On the recordNovember 18, 2011
I yield myself an additional 30 seconds. The CBO estimated, before President Obama took office, that the next year's deficit would be $1.2 trillion before he did anything. And I would remind us that nondefense discretionary spending in this country has not gone up by a nickel, adjusted for inflation and population growth, since 2001, when we had a huge surplus. The problem is that our taxes on the rich are too low. We cannot reach an agreement in the supercommittee because the Republicans will not tax the rich. That's the basic problem, and a balanced budget amendment will not solve that problem. I reserve the balance of my time.
