Ed Case: “I really appreciate my colleagues spending the time here tonight. Now, I will go back and add a little bit of detail, so…”

“I really appreciate my colleagues spending the time here tonight. Now, I will go back and add a little bit of detail, so that we can fully illustrate what the issue is, how we got here, what the consequences are, why we need to do something about it, and how we do so. The first thing I will start with is something very basic, and that is: How do our Federal finances actually work? First and foremost, our Federal finances are no different in concept than our family or business budgets, fundamentally. In our Federal finance situation, our taxes and fees create revenues for our government. Our programs create the expenses for our government. If the revenues exceed expenses, we call that a surplus. If expenses exceed revenues, that is a deficit. We calculate both revenues and expenses and surpluses and deficits on an annual fiscal year. When we are talking about a deficit or surplus, we are talking about what happened in a particular fiscal year. How do we address a deficit if we have it? It is easy to understand how we deal with a surplus. We spend the money that we got and, hopefully, save up a little bit for the next year, just like any family, any business. What do we do about deficits?…”