Tom Harkin: “That seems to me what the President is saying: Stay in the car with me. I do not change course. We are already kind of…”

“That seems to me what the President is saying: Stay in the car with me. I do not change course. We are already kind of over the cliff. We are going to go down it. We could make some changes in our economic policy, our fiscal policy. Certainly, we can make changes in our foreign policy, in our policy in Iraq, to turn this country so we do not continue to go off the cliff. I guess the President says that he knows where he is going. There is one thing about being resolute in one's determination to do certain things. But there comes a point where you are stubborn in the face of facts and reality. I am afraid this President does not realize the difference between being resolute and carrying out policies, and being stubborn when those policies are hurting America and making us weaker. I want to change the focus of the discussion. I want to talk about the economy. This morning the Congressional Budget Office announced it now projects this year's budget deficit will rise to $422 billion, an all-time high. Actually, if you look at this chart, if you look at the red, that is the budget deficit of $422 billion for 2004. But if you exclude Social Security surplus, the budget deficit is really $574 billion. Bear in mind, this comes from a President who originally pledged he would not run deficits and he would protect Social Security surpluses. Talk about flip-flopping, this is the flip-flop of all time.”