WALLY HERGER: “the White House would like the American public and this Congress to believe that the national debt is going down under…”

“the White House would like the American public and this Congress to believe that the national debt is going down under their recently released fiscal year 2000 budget. But let us look at page 389 of the President's very own budget from his Office of Management and Budget. We see that the total national debt not only does not go down but, in fact, is actually going up each year for the next 5 years to the tune of $1.3 trillion. Just last week I asked the President's Budget Director, Jacob Lew, during a Committee on the Budget hearing, about this, and he was evasive about the fact that the President's own budget calls for $1.3 trillion more in total debt on our children and grandchildren. I then asked Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the next day during a Ways and Means hearing, the same question, and Secretary Rubin refused to answer a yes or no question about whether the total debt is actually going up. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton and his administration are grossly misleading the American people when they say the public debt is going down. They are telling a half truth. The President and his administration are correct in saying the public debt will go down, but what they are not telling us is that the total debt, the debt held by the government for Social Security and other trust funds, is going up at an even faster rate, which makes the total debt go up by, yes, $1.3 trillion over the next 5 years.”