Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. To be honest, I was not going to even speak today. I had thought that the legacy and the problems that we confront right now are such that I look forward to working with my Republican colleagues as well as my Democratic colleagues to help solve some of these problems. And so, as a result of that, I wanted to be building some bridges and look to build some bridges with some of my moderate colleagues across the aisle.
But I've become very disturbed with the tendency, as we talk about some of the problems and solutions to some of those problems that are left behind by 8 years of fiscal mismanagement, that there's going to be an attempt to paint Democrats, as we come into control, as people seek fiscal responsibility with President Obama and the Congress of the United States of America, paint the fiscal picture as a Democratic problem. And I take great offense at that.
I spent a few years in our State legislature in the great State of Oregon trying to balance our budget. No easy task. And I think this administration, with this Congress, with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, deserve a great deal of credit for coming forward and talking about how to get us out from under.
I'd like to just reiterate a few facts that I know have been discussed perhaps at length here, but I think it's important for Americans to understand clearly how we got into this mess. We now have a deficit of $1.2 trillion, at least, in 2009. That's a stark contrast to
the budget surplus that many, including the good gentleman, majority leader from Maryland have talked about.
The debt of the United States officially is $10.7 trillion. I'd like to make an argument in a couple of minutes that it's actually a great deal more than that. The interest payments now consume more than our major spending on education, veterans benefits and indeed non-mandatory health care programs. That's a travesty in an industrialized Nation like ours.
Thirteen straight months of job losses, 22 straight months of declining home prices, the majority of stock indices down 37 percent. And the real income of the average American family hasn't gone up. If you're in the rich 10 percent of Americans, yeah, sure, you've done great. Your income's doubled. You've done very well.
But 95 percent of Americans have seen their income fall, and in this day and age that's unconscionable. Right now, in the greatest industrialized Nation in the world, 7 million Americans without health care. That just shouldn't be happening.
I would like to reference just a few key points here, Mr. Chairman, about our debt. Where are we really as we try and dig out? Our official national debt has doubled. We're at $10.7 trillion. We were at five plus not 8 years ago.
But I would argue it's worse than that, unfortunately. Americans need to know that, and it's going to take probably the next 8 to 10 years of serious budget work, under your leadership, to create a path to getting back on a budget surplus, or at least no longer deficit spending with items off budget, like you've heard discussed here today.
The projected deficit for 2009, yeah, probably at least $1.2 trillion. We inherited that. I'd argue that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac added about a $5 trillion increase to our debt, and even under the most conservative estimates, at least, have a tough time gaining $1.6 trillion of that back, under best of circumstances. The debt from the other bailouts adds at least another half trillion dollars. We're talking about the AIG bailout and the numerous stock and bond portfolios that we've had to bail out at taxpayer expense.
Future interest on the new debt. Historic. I mean, it's $1.2 trillion. Americans need to understand that that interest is consuming a lot of our ability to spend on other great programs.
Medicare Modernization Act, part D, heralded as a great improvement in drug benefits for a lot of Americans; while I'm not sure they'd agree they've gotten those benefits with the doughnut hole and inability to negotiate best prices. But what they can be sure of is it costs another $800 billion that we don't have.
The last administration thought they could fight a war, they thought they could increase spending, and they thought they could give tax cuts all at the same time. I don't think there's a household in America that believes that's good policy, good financial policy or a path to success.
Right now we're investing more in the war. We're not taking care of our veterans that come home. I think we need to be turning that around. It will cost some money to do that. And over the next 8, 10 years, as the administration, led by President Obama and you, Mr. Chairman, seek a path to fiscal responsibility, Americans need to know it's going to take time and it's going to take a little effort. We're going to have to watch what we do on the mandatory programs. We're going to have to watch what we do on defense spending, we're going to have to watch what we do on wealthy tax breaks.
We need to get back to the sound budgeting principles that we had under the Clinton administration and previous democratic administrations. The fact that the last 8 years there was no PAYGO is a testament to the fiscal irresponsibility of the previous administration. I'm proud to be associated with a Congress that believes that is important, and that we will be doing great things in the future.
Mr. Chairman, we are in a world of hurt here. The D word, the D word, not deficit, but depression is being mentioned in the corners of this building. I hope that is not the case. I look forward to your leadership and leadership of President Obama and the Congress to get us out from under. Thank you, sir.
