John W. Olver: “we are fast approaching 5,000 billion dollars in debt, and the interest on that debt is $200 billion every year. That…”

“we are fast approaching 5,000 billion dollars in debt, and the interest on that debt is $200 billion every year. That interest on the debt is greater than the deficit for this year for the first time, and it will be for many years in the future. Much of that interest goes to foreign sources, and it denies our people's needs that we should be paying that interest. But how did we get here? The majority of us in this Chamber were not here when the vast decisions were made on this issue. For a 12-year period not one budget was presented that was in balance by either President Bush or former President Reagan. And the Congress, after passing those budgets, those budgets which were than presented and signed by those Presidents, all of those budgets which were out of balance, not a single one of them was vetoed. So, I deplore the history that got us to that point, and it was in that period of time that we went from 1,000 billion dollars to 4,500 billion dollars of debt. So, I intend to vote for some of the proposals for balanced budgets. I will vote for those that involve capital budgeting because every family and every State in this country provides for some degree of amortization for its investments in the future, for construction of long-term nature at the State level, for homes at the family level. I will vote for the protection of Social Security.”