Todd Tiahrt: “I am a little amazed by the comments made by the gentleman from Mississippi. He said that we were cowardly Americans.…”

“I am a little amazed by the comments made by the gentleman from Mississippi. He said that we were cowardly Americans. Now, I know that words have been taken down for a lot less than that, and I think that that kind of language does not have any place on the floor of the House. We have a free and open society. Everything we do is a matter of public record. There is nothing cowardly about what we are doing here. To try to turn this into something to be called a cowardly act, I think, is really incredible and it is grounds for taking someone's words down. Let us talk about this Federal debt a little so we can define what Federal debt is. There are two parts to Federal debt: One is the public instruments held by people, like treasury bonds, like savings bonds. Those are financial instruments with a financial obligation that is hard and fast. It is in writing. It is black and white. The rest of the public debt is projections on the future; about how much we are going to need for my Social Security, for your Social Security, for my children's Social Security, for Medicare for all of us, for Medicaid for all of us that require it in the United States. It is a future projection. Now, if you wanted to do something about the Federal debt, we could change the law. We could cut the benefits for Social Security. Are any of you suggesting that we should cut the benefits for Social Security to manage the Federal debt? It is just a future obligation.”