Jack Reed: “New reports from the Bush Administration's Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office confirm…”

“New reports from the Bush Administration's Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office confirm that the combination of the large tax cut and the worsened economic situation have essentially eliminated any expected on-budget surplus for the next five years. Indeed, there is a growing possibility that the government's fiscal position could be even worse, with no surplus at all by the end of the decade and with a national debt that might be even higher in ten years than it is now. What is particularly prescient about this report is the fact that it was not issued this morning, hours after Mr. Daniels of OMB declared that the fiscal policies of this administration have locked this Government into deficits for the next several years. This report was issued on September 7, 2001. It is also interesting to note that this report suggests very strongly, prior to the attack on America on September 11, that the fiscal policies of this administration had headed us down a road to deficit after deficit after deficit. The attack on September 11 was a dreadful assault on this country, but it is not the cause of the current deficit we are staring at over the next several years.”