On the recordJuly 20, 2011
Well, here is how many days of the 10-year debt of the Obama budget that would be covered. Keep in mind, this proposal originated from our friend from New Jersey, the head of the Senate Democratic campaign operation, and his tag teammate, the head of the Senate Democratic message operation--the so-called war room--the senior Senator from New York. I will let others decide whether this proposal was more political than substantive, but people should at least know the facts about this proposal before deciding. As a deficit reduction proposal, this is very weak tea. This is a much ballyhooed proposal, and it would cover the deficit for, in actuality, 5 days 18 hours and 47 minutes. As you can see, here is the oil rig proposal. We have a $13 trillion debt--actually it is about a $13.5 trillion debt right now--and you would save $21 billion from the extra taxes on oil and gas. Even at that, we would have a remaining debt of $12.9 trillion. So is the problem solved? Of course not.
