The Congressional Budget Office projects a $158 billion deficit this fiscal year, and a $155 billion deficit the next. Unfortunately, the President’s budget continues to advocate more of the same policies that created these deficits.
Republicans have overseen the largest fiscal reversal in American history — from a projected ten-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion, to a projected budget deficit of more than $2 trillion, over the 2001-11 period.
The long-term budget outlook is a call for change that congressional Democrats are heeding. The budget resolution passed by the Democratic Congress balances the bottom line. We have imposed pay-as-you-go rules that ensure that legislation we pass now will not saddle our children and grandchildren with unsustainable debt in the future. We are digging out of the Republicans’ deficit ditch, but significant challenges remain.
Editor’s note: Rep. Spratt is chairman of the House Budget Committee.