John Spratt: “we had two rules in the 1990s that applied from 1990 through the year 2000, really until 2002, and those rules…”

“we had two rules in the 1990s that applied from 1990 through the year 2000, really until 2002, and those rules effectively said, number one, the pay-go rule, if you want to increase an entitlement, liberalize the benefits of an entitlement program, you have to pay for them with an identified new source of revenues, or you have to cut some other entitlement somewhere else of the same amount. Secondly, if you want to cut taxes, you have to have another tax to offset the revenue loss, or you have to cut entitlements enough so the bottom-line effect is neutral. Those two rules, with a discretionary spending cap, those rules that helped us put the budget in surplus for the first time in 30 years to a $236 billion surplus, what the Bush administration did was let those rules lapse, expire.”