Lindsey Graham: “Dr. Reischauer outlines the four ingredients present in today's political environment that are likely to lead to a…”

“Dr. Reischauer outlines the four ingredients present in today's political environment that are likely to lead to a feeding frenzy that will lay waste to the surplus that we have until now guarded. Those ingredients are: No. 1, the need for the next President to affirm his administration's legitimacy; No. 2, even larger budget provisions; and a compliant Congress, and finally a weakening economy. Why should we worry about all this? Why should we at this stage, at 7:35 on a Friday evening, suddenly become exercised about the issue of fiscal discipline? Some budget observers believe the Federal surplus may be revised upward by as much as $1 trillion when the new budget estimates are revealed. If that is the case, the unified budget surplus for the next 10 years will rise to roughly $5.5 trillion. Given these larger surplus projections, one may ask why Americans should be concerned with the deterioration of budget discipline. Americans should worry because Congress is frittering away the hard-won surplus without a real plan for utilizing those surpluses, without addressing the long-term, major challenges facing Americans--Social Security, Medicare, and paying down a $5.5 trillion national debt. Americans should care because we are sleepwalking through the surplus. We are denying ourselves the chance to face major national challenges. We are leaving to our grandchildren the credit card bills that our generation has accumulated.…”