Doris Matsui: “I would implore the Members of this House and this body to pick up the book by David Stockman, the Director of the…”

“I would implore the Members of this House and this body to pick up the book by David Stockman, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for President Reagan. David Stockman, when he left the Office of Management and Budget wrote a book called "The Triumph of Politics," and he said in that book essentially that they knew that they would not achieve a balanced budget by 1984, 3 years after they passed this massive tax cut; and, you know, Ronald Reagan said we are going to have a tax cut, we are going to increase defense and cut spending and balance the budget in 36 months. That was smoke and mirrors, and everyone now admits it was smoke and mirrors, and we are playing the same smoke and mirrors game again. There is no way in 7 years we are going to achieve a balanced budget from a $350 billion annual deficit today and give tax cuts in excess of $188 billion, and that is what we are talking about, $188 billion over the next 5 years; and over the next 10 years, even with the Republicans' own actuarial studies, it will cost $640 billion over the next decade.”