On the recordFebruary 1, 2023
Mr. President, on another matter, today, President Biden and Speaker McCarthy will sit down to discuss options to avoid a debt crisis and rein in government spending. The one thing that President Biden and Speaker McCarthy agree on is that we cannot breach the debt ceiling. I guess that is at least a start. From there, there doesn't seem to be a lot of common ground, not yet anyway. With a potential default on the horizon, this topic has gotten a lot of attention, but as we all know, America's debt crisis didn't appear overnight. It has been building for decades. As I have said before and will say again, Republicans and Democrats have not exactly covered themselves with glory when it comes to deficit spending and increasing the debt. Washington has spent and spent with no meaningful steps to balance the budget. We are writing checks-- spending money--that we know people of my generation will never have to pay back but that younger generations certainly will. That strikes me as profoundly immoral. The national debt has skyrocketed from $3.2 trillion in 1980--$3.2 trillion in 1980--to $9.7 trillion in 2000 to $31.5 trillion today. I think it was Everett Dirksen who said, years ago, ``A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.'' Nobody ever thought to use the T-word until recently.…





