WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) issued the following statement in reaction to the release today of the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO’s) “The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update.”

“While any improvement in the deficit forecast is welcome news, the long-term fiscal picture is still troubling. CBO now estimates that fiscal year 2007 will post a deficit of $158 billion and that fiscal year 2008 will post a deficit of $155 billion. Meanwhile, the President’s budget continues to advocate more of the same policies that created these deficits.

“Republicans have overseen the largest fiscal reversal in American history. In January 2001, the Administration inherited a projected ten-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion, which has now been transformed into a projected budget deficit of more than $2 trillion over the same period (2002-11). But even these figures understate the size of the problem because they assume an increasing number of taxpayers will be affected by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). A permanent repair of the AMT could cost as much as $1 trillion over ten years.

“The long-term budget outlook is a call for change that Congressional Democrats are heeding. The budget resolution passed by the Democratic Congress balances the bottom line. We have imposed