Thomas Daschle: “Unfortunately, I have to acknowledge to the Senator from Nevada, that is what we are now being told. I was going to…”

“Unfortunately, I have to acknowledge to the Senator from Nevada, that is what we are now being told. I was going to address that in a moment, but the Senator is absolutely right. We have been forced to address the debt ceiling this year for the second time. We will be called upon within this Congress now to address it the third time. We are told by CBO that we could see in excess of $6,000 billion of debt by the end of this decade. Some have suggested that if all of the tax cuts that are now scheduled to be implemented go into effect, that number would reach $10,000 billion by the end of this decade. The CBO, in a very rare moment, in my view--we do not often hear them editorializing on things of this matter; they usually give us the fact and leave it at that--used the word ``unsustainable.'' That $10,000 billion, even $6,000 billion, of debt is unsustainable. The American people have said, if we are going to be mired in unsustainable debt, somebody better start asking questions about whether this $87 billion or the $22 billion for reconstruction, or whatever other additional expenditures, will not so seriously undermine the investments in our own country--education, health, and social security--it could be one of the most damaging things to our own security, ironically, that we could be considering.”