Ron Kind: “I think one of the crucial differences between now and what occurred during the 1980s with the economic policies that…”

“I think one of the crucial differences between now and what occurred during the 1980s with the economic policies that were pursued was that we had the decade of the 1990s to reverse course, and fortunately we did. With the Clinton administration and the tough budgetary decisions that they had to make in 1993, it set the Nation back on a course of declining deficits through the nineties; and then actually a few years when we were running real budget surpluses, which led to the protection of the Social Security and Medicare trust fund and a downloading of the national debt, thereby reducing the interest burden on that national debt. It was an incredible economic dynamic made by past Congresses making tough decisions in order to reverse course of the huge budget deficits that were created during the 1980s and the first part of the 1990s. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time anymore. We are rapidly running out of time with the boomers' retirement just around the corner.”