Melvin Watt: “if my colleagues review carefully the Republicans' budget, it really appears to be a massive shell game. They would have…”

“if my colleagues review carefully the Republicans' budget, it really appears to be a massive shell game. They would have us believe that they can deliver massive tax cuts, extend the life of Social Security and Medicare, eliminate every dime of public debt, increase defense spending by massive amounts, not reduce other domestic programs, give prescription drug benefits. They sound like they used to accuse the Democratic Party of being, everything for everybody. The problem is that the numbers system do not add up. There is not enough money to do all of this. So what one then has to do is figure out now what is their top priority, what will it be under all circumstances, regardless of what happens; and that is reducing taxes by unreasonable and massive amounts. Now, what did Alan Greenspan say about this? One of the previous speakers put his quote up, and he said we ought to be paying down the debt. I was at the hearing where he testified, and he said we should not be giving tax cuts before we pay down the debt. That is the highest priority we have, paying down the debt. That is what is going to keep our economy moving and sustain the economy moving in the direction that it is going now. Yet, do they put that at the top of the priority list? No. They put massive tax cuts ahead of paying down the debt.”