WASHINGTON – Today the Department of Treasury released final budget numbers showing a $454.8 billion deficit for Fiscal Year 2008, which ended on September 30.  House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) released the following statement.

“Today the U.S. Government closed the books on fiscal year 2008 with a record federal budget deficit of $454.8 billion – far surpassing the previous record of $412.7 billion, which also occurred under this Administration.

“Republican policies have wiped out the entire $5.6 trillion projected ten-year budget surplus the Bush Administration inherited from the Clinton Administration. In fact, the eight years of this Administration will include the five biggest federal budget deficits in American history.

“The current grim fiscal news was not inevitable. Sadly, the Bush Administration squandered the opportunity presented by the record budget surpluses it inherited, instead transforming them into record deficits. The resulting debt will be passed to our children and grandchildren, burdening them with the cost of misguided Republican fiscal choices for decades to come.”

# # #