Sen. Kent Conrad and Rep. John Spratt held a press conference today regarding the release of the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget.
Held in the House Radio/Television Gallery Studio, the conference had a largely negative tone toward the budget. Their message was repeated multiple times; as Spratt stated, “today’s budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush legacy – it leads to more deficits, more debt, more tax cuts, and more cutbacks in critical services.”
Sen. Conrad opened up the hearing declaring that one of the biggest problems with the proposed budget is that nowhere has there been discussion on the debt, which is going to go up $700 billion, about 5% of GDP, in the next year. Furthermore, he declares that under the Bush Administration’s proposal, we would simply be building a wall of debt.
One of the most interesting factors pointed out by Sen. Conrad was the fact that President Bush has more than doubled the US’s Foreign Held Debt in the eight years of his 0presidency – something that has not occurred in the 224 years we have had a presidency. In addition, through his calculations, Sen. Conrad claims that all of the savings President Bush intends to incur from cuts in Medicare and Medicaid will be more than wiped out by his tax cuts.
When asked whether the budget would be dead on arrival, Sen. Conrad claimed, “No, it would not be dead on arrival, but debt on departure.”
Following Sen. Conrad’s speech, Rep. Pratt made a humorous comment about President Bush intending to have guns and butter and tax cuts too. It is this policy which has turned a $236 billion surplus into a $410 billion deficit. One of the more interesting aspects of the budget pointed out by Rep. Pratt was that today’s budget includes only a $70 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is curious because it will most certainly fail to fund the full cost of the Administration’s policy for 2009.
The bottom line is that a more realistic Bush deficit shows that the Administration’s budget never actually reaches a balance by 2013, and that the President has left the country in a debt of stunning proportions.
Senator Kent Conrad, (D-ND) the Senate Budget Committee Chairman and Rep. John Spratt, (D-SC) the House Budget Committee Chairman discuss the deficiencies of President Bush's Fiscal Year 2009 budget
Held in the House Radio/Television Gallery Studio, the conference had a largely negative tone toward the budget. Their message was repeated multiple times; as Spratt stated, “today’s budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush legacy – it leads to more deficits, more debt, more tax cuts, and more cutbacks in critical services.”
Sen. Conrad opened up the hearing declaring that one of the biggest problems with the proposed budget is that nowhere has there been discussion on the debt, which is going to go up $700 billion, about 5% of GDP, in the next year. Furthermore, he declares that under the Bush Administration’s proposal, we would simply be building a wall of debt.
One of the most interesting factors pointed out by Sen. Conrad was the fact that President Bush has more than doubled the US’s Foreign Held Debt in the eight years of his 0presidency – something that has not occurred in the 224 years we have had a presidency. In addition, through his calculations, Sen. Conrad claims that all of the savings President Bush intends to incur from cuts in Medicare and Medicaid will be more than wiped out by his tax cuts.
When asked whether the budget would be dead on arrival, Sen. Conrad claimed, “No, it would not be dead on arrival, but debt on departure.”
Following Sen. Conrad’s speech, Rep. Pratt made a humorous comment about President Bush intending to have guns and butter and tax cuts too. It is this policy which has turned a $236 billion surplus into a $410 billion deficit. One of the more interesting aspects of the budget pointed out by Rep. Pratt was that today’s budget includes only a $70 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is curious because it will most certainly fail to fund the full cost of the Administration’s policy for 2009.
The bottom line is that a more realistic Bush deficit shows that the Administration’s budget never actually reaches a balance by 2013, and that the President has left the country in a debt of stunning proportions.