On the recordMarch 9, 2011
What we need to do--and it is very important that we achieve it--is to move toward a gradual, credible, sustained, mature reduction of the deficits this country has faced, and that takes some tough decisionmaking. It doesn't require us to act in an extreme or drastic way, but it means sustained serious changes in the trajectory in which we are headed. I would just note that the House proposed reducing our nondefense discretionary spending $61 billion over the rest of the fiscal year. If we take only the discretionary account, that amounts to about a 6-percent reduction. If we take the entire Federal spending, it is less than a 2-percent reduction in the entire Federal spending.
