Jeff Miller: “I think it is a shame that this debate constantly veers away from the true issue for which we are here in Congress and…”

“I think it is a shame that this debate constantly veers away from the true issue for which we are here in Congress and here today. We are currently facing one of the most important moral and economic challenges of our time, to balance the Federal budget. For too long the Federal Government has lived beyond its means, and our problem in getting this budget into balance is spending. We have got to cut the spending side. President Reagan said the problem we had was not that we are taxed too little, we spend too much. We must cut spending and control the spending in order to balance our budget. Mr. Chairman, due to this gluttonous behavior here is what we are facing today. The national debt is almost $5 trillion. What are the practical implications of this? In just 2 years the Federal Government will pay more for interest on the debt than we pay for national defense. Think about that. What does that say of our national priorities? If we had adopted the President's budget proposal, the amount U.S. taxpayers will pay in taxes over the next 11 years for interest would have equaled the entire debt we have today. This is a kind of out-of-control spending, without regard to consequences. That spending must be under control now.”