Glenn Grothman: “I would like to discuss three issues. Some have gotten attention, and some have not this week, but all of them are…”

“I would like to discuss three issues. Some have gotten attention, and some have not this week, but all of them are important, and I would say none of them got the attention they deserve. The first issue to talk about is the size of our Federal debt. Now, I know, ever since I was a child, people have talked about deficit spending and the amount of the Federal debt that someday the children or grandchildren will have to pay off. I think it is important to look, though, that this time things really are different. The only time the Federal debt ever got to the total gross national product in this country--which is one way to compare debt at different times in our country's history--was when it actually hit 100 percent at the end of World War II. That is not surprising. If you know people who lived during World War II, Mr. Speaker, the entire economy was devoted to munitions, a huge percent of our population was in the armed services, and we hit 100 percent. However--unlike now--when the war ended, it was easy to reduce Federal spending. Hundreds of thousands of troops were, in essence, laid off and sent back to work in the private sector, we stopped building the ships, planes, and tanks we needed during the war, and as a result, over the next 30 years, the amount of the Federal debt dropped from 100 percent of GDP down to around 30 percent. It bounced back and forth around that level, maybe 40 percent, all the way to about 1995.…”