Byron Dorgan: “I was going to inquire of the Senator from Ohio if he found, as I did last night, it very unusual to have the entire…”

“I was going to inquire of the Senator from Ohio if he found, as I did last night, it very unusual to have the entire State of the Union Address talking about the economic difficulties in our country and the need for a stimulus plan and so on without ever mentioning the real root causes at all of what has put us in this position: For example, a $700 billion, going to an $800 billion-a-year trade deficit; a fiscal policy budget deficit that is going to require us to borrow $600 billion in this fiscal year, just that combination is $1.3 trillion in red ink, 10 percent of our GDP in 1 year. You know, the fact is, everyone in the world, including American citizens, look at that and understand that is so far off the track there is no way that works. I support a stimulus package. I think it is fine to do for psychological purposes. But I am wondering if the Senator from Ohio wonders, as I do, why the President does not even seem to recognize the underlying causes of the economic difficulty in our country.”