Statement on OMB’s Mid-Session Review of the Budget
Thompson: Record budget deficit is nothing to celebrate
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Statement by Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA), member of the Ways and Means Committee and fiscally-conservative Blue Dog Coalition, in response to the Office of Management and Budget release of its annual mid-session budget review, which projected that next year’s projected deficit will be $22 billion less than last year’s actual deficit:
“Despite the Administration’s spin, the truth is that the projected budget deficit is still the fourth largest in American history. A nearly $300 billion budget deficit two years before millions of baby boomers begin to retire is absolutely nothing to celebrate, particularly when our national debt is over $8.4 trillion.”
“Now is not the time to rest on the ‘laurels’ of a $22 billion reduction in the budget deficit. If balancing the budget is a real priority of this Administration, then the President should demand reinstatement of true Pay-As-You-Go rules and implement real spending restraint, as over 200 Members of Congress and I have asked him to do. Americans want a government that is honest and fiscally responsible, not one that will spin the numbers to avoid dealing with a growing and disastrous problem.”
