Tom Coburn: “the Senate is embarking on the appropriations process for the year 2006. I think it is important that we start this…”

“the Senate is embarking on the appropriations process for the year 2006. I think it is important that we start this process by looking at where we are. What concerns me greatly is the fact that we are less than honest with the American people about where we really are today. In fact, if you talk to the General Accounting Office, if you talk to economists worldwide, if you talk to economists here, we are on an unsustainable course in terms of our fiscal discipline. This chart shows the real numbers for the next few years in terms of what the deficit is. Washington is notorious about fudging the numbers in terms of our obligations. The deficits that are listed coming forward through the next 5 years include the off-budget deficit but also the money we are stealing from Social Security, as well as the money we are stealing from other trust funds, which brings us to a true deficit this year that is going to be about $541 billion. If we divide that $541 billion in deficit by 300 million Americans, and we have less than that, it comes very close to $2,000 per man, woman, and child that we are spending for money we don't have. The appropriation process, as well as the budget process, becomes important. In 2004, there were 131,000 taxpayers. Our population by next year is supposed to be somewhere around 300 million. The publicly held debt, not privately held, was almost $5 trillion.…”