Kent Conrad: “the day before yesterday we saw an announcement of the biggest deficits in the history of the country this after the…”

“the day before yesterday we saw an announcement of the biggest deficits in the history of the country this after the President told us just 2 years ago that we did not need to worry about future deficits; in fact, there were going to be massive surpluses. He said in a speech on March 27, 2001, when he was campaigning for a massive tax cut: Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth, and we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens. This is what the President told the country. It has proved to be totally wrong. These are now the biggest deficits we have ever had in the history of the country, $455 billion, and that understates how big these deficits really are. Just using that number, which the administration has put out, is by far the biggest deficit we have ever had. The previous record was $290 billion. So this is a very large deficit by any measurement. The President then told us the next year, after it became clear that his earlier statements were not correct, that: . . . our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term . . . Well, that has proved to be wrong again. These deficits are not small, and they are not short term. In fact, these deficits are of record size and we see no end to them. By the administration's own analysis now, we see no end to these deficits.”