Lateefah Simon: “Let me go over this again. The recommendation of several people, including Alan Greenspan and former Assistant Secretary…”

“Let me go over this again. The recommendation of several people, including Alan Greenspan and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Fred Bergsten, a recommendation that I concur in, is that we build in about a 2-percent surplus when we put together a budget. In terms of our $1.6 trillion budget, that would be about a $32 billion surplus. Then because no one, as the Senator points out, can know for sure down to the dollar or even the $1 billion where we are going to come out, we have made clear in committee that there can be up to a 3-percent deficit that would be transferred to the next fiscal year. That would be $48 billion. The $32 billion and the $48 billion combine to $80 billion. That, every one of those, is less than an $80 billion differential except for 2 years. In those 2 years, the procedure would be for Congress to say we can either, with 60 votes, create a small deficit--but it would be small indeed, compared to the deficits today--or we could authorize putting it in the next fiscal year. It is something that we would have to face. But it is a practical way of facing this problem.”