Rich Neal: “During the 1990s, we understood the need to balance the budget. What was the result? It created the greatest period of…”

“During the 1990s, we understood the need to balance the budget. What was the result? It created the greatest period of economic growth in the history of the Nation. The chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means says, hindsight, it is easy. It is foresight that we undertook in the 1990s. We prepared for the rainy day; that was the whole notion: a national disaster, international conflict, a downturn in the economy. That is why we do not understand a reckless $2 trillion tax cut. We should have been focused on the items that we might not have been able to control in the near or far future. Unemployment has gone from 4 percent to 6 percent, the budget deficit is at $250 billion, and a Wall Street analyst said yesterday, the economy and the markets right now are in the midst of a full-blown corporate governance shock. Stock market numbers are down, the value of the dollar has dropped considerably, retail sales have dropped along with consumer confidence, and we continue right down this road.”