Orrin Hatch: “I rise today to take a look back at the evolution of our Federal budget over the past few years, as we moved from…”

“I rise today to take a look back at the evolution of our Federal budget over the past few years, as we moved from deficits and debt not seen since the years surrounding World War II to our current budget predicament, which still involves deficits and debt that are far too high. The Federal deficit in fiscal year 2009 was nearly 10 percent of our economy. This was due partly to efforts to battle the financial crisis and partly to ineffective and reckless spending measures like the so- called stimulus. Since then, the deficit has fallen. From the rhetoric of the administration and its allies here in Congress, you would think that deficit reduction has been accomplished almost exclusively through spending cuts. Indeed, in an effort to demonstrate his reasonableness in calling for even more tax hikes, President Obama often touts the ``tough spending cuts'' that have taken place under his administration. Of course, after spending ballooned in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 to almost a quarter of the size of our entire economy, it eventually had to be curtailed. With a recovering economy, along with tax hikes engineered by the administration and its allies in Congress, deficits have admittedly come down. Unfortunately, however, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has told us, the deficit reprieve will be short lived.…”