Roscoe Bartlett: “What we are doing is systematically borrowing from our kids' and grandkids' future. We cannot run our government on…”

“What we are doing is systematically borrowing from our kids' and grandkids' future. We cannot run our government on current revenue, so what we are doing is borrowing from their future. When it comes their turn to run the government, not only will they have to run it on current revenues, but they will also have to pay back all of the moneys we borrowed from their generation. We have a systemic problem here, and that is by law the only place we can invest these surpluses is in nonnegotiable U.S. securities. These surpluses are the order of magnitude of about $200 billion a year, more or less. The only place we can invest them is in nonnegotiable U.S. securities. There is no money laying around Washington we have not spent. As a general rule, government spends all of the money you give it plus as much more as it can get away with. This government is no different. I think it is important for our people, our kids and grandkids, to understand what we are doing. The reason I am so concerned about this fact that we are hiding some of the deficit is that it is obscuring the magnitude of the problem. I think the American people want us to balance the budget, and I think they want us to do it honestly. Last year we were told that the deficit was about $500 billion, but the debt went up $700 billion. That is because the $200 billion in Social Security surplus and Medicare surplus that we took and spent is not called deficit, but it does represent debt.”