tragically in September are not safe places for America's military personnel. So although they do not pay directly out of their paychecks, there is a line in the defense budget every year that contributes money to their retirement account, again, with the promise that it is going to be set aside and used for no other purpose but to pay their retirement. If you were to find that account all you would find is an IOU for $173,700,000,000. So when the President and the talking heads in the media and other folks last year were talking about Washington being awash in money, I think they were fibbing to the American people. Either they did not know the truth, or they were misleading the American people. And that is not a good thing for either one of them to do. That is why a group of us said last year is it not more important to honor the promises, now that we have finally broke even and started having small surpluses, to pay those bills back? That is why a group of us last year initiated the effort to increase defense spending. It started with the Blue Dog Coalition. Thank goodness the President got on the right side of that issue later in the year. But I certainly feel like we helped steer him in the right direction. Remember, even with the increases in last year's defense budget, the procurement accounts were short-changed again. They were no better than under Bill Clinton; and as a matter of fact, the Bush budget asked for fewer ships for the United States Navy than even Bill Clinton did. Once again, this year the Bush budget despite the huge increases asked for even fewer ships than last year. The Bush budget only asked for five ships for the U.S. Navy. The typical life expectancy of a U.S. Navy ship is 30 years. Quick math, 150-ship Navy. Just a few years ago Ronald Regan was trying to get us to a 600-ship Navy. Just a few years ago we had a 400-ship Navy. Today our Naval fleet is 318 ships and only 100 of them are combatants. If we accept the Bush budget, we will have a Navy fleet in short order of only 150 ships. I do not think those are good priorities. I think the priority ought to be honesty to the American people. Remember all the talk about Washington is awash in money? Please, someone, explain to me if Washington is awash in money, the debt this year compared to the debt last year has increased by $281 billion in 12 months. Now, folks will say September 11 threw us out of whack. I will remind you that our Nation's budget runs from the first of October to the end of September. The events of September 11 took place exactly 20 days before the end of the fiscal year. No one on Earth with a straight face is going to tell you that almost a $100 billion deficit occurred in the last 20 days of the year, because it did not. One of the things I will encourage the American people to do, because a lot of the numbers get thrown around in Washington, I want you to check my numbers. I want you to check my sources. I hope you look at http/www.publicdebttreasurygov/. You can look it up on your computer. They track it by the month. You can see on September 1 our Nation was well on its way to about a $90 billion annual operating deficit. It got bigger each month of the year. That is the truth to the American people. Please check my figures because very few people in Washington will encourage you to do so. That is one of the reasons why tomorrow, when people say, if you vote against this motion tomorrow you voted for a tax increase, you know what, if that guy said that under oath, I would have to impeach him because that is a lie. It is not a tax increase. It is a tax decrease that has not taken place yet. It is a tax decrease that those people who voted for it knew automatically sunsets 5 years from now. They all go away. All the taxes that were in place 18 months ago come right back. So using their line of thought, those people who voted for it, voted for a tax increase because they all come back in 9 years. The much talk about the estate tax relief that they make mention of does not really kick in until the ninth year and goes away entirely. That means it comes back the tenth year. Are we going to encourage people to commit suicide the ninth year because that is the only year that has meaningful change? We propose giving people $4 million in their estate tax free. That is a heck of a lot of money in Mississippi. Even in Texas that is a lot of money. That is a lot of money in Florida. That is a lot of money in Illinois. I think that is fair. Because remember, a guy who is out there earning $40,000 paid taxes on everything he earns. Why does it have to be so magical about money you are given? In fact, some of the most conservative commentators in America said it is really not conservative to tell people that a gift ought to be tax exempt when earnings are not. Why should earnings be taxed higher than things you are given, things that you have earned? I want to encourage people to work. I want people to have faith that when they go to work and pay their Social Security taxes, that it really will be set aside for their Social Security; when they pay their Medicare taxes, it really will be set aside for that. For folks who work for us here, who work for the INS, the Customs Service, Federal firefighters on our military bases, I want them to know that their retirement is going to be there. If we continue along this path of deficit after deficit, there is no guarantee it will be there. In