Ed Markey: “this budget deal is based on a series of assumptions that would make a house of cards look like a sturdy fortress. In…”

“this budget deal is based on a series of assumptions that would make a house of cards look like a sturdy fortress. In their economic assumptions, my colleagues, they project that this year's economy will grow at a rate of 2.1 percent. Unfortunately, the first quarter was 3.9 percent and the second quarter was 5.6 percent. So we will have to have negative growth for the last two quarters in order for this particular projection to be accurate. In fact, what has happened with the Republicans is that they have grown so cautious since they were so wrong in 1993, that is projecting that that deficit reduction was going to be a failure, that since the deficit has gone from $300 down to $60 billion, in other words, from the end zone all the way to the other 20-yard line, there is only 20 yards left to go. Now they check in at $65 billion left to go in balancing the budget. My own personal belief is that if we did nothing, the budget would balance itself over the next year. It has gone down steadily for 5 years. It will continue to go down steadily. The economy is roaring. But what the Republicans do is, instead of taking this 5.6-percent growth that is in the economy, the sigh of relief that Alan Greenspan and the Fed is not going to increase interest rates, they translate it into a slowdown of the economy: 2.1 to 2.2 percent over the next 5 years they project. Even this year. That is just wrong.…”