On the recordFebruary 10, 2011
As we prepare to debate the budget, and as we have already begun to debate, it is a budget that in many instances and in many ways spells gloom and doom for people who have been expecting and looking for some opportunity to move our government and our country forward. In order to really understand how we got to where we are, I think it is important for us to remember that President Clinton left President Bush with a 10-year projected surplus of $5.6 trillion in 2001. Whereas President Bush on January 20, 2009, left President Obama with a $1.2 trillion deficit. And let's keep in mind that this was the deficit on day one of the Obama administration, weeks before the President enacted a single piece of legislation and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The failed economic policies of the Bush administration led to this enormous deficit: the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts totaled $1.3 trillion over 10 years, in which most of the tax relief went to the top 1 percent of income earners; a Medicare prescription drug benefit with a 10 year cost of nearly another $1 trillion that was not offset; two overseas war that are near a cost of $1 trillion; a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street banks. And all of these unpaid-for policies were compounded by the worst economic recession in 70 years that began in 2007, which led to huge shortfalls in Federal tax revenue and increased reliance on unemployment insurance and other Federal social safety net programs.
