John Sarbanes: “I simply want to make this observation. Well over half of those budgets that the Senator from Utah points to in that…”

“I simply want to make this observation. Well over half of those budgets that the Senator from Utah points to in that pile would have been in balance if we had a capital budget. The fact of the matter is we didn't--and don't--have capital budgets. State and local governments have capital budgets. Businesses and private individuals have capital budgets. But we have a budget accounting system that requires us to cover the capital items as well as the operating items. If we had done budget keeping the way everyone else does budget keeping, well over half of those budgets would have been in balance. He talks about young people being born with a debt hanging over them. They are also born with a tremendous number of physical assets that have been purchased that are available to them for their use--a transportation network, a communication network, a research and development network, and an educational infrastructure. All have been paid for by previous generations for their use out into the future.”