John Spratt: “Basically what this shows is in the red line at the top is a course of outlays from the 1980s through the current…”

“Basically what this shows is in the red line at the top is a course of outlays from the 1980s through the current period, 2004. What Members see here is when President Clinton came to office in 1992-1993, spending was at 22.5 percent of our gross domestic product. Federal spending constituted 22.5 percent of our GDP. That is about the point at which President Clinton came to office, and this may be a surprise to some people, but because of budget discipline, because of PAYGO, because of the discretionary spending caps, two different budget plans in 1993 and 1997, every year outlays came down. At the same time, we enhanced revenues. That is the politically polite way to put it. We increased the revenues to the government. They came up. At the point at which they crossed as a percentage of GDP, you have balance for the first time in 30 years because we worked on both sides of the ledger, adding revenues, holding back spending. We had a balanced budget for the first time in 30 years.”