John Sarbanes: “As I understand it, we have had this tremendous runup in the debt. We are just saddling this burden on the next…”

“As I understand it, we have had this tremendous runup in the debt. We are just saddling this burden on the next generations. One of the things that has happened and needs to be underscored, at least as I am informed, is that the amount of the debt that we are borrowing from overseas has escalated tremendously. In fact, we have borrowed more from overseas--in other words, foreign-held debt--under President George W. Bush than all of the previous Presidents combined. It is not only that we are incurring the debt and the problems that go with that in terms of the future burden, but more of that debt is being held externally by people overseas rather than being held internally. Before, we were paying it to ourselves. It meant working people were paying money to people who held the Government bonds, but at least it was all within the country. Now there is a tremendous tariff on working people to send this money overseas to the debt that is being held abroad. Isn't that the case?”