John Spratt: “The gentleman will search the budget the President sent us in vain for any such direction or inclination. There is no…”

“The gentleman will search the budget the President sent us in vain for any such direction or inclination. There is no plan and no process for ridding ourselves of these perpetual deficits. Back out Social Security, as I think we must, and we will find, according to the Congressional Budget Office, that every year from 2003 through 2013 there is a deficit over $400 billion a year. When the Republicans brought their budget resolution to the House floor the night before we adjourned for the Easter break, 2 o'clock in the morning, we scrambled to go through it and understand it as much as we could. I never will forget finally coming upon page 93, page 93. It was a table summing up in their own figures the impact of the budget they were about to ram through the House in the early hours of that morning. It showed that the gross Federal debt this year will be $6.4 trillion. That is what it is today, because it is limited by statute at that level. By voting for that particular budget resolution, they voted automatically to raise the debt ceiling by $893 billion, and they voted to put in train a budget with tax cuts that will lead to a debt accumulation of $6 trillion over the next 10 years. The national debt, the gross national debt, subject to statutory limit, will grow from $6.4 trillion this year to $12.40 trillion in the year 2013.”