On the recordJune 9, 2010
It seems to me, gentlemen, that President Bush was Ebenezer Scrooge by comparison to what we've got here. I mean, this is runaway spending. And this is created not just by TARP, not just by the, quote, ``jobs bill'' where we just dumped all kinds of money into increasing various government handouts and things. It wasn't concrete and roads; it was just government-handout kinds of things. But this tremendous level of spending then creates the very problem which creates the unemployment, and it threatens our economy. If you take a look at where this is going, you take a look at these numbers, and you start to put it--these seem like a lot of money. This one here is $1.4 trillion. Well, what does $1.4 trillion mean? Well, let's put it into context. Here's the context right here. This is a comparison to these other countries over in Europe. This is deficit as a percent of GDP. United States, 10.3. We've got Greece at 9.4. Now, Greece has been in the news. It's been causing a whole lot of trouble in the European Union. And its deficit as a percent of GDP is 9.4, and we're 10.3? These are not good numbers. I think it's helpful to compare to the others. United Kingdom is a little worse off than we are. If you go debt, this is a larger term, this is going year after year after year, you see United States here is at 99, debt as a percent of GDP. And you've got Greece and Italy that are worse off than we are.
