Byron Dorgan: “Of course, the issue of whether our fiscal policy is different now than then is not at odds or not in question. At that…”

“Of course, the issue of whether our fiscal policy is different now than then is not at odds or not in question. At that point, I know the Federal Reserve Board and others, including the President, all talked about debt held by the public versus total debt. In fact, our fiscal policy at that point was dramatically different than it is now. We were headed in the right direction. Let me make this point. It is, in my judgment, a service to the Congress for someone to look at every appropriations bill and say, where can we trim? Where can we get into a position of not spending money we should not be spending? That is a service to the Congress. I think it is important to understand that we cannot look at the mouse in the corner when a lion is at the door. We cut a half billion dollars out of this subcommittee from last year's spending. So those are real cuts. We could do that for 90 years, every single year, and at that point we will just meet the $45 billion that is coming our way in an emergency supplemental, none of which is paid for. Do you understand what I am saying? This would be over $200 billion now sent to us by the administration, saying we have to increase these expenditures and we ask you to do it, Congress, but we are not going to pay for it. We will add it to the debt.…”