Thinking back, it is hard to believe that from 1997 through 2001, this country was running on a balanced budget. It is hard to believe, because in 2002, this country ran a $155 billion deficit. In 2003, it was $374 billion. In 2004, it is $422 billion. Guess what? If you subtract out the money they are borrowing from the Social Security trust fund, it is actually a $574 billion deficit for fiscal year 2004. It is hard to believe that our Nation today is spending $900,000 more than it is taking in - every sixty seconds. 

For years, ever since I was a small child I have heard the Republicans talk about how it is the Democrats that spend the money. This is the first time in 50 years that the Republicans have controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate; and for the second year in a row, they have given us the largest budget deficit ever in our Nation's history. The debt today is $7.3 trillion. By 2009 it will be $10 trillion, and by 2013, it will be $13 trillion. A trillion here, a trillion there, and before long we are talking about some real money. 

Let me tell my colleagues this. This motion to instruct conferees simply says this: we support tax cuts for working families; we simply want them to be paid for. 

In other words, if you are going to cut taxes, cut spending. This Nation today is spending nearly $1 billion a day simply paying interest on the national debt. It is what I call the debt tax, D-E-B-T, and that is one tax that can never go away until we get fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline restored to our Nation's government. 

We could build 200 brand-new elementary schools every single day in America just with the interest we are paying on the national debt. These tax cuts may make for good politics for the wealthiest 2 percent of the people in the country. The 2003 tax cuts, 60 percent of the people that I represent received less than $2 a week. A tax cut for the wealthiest people in this country with borrowed money, and, I might add, every single dime of the tax cuts of 2003 were with borrowed money. The money came directly from the Social Security trust fund and what did not come from there came from the Bank of China. That is right. Seventy percent of our deficit in 2003 came from foreigners; 70 percent. 

A tax cut for the wealthiest people in this country with borrowed money, money that is coming from Japan, Hong Kong, and the Bank of China and from the Social Security trust fund is nothing more than a tax increase on our children and grandchildren; and it is wrong, and that is why I am pleased to stand here tonight and rise in support of this motion to instruct.