Blake Moore: “last year it was announced by the Congressional Budget Office that, and I am talking about February of last year, that…”

“last year it was announced by the Congressional Budget Office that, and I am talking about February of last year, that the projected surplus over the next 10 years would be approximately $5.6 trillion. At that time, the surpluses ran as far as the eye could see, and everybody was talking about the surpluses and how we might use those surpluses to benefit our country. In fact, the debate at that time was how we might use those surpluses to pay down our national debt, which was approximately $5.7 trillion at that time. The debate was how much we should pay down our surplus and whether we should pay down our surplus or if we should pay down our surplus, if we might pay it down too fast. In fact, Chairman Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve Board said there would be some danger in paying down our national debt too quickly. Well, that problem has been solved. We no longer have surpluses. In fact, and I am not pointing fingers or blaming anybody here, but as the result of an economic slowdown, as a result of the horrible tragedy that confronted our Nation on September 11 last year, the economy slowed down, number one. It was really put into a tailspin on September 11. The surpluses have virtually disappeared. In fact, the $5.6 trillion surplus last year that was projected over the next 10 years this year, in February of this year, was projected by the Congressional Budget Office to be approximately $1.6 trillion.”