Roger Marshall: “as you know, most every January, hard- working families across this country gather together at their kitchen tables, and…”

“as you know, most every January, hard- working families across this country gather together at their kitchen tables, and they work on a budget. Then, once a month, they try to balance their checkbooks, making a budget, balancing the checkbooks. Congress seems to be incapable of doing either of these. That is why, today, this country faces a national debt of over $36 trillion--$36 trillion. I believe that debt is the greatest threat we have to our long-term national security and to the future of America in so many ways. First, we need to look at how we got here. How did we get to $36 trillion in national debt? I think many of us feel it has been driven by Federal waste, by fraud, and gross mismanagement. Now, last year's Federal deficit--I want you to think about this. We are talking about the deficit now. We have a national debt of $36 trillion. We have a deficit each year. So in this last fiscal year, the Federal Government took in $5 trillion, but we spent $7 trillion. Let me say it again. We took in $5 trillion, but we managed to spend $7 trillion. That is pretty simple math for a deficit of some $2 trillion. This last year, we eclipsed a new benchmark. The Federal Government spent more on interest payments--on interest alone--on the debt than it did on funding the national defense or Medicare. Let me say it again. We spent more on making an interest payment than we did on national defense or Medicare.…”