Kent Conrad: “you just heard the Senator from Texas say this budget is going to cut the deficit in half over the next 5 years. I wish…”

“you just heard the Senator from Texas say this budget is going to cut the deficit in half over the next 5 years. I wish that were true. But it is not. Here are the numbers. These are not my numbers. These are the numbers that are in this document, pages 4 and 5. This is what they say is going to happen if this budget is passed. It says the debt is going to go up $683 billion the first year, $639 billion the second, $606 billion the third, $610 billion the fourth, and $605 billion the fifth. Where is the deficit getting cut in half? The amount that is being added to the debt every year is over $600 billion each and every year. I don't see the difference between revenue and spending, that gap, being cut in half anywhere. No, this is not a budget that is cutting any deficits. This is a budget that is increasing deficits. The Senator said if we cut taxes, we will get more revenue. I wish that were true. That would be great. Why don't we cut taxes 50 percent and balance the budget, if that is the case? Here are the facts. Here is what happened to spending and revenue since 1980. The red line is the spending line. The green line is the revenue line. This is spending as a share of gross domestic product in the 1980s. It was up in the 22-23 percent range. Then, in the 1990s, we saw the spending as a share of GDP come down. Revenue went up. Deficits were eliminated. Then we got a new President in 2001. Look what happened to the revenue. Taxes were cut.…”