Gilbert Gutknecht: “it is not just the markets, it is consumer confidence. I think there was a report out yesterday that consumer confidence…”

“it is not just the markets, it is consumer confidence. I think there was a report out yesterday that consumer confidence is about at a record all-time high. The American people in Washington for the first time say what they mean, mean what they say and do everything within their power to actually get it done. I want to talk a little bit about this chart, because I mentioned it earlier. If the gentleman can see the red bars, going back to our 7-year balanced budget plan, which unfortunately the President vetoed and only parts of it actually became law, but thanks to the hard work of the folks on the Committee on Appropriations where they cut about $50 billion in wasteful spending and we also began the process of reforming and controlling the growth of entitlements, but this was our plan over 7 years. Those are the red bars of what the deficits would be. The blue bars are where we actually are. And again, it points out, we said we would have a budget deficit in fiscal year 1997 of $174 billion. It is really going to be something more like $70 billion.”