On the recordMay 20, 1997
Only twice in the last 40 years, just twice, in 1960, the year I was born, and in 1969, have we balanced our budget. I believe that today we stand here on the brink of a new millennium but also the brink of a very historic moment for the United States Congress and the people of America. Forty years ago, which was 1957, was a long time. Through those 40 years, we have accrued over $5 trillion of debt. Therein lies the problem. It is not the balanced budget as much as it is the debt. How do we address the debt? We stop adding to it. That is as simple as I can put it. We spend $241 billion to pay our interest on our debt; 15 percent of our budget, 15 percent of our budget we spend paying interest on the debt because of fiscal irresponsibility in the past. That is more than our whole Medicare budget, more than our whole Medicaid budget, almost as much as our national defense budget. It is a lot of money.
Source
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