Thomas Daschle: “Well, unfortunately, the request by the administration is to increase the debt by $984 billion. That is the single…”

“Well, unfortunately, the request by the administration is to increase the debt by $984 billion. That is the single biggest increase in our Nation's history. Never before has there been a request of that kind. I would add, as I did just a moment ago, that that is in addition to the $425 billion request that was made less than a year ago--last summer. We were told then that that increase in the debt limit would last for some time. Unfortunately, those predictions were erroneous. So now we are back again, in large measure because of the consequences of the tax cuts of 2001. So it is all the more ironic that in the very week we are going to be passing this increase in the debt limit by close to a trillion dollars, we are going to be passing the first installment of yet another trillion-dollar tax cut that will be enacted, if the Republicans have their way, before the end of this year.”