Bob Kerrey: “For the record, those other accounts decreased from last year. Those who are looking for sort of an easy way out of the…”

“For the record, those other accounts decreased from last year. Those who are looking for sort of an easy way out of the entitlement program need to be alerted to that fact. There is unlikely to be an easy solution to this problem. That totals $844 billion. Net interest, Madam President, is estimated to be $212 billion. It would be significantly higher were it not for low interest rates. We are getting a bonus today, as the President has talked about. The reason that interest rates and low inflation stay in place is that we had the courage last August to vote for deficit reduction. That is what is producing it, on top of the deficit reduction action that occurred in 1990 that I voted for as well. So we are going to spend $1.56 trillion on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, civil, military, retirement, other entitlements, and the interest accounts; $541 billion is left for discretionary spending, approximately half of that going into this Nation's defense. I am merely laying that out so we get an understanding that we are about, this year, to spend $1.6 trillion, $1.597 trillion with the press releases, $1.970 trillion with the proud statements about investments. But, understand, as I said in the beginning, that in order for us to be generous, in order for us to build schools, to build roads, to have a health care program, a safety net of any kind, this Nation has to generate wealth. That is the source of our capacity to spend anything in Washington, DC.”