Kent Conrad: “Let me put up this chart which shows a bit of a different perspective. The chairman put up a chart which shows the…”

“Let me put up this chart which shows a bit of a different perspective. The chairman put up a chart which shows the deficit being cut in half over the next several years. This is the problem I have with that chart. I think it fundamentally misleads the American people about the fiscal condition of the country. The chairman's chart is entirely accurate about the unified deficit. What does that mean? That is when you put all the money in the same pot, all the income tax collections and all the payroll tax collections to support Social Security, Medicare, and then you take all the spending out of that same pot. The problem now is we are in a different situation. The different situation is Social Security, in the 1980s, was changed to run large surpluses during this period in preparation for the retirement of the baby boom generation. So when you put all the money in the same pot, it gives a misleading result. It misleads you as to your true fiscal condition. Let me take this chart from the chairman's own budget. It shows, for 2004, that the overall debt is going to increase by $612 billion between 2004 and 2005.”