John Spratt: “When President Bush came to office in 2001, he had an advantage that few Presidents in recent history have enjoyed, a…”

“When President Bush came to office in 2001, he had an advantage that few Presidents in recent history have enjoyed, a budget in surplus. I'm talking big-time surplus, $5.6 trillion by his estimate, over the next 10 years, $5.6 trillion. That was the year 2001. In the previous year, a Clinton year, we ran a surplus of $236 billion. By the year 2004, under the stewardship of this administration and this Congress, because Republicans controlled the House, controlled the Senate and controlled the White House, under their stewardship, the $5.6 trillion surplus was converted to a $2.8 trillion deficit, enormous swing of $8 trillion in the wrong direction, and that $236 billion surplus in the year 2004 became a deficit of $412 billion. Incredible, but that is what we have had for the last 6 years. That's the record over the last 6 years which cannot be denied. Here it is right here. As a consequence of the deficits that have been run, this simple little chart that I bring down here again and again, because it bears reminding everybody what's happened over the last 6 years, shows that when Bush came into office we had a debt of $5.7 trillion. The debt today is over $8 trillion, $8.8 trillion.”