W. Todd Akin: “That's a great point. And let's repeat that. What you just said was, you don't raise taxes during a recession. And what…”

“That's a great point. And let's repeat that. What you just said was, you don't raise taxes during a recession. And what we are going to talk about here tonight--there are some bad assumptions that were made that are destroying our country and that are destroying our budget, our economy, and just killing jobs in America and creating a whole lot of hardship. But it doesn't have to be that way. There is potentially good news. But we just have to follow the principles, just like airplanes follow aerodynamics, we have to follow the principles of economics. And one of those--you just got to the bottom line--is, you've got to ease off on the taxes. And there is a logical reason for it. Let's just take a look, though, so people understand the gravity of what we are looking at. This is who owns our debt. This debt is created because we are promising all kinds of benefits to American citizens, all kinds of promises that we are going to give them health care and we are going to give them housing and food and education and all the stuff that the Soviet Union also promised their citizens. And who is picking up the tab? A lot of foreigners are buying our debt. Here it is. Foreign holding of American debt was 5 percent in 1970. That was when I graduated from college. Foreign holdings, 1990, 20 years later, go from 5 to 19 percent in 20 years. Now, 20 years later, in 1210, foreign holdings, 47 percent. Is that healthy?”