John Kerry: “This is not a struggle, in my judgment, over whether one group wants to be fiscally responsible and the other group does…”

“This is not a struggle, in my judgment, over whether one group wants to be fiscally responsible and the other group does not. We are both talking about a framework for a balanced budget. In fact, were it not for the insistence on a very significant size tax cut on a 7-year basis--still over $200 billion, less than that over 6 years--there is today enough money on the table by both sides, agreed upon, to balance the budget. I hope Americans understand that. We do not have to have this fight except for the struggle over a tax cut. It is the struggle over the tax cut that forces the taking of money from a whole lot of things that matter in order to give the tax cut. The tax cut is fundamentally a borrowing from the future to give to the present. The tax cut is essentially a transfer payment taking from the next generation in terms of investment and current programs and giving to a group of people to spend it today.”