fact, the chances are that it will not. I will remind people the most common question asked of me is Where does the money go? And their jaws hit their chest when they say the biggest expense of this Nation is not welfare. It is not foreign aid. It is not health care. It is not taking care of kids. It is not building roads. The biggest expense to this Nation on an annual operating basis is interest on the national debt, and it is $1 billion a day. The war against terrorism is $1 billion a month. The cost of incompetence in spending money we do not have is $1 billion a day. It continues and only gets worse as long as we continue to borrow money. Mr. President, two things I think you ought to know. We are approaching the $5,950,000,000,000, mark which the law says is the Federal debt limit. You are rapidly getting there. This Member will not vote to raise the debt limit. If we have to tweak other budgets, if we have to suspend some of the tax breaks that have not taken place yet in order to fund the war on terror, I will help you do that. But I will not ask my kids and your kids and our grandkids that have yet to have been born to pay our bills, because no other generation of Americans has done that, and this generation of America cannot start that bad trend. All the way from George Washington through the Carter presidency, this Nation only borrowed $1 trillion. That doubled in the 8 years of the Democratic House, Republican Senate and Ronald Reagan was President. Look where it is now. As the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) jokingly says, Confucius says, ``When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.'' It is time for our Nation to quit digging. It is time for our Nation to get serious about paying our bills. It is time for your generation and my generation to get serious about paying our bills. Mr. President, if you send us a budget that is not in balance, that does not pay for this year's needs with this year's revenues, I cannot support it. We know how to balance the budget. You know how to balance the budget. This war is only costing one-twentieth of what we are squandering on interest on the national debt. It is not the reason the budget is out of balance Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use my time in a colloquy with the chairman. Mr. Speaker, the bill does a lot of good things, and some of the more heinous provisions of the bill that troubled me earlier, such as the licensing requirement on charter boat operators have been removed. Some very bad calls on Jones Act waivers have been removed, and I commend the gentleman for that. Obviously, this bill is important so the folks in the Coast Guard can get paid, and those things that need to be bought can be bought. This bill still contains about 20 Jones Act waivers that I consider questionable. I understand that they passed the committee earlier in the year under some circumstances that I did not quite agree to. The gentleman from New Jersey and I both come from boat-building country. People in New Jersey are great boat builders; people in Mississippi are great boat builders. Mr. Speaker, what I really object to when we grant Jones Act waivers is that law that says that every boat that is operated commercially in America must be American owned, American built and American crewed. When we allow somebody to buy a cheaper foreign vessel, it puts those guys who have lived by the rules and bought a boat in Mississippi or New Jersey, which is obviously going to cost more money because they are paying Americans to build it, it puts them at competitive disadvantage, pure and simple, and I do not think it is fair. Mr. Speaker, because the bill does so many good things, I want to vote for it. The reason I am asking the gentleman for this colloquy is because in my heart I know that we failed our boat builders when we allowed those 20 waivers. I am asking for the chairman, and since the gentleman sets the schedule, if I can get the gentleman's assurance that we are going to take a tougher look in the future, that on every one of these waivers, we have the folks come before the committee, make a case on why that vessel deserves a waiver, which is the way we used to do it, and I would like to see that again. If a person deserves a waiver, they get it. But as far as issuing blanket waivers, I think it is bad because it is simply not fair to those folks that build boats in this country. That is my first request.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I know we are human beings. I am just asking for consideration in the future to try and do better. Mr. Speaker, my second request, as pointed out in the excellent hearing we had last week with the commandant of the Coast Guard, there is still a discrepancy as far as who has responsibility for our U.S. Naval vessels for their waterside security. The Navy thinks big ships, quite frankly. Given their limited budget, they want to buy ships with that money as opposed to small boats. The Coast Guard has a number of areas of responsibility that they are already overstretched on. My request to the gentleman is if he can schedule a hearing where we have the chief of Naval operations and the commandant of the Coast Guard appear before the committee, and some time between now and next spring, an agreement be reached as to the responsibility for waterside security of our vessels so that what happened to the USS Cole never happens again.