Chip Roy: “I thank my friend from Arizona for his leadership on this matter, and I appreciate his leadership very much on H. Res.…”

“I thank my friend from Arizona for his leadership on this matter, and I appreciate his leadership very much on H. Res. 149, a resolution recognizing the national debt as a threat to our national security. In February 2000, the total national debt, including intragovernmental holdings, was $5.7 trillion. Federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product was 17.5 percent. Today, the total national debt now exceeds $22 trillion. The last balanced budget was signed into law in 1997, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that Federal spending as a percentage of GDP is projected to be 20.8 percent this year. In February 2018, Congress passed a budget agreement that busted the previously established spending caps by almost $300 billion over 2 years. All those numbers don't mean anything to the American people tuning in to C-SPAN right now. They are giant numbers. They are really difficult for people to understand and comprehend. But we are talking about the future of our Nation and what we are leaving to our children. We are leaving them with an economy that is anchored by $22 trillion in debt that is going to turn to $25, $30 and $40 trillion because, this year alone, we are going to have a trillion-dollar deficit, with no end in sight.…”