Tom Harkin: “That is what it is. It is a birth tax. Every child born has to pay $1,000 in interest on the debt that first year. Where…”

“That is what it is. It is a birth tax. Every child born has to pay $1,000 in interest on the debt that first year. Where did the money go? Lots went to the wealthiest in our society who are now shopping at Neiman Marcus and buying fancy cars. Trickle-down economics. All you have to do is give more to the wealthiest in our society, and it will trickle down. Nonsense. What is trickling down is the interest on the debt that our families have to pay. That is all that is trickling down. Here it is right here on this chart, the debt each American owes, per capita, Federal debt outstanding. This year, $25,398 each American owes on the Federal debt outstanding, and now we are asking one more time to raise the credit card ceiling. One more time we will raise it, putting American families more in hock to the Chinese, the Japanese, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean banking centers, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, and the oil producing and exporting countries, the top 10 countries holding our national debt. This is not rocket science. All it is, pure and simple, is giving more to those who already have a lot in our society. It is spending, as I said, on a needless war in Iraq to the tune of $6 billion a month, not counting the tragic loss in American lives and innocent Iraqi lives. Yet, with all of that we do not even have enough money to fund education.”