On the recordFebruary 25, 2010
I will tell you that because the Senator from Kentucky has noted our current national debt, $14 trillion, I think it is worth a moment to explain that debt and how we reached that astronomic figure. When President George W. Bush became President of the United States, we had a national debt of $5 trillion, and we handed him a surplus--as President Clinton left office, he gave to President George W. Bush a surplus. At the end of the George W. Bush Presidency 8 years later, we were knocking on the door of $12 trillion in debt. We had more than doubled the national debt in 8 years. Some of it came from circumstances beyond President Bush's control. 9/11 devastated the economy, and that devastation cost us dearly in terms of jobs and services and businesses and revenue lost. But conscious decisions were made by the George W. Bush administration to enact tax cuts in the midst of a war. That has never happened before in the history of the United States. It is counterintuitive.
