Jack Kingston: “It is interesting that we talk about this. If we think about the interest that we are spending right now, as the…”

“It is interesting that we talk about this. If we think about the interest that we are spending right now, as the gentleman knows, the second largest expenditure in our national budget each year is interest on the $5.1 trillion national debt. Now, we are not paying down the principal, we are only paying the interest. That interest costs a little over $600 per person. Middle class families, a family of four, is paying about $2,400 a year in taxes simply on the interest; $2400 a year would pay for several months' mortgage payments. It would pay for lots and lots of groceries, depending on how many kids one has. If one has teenagers one could probably count on it getting through the week or something like that. But it would pay for a nice vacation, it would pay for a secondhand car, or at least a good portion of it, and that would just be if one could get rid of that one item on the budget. Now, what this is going to do is this is not going to pay off the debt, but what it will do is say that the debt is not going to get bigger so that interest portion will not get bigger and bigger every single year. We still have lots of unfinished work, but what this does is it gives us a fighting chance, gives our children a fighting chance on that $5.1 trillion debt.”