John Spratt: “let me just make Members painfully aware of what this rule will entail, since they have only had minutes to even…”

“let me just make Members painfully aware of what this rule will entail, since they have only had minutes to even acquaint themselves with the fact that it was coming before them today. If Members vote for this rule, they will vote to make in order a budget resolution with the following consequences for our deficit and our national debt. Per the calculation in this budget resolution, the deficit for 2005 will be $367 billion. That is probably the best dated sum they can come up with. There will undoubtedly be some more defense supplementals, probably another $25 billion, before 2005 is out. That will take the deficit to $392 billion. If we take Social Security out of the calculation, as we should, we should not include it, the non- Social Security deficit, the deficit in the basic accounts of the Federal budget in 2005 if Members vote for this resolution will be $566 billion, which will necessitate another increase in the debt ceiling. If Members vote for this resolution, they will, make no mistake about it, be voting to raise the statutory debt ceiling by $690 billion. That is the first in a series of raises, because if you read CBO's report on the President's budget which is essentially embodied in this resolution and run that budget out over 10 years between 2005 and 2014, according to CBO, we will cumulatively incur a debt of $5.132 trillion.”