Jul 17, 2006- IS THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPT?

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2006

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, thegentlewoman from Ohio(Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of signs that the United Stateseconomy is not working well. One of the signs is our national debt. The latestfigures show we are somewhere ever $8 trillion in the hole, and every day thehole gets deeper. You would think someone here in Washington would pay attention.

Back in the year of 2000, as a result of major decisions made during the1990s by the Congress, by then President Clinton, we were able to balance theannual budget and were actually paying down this enormous debt, the accumulateddebt of the country.

So things do not look too good there, and the United States has to cover thoseborrowings by borrowing from foreign interests. We know nearly half of U.S.debt securities are now purchased by foreign interests, and the United Statesis in hock, having to pay every year hundreds of billions of dollars ininterest, interest to those foreign holders of our debt, interest we could bespending here at home; dollars we could be spending here inside the borders ofthe United States, rather than to those who are loaning us the money.

Another sign of our predicament is this, that is, the monthly and annualtrade deficits of our country, where more imports are coming into our Nation,more and more and more every month, every day, every year, than we export out.

It is not that we are not exporting things. We are. But we are importingvastly more than we are exporting. In fact, the latest figures, compiled by theU.S. Census Bureau, indicate that in the month of May, the last month for whichwe have final figures, our goods and services deficit went up another $63.8billion in 1 month. In 1 month.

That means, if you look at these monthly figures of our trade deficit, moreimports coming in here than exports going out, in January of this year, theysurpassed the debt, the trade debt from last year, in February, in March, inApril, and then in May. May was worse than April. Without question, this yearwill go down as one in which the United States will have amassed thelargest trade deficit in history.

We are literally in uncharted waters, because when these goods are purchasedin our country, those dollars that are then forked over for those goods gosomewhere else. Go somewhere else. And then those countries, take China, for example, or Korea, any of the nations with whom, or Japan with whomwe have huge trade deficits, have those dollars to spend. We do not have themto spend. They do.

So they are literally taking our earned assets, and they are trading theminternationally. In fact, the State of Indianajust did something incredible. They made a decision to lease out the IndianaTurnpike to foreign interests. This is unbelievable.

This is unbelievable. So the poor State of Indiana, the taxpayers of that State thathad paid off the bonds on the turnpike over 30 years ago are now in hock toSpanish and Australian investors for the next 99 years. Unbelievable.

It is like a fire sale. Chicago Skyway did the same thing. Leasing out apublic asset to foreign interests. And then we not only owe them the annualinterest payments; but our children and our grandchildren, you can just see thepieces of Americabeing taken away because we are not paying our own way.

There was an article in a London paper, theTelegraph, the headline of which is, ``U.S. could be going bankrupt.'' Andit is really talking about at what point do you officially declare bankruptcy.And it says, the United States is heading for bankruptcy, and research byProfessor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said theUnited States is indeed bankrupt insofar as it will be unable to pay itscreditors, who in this context are current and future generations to whom ithas explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds.

Certainly pension benefits, certainly health care benefits, all of thoseendangered because the Nation is in hock. We owe others. What is interestingabout that Indianaturnpike deal is that the tolls have been doubled now. So the foreign intereststo which the Indiana turnpike was leased outhave now doubled the costs on the U.S. consumer. We do not havecontrol of our own future until we get the trade accounts and our budgetaccounts in order.

Certainly the President ought to submit a balanced budget. Certainly thisCongress ought to pass one. That has not happened during the Bushadministration.