Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise today to join Senator Dole and 15 of my colleagues in introducing the Government Downsizing, Performance, and…”

“I rise today to join Senator Dole and 15 of my colleagues in introducing the Government Downsizing, Performance, and Accountability Act of 1994 and to call for its prompt enactment. Its not surprising to me, Mr. President, that when something goes on for a long time we forget that it's happening. We get distracted by daily life and don't notice it anymore. Modern technology makes space flight and satellite communications possible, and as time passes we don't even notice when a space shuttle flight takes off or when we see events shown live on television from the other side of the world. But if we overspend on our credit cards, we get a bill in the mail at the end of the month. We have to notice it--it's a rude awakening that no matter how we rationalize spending, eventually we need cash to pay the bill. But too many Senators don't look at the accounts of the Treasury, mailed to us each month, so we keep spending more money. We're $4.5 trillion in debt, and we keep spending money, and borrowing to pay the interest, and because daily life goes on we don't notice that we're moving towards financial ruin.”