On the recordMarch 1, 2011
I have been here 30 years. I have served some 20 of those years under Republican Presidents. Every one of them has run a deficit of $100 billion or more. In fact, during that cumulative period of 30 years, notwithstanding the Obama administration, and I will discuss that in a second, Mr. Reagan, Mr. Bush I, and Mr. Bush II ran deficits of over $6 trillion that they signed the bills to spend. Over $6 trillion. Bill Clinton was President for 8 years. The last 4 years, we didn't raise the debt at all, unlike every one of the Republican administrations, where we raised it on a regular basis. Not at all during the last administration, the last 4 years of Mr. Clinton's administration, and he ran--the only President in your lifetime, and very frankly mine, and I may be twice as old as you are--a $62.9 billion surplus. Look it up. No argument. But let me say something. Irrespective of who is responsible, we are responsible for fixing it. Republicans and Democrats. The American people know that we have a crisis confronting us. They know there is no option other than to deal with this realistically.
