Bob Kerrey: “I rise to talk about inter-generational issues related to Federal budget spending. We will never have a better time to…”

“I rise to talk about inter-generational issues related to Federal budget spending. We will never have a better time to consider such issues as inter-generational equity than now during a time of large projected surpluses. These large projected surpluses provide us with a great deal more flexibility in choosing among priorities and in determining our legacy to future generations. Until recently, we were not so lucky. For more than thirty years, the budget projection reports from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget were a source of growing despair for the American people. As each year went by, CBO and OMB would present worse news: larger deficits, larger national debt levels, and larger net interest payments. As the government's appetite for debt expanded, fewer and fewer dollars were available for private investment. In the beginning, experts explained that deficits were a good thing because they stimulated economic growth and created jobs. Over time, however, the voices of experts opposed to large deficits grew louder; they argued that deficits caused inflation, increased the cost of private capital, mortgaged away our future--just at the time when we needed to be preparing for the retirement of the large Baby Boom generation. As the opinions of the experts shifted, so did public opinion. During the 1980s and 1990s, the federal deficit became public enemy number one.”