Mike Crapo: “Many people will remember that a few short years ago we were talking about major surpluses across the board and for as…”

“Many people will remember that a few short years ago we were talking about major surpluses across the board and for as far as we could see into the future. In fact, I have in front of me a projection that was based back in January of 2001, which estimated that in this budget year that we are working on right now, the 2004 budget year, the surplus was projected to be around $396 billion. This same sheet shows what the projection today is as opposed to what was projected in the year 2001, and the projection is around a $199 billion deficit. In other words, just for the budget year in which we are working, the projections over the last essentially 2-plus years have gone from a projection of a $396 billion surplus to a $199 billion deficit.”