[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14505-14506]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                  AMERICA'S WORSENING FISCAL SITUATION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the new Congressional Budget Office, CBO, 
budget deficit numbers announced Monday should trouble us all.
  Only 1 month ago CBO, estimated that the Federal deficit would be 
$300 billion--an alarming number considering that when President Bush 
took office the Federal Government was running a surplus. Now, CBO has 
notified Congress that the deficit will be a record $400 billion.

       CBO now projects that the federal government is likely to 
     end fiscal year 2003 with a deficit of more than $400 
     billion, or close to 4 percent of gross domestic product. The 
     deterioration in the short-term budget outlook stems from 
     continued weakness in revenue collections and from enactment 
     of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, 
     which will add an estimated $61 billion to this year's 
     deficit in the form of tax cuts, refundable credits, and aid 
     to states. The recent extension of unemployment benefits will 
     boost outlays by another $3 billion this year. For the first 
     eight months of 2003, the government ran a deficit of $291 
     billion, CBO estimates, about twice the shortfall it incurred 
     in the same period last year.

  When President Bush entered the White House in January 2001, the 
Nation was enjoying a record budget surplus that was built with hard 
choices and determination over the previous 8 years. With breathtaking 
speed, this administration's fiscal irresponsibility has quickly turned 
those record surpluses into record deficits. In 3 short years, these 
policies have driven us further into debt, transferred a greater share 
of tax receipts to the pockets of the Nation's most privileged, and 
turned millions of hard-working Americans out of their jobs.
  In fact, the Labor Department recently reported that the Nation's 
unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent last month, the highest level in 
9 years. Since the economy began slumping in early 2001, nearly 2.5 
million jobs have disappeared.
  In 2001, I voted against the President's first tax plan because it 
was too skewed toward the wealthiest Americans and it was too fiscally 
irresponsible. Since then, we have gone from record surpluses to red 
ink, and the economy is still adrift.
  Yet Congress passed a budget this year--including another ill-advised 
tax plan of $350 billion--that will only further deepen our deficits 
and pump up the national debt. I voted against the tax bill again this 
year because it is so clearly harmful to the economic health of our 
country, especially with the cost of the war in Iraq and the ever-
increasing peacekeeping expenses.
  The budget plans this administration has sent to Congress each year 
have been full of misguided priorities and squandered opportunities. 
The President's plans have severely underfunded essential health, 
employment training and education efforts. They have contained enormous 
Government giveaways to wealthy corporations and the wealthiest 
individuals instead of providing relief for hard-working Americans and 
their families. And they have been wholly inadequate to meet the 
domestic security needs of the first-responder agencies that we are 
counting on to defend against and prepare for future acts of terrorism.
  The President's economic plan is not about growing the economy or 
creating jobs. It is a fiscally irresponsible plan that threatens to 
economically divide our country. Cutting taxes is a popular thing to 
do, and I am delighted to vote for tax cuts when they make good fiscal 
sense. But it is not always the right thing to do for the country and 
for the security and economic well-being of the American people.
  The 1993 budget bill set the framework to eliminate the Federal 
deficit and passed by the narrowest of margins. It was a tough vote for 
everyone who voted for that plan and many Senators and Congressmen lost 
their seats in the subsequent election before the benefits of the plan 
could be fully realized. That momentous vote set this country on a 
course of surpluses, budget discipline and fiscal responsibility 
unmatched in American history. Unfortunately, the current 
administration--with its lack of fiscal responsibility--has blown all 
of the progress that many worked so hard to achieve. And the proof is 
in the latest CBO deficit figures.
  Earlier this year, the President said we should not pass on our 
fiscal problems to future Presidents, Congresses, and generations. On 
that point, I agree with him. Regrettably, year after year his budgets 
have driven us deeper into debt, and his policies will do exactly what 
the President says we should avoid: They will burden our children.

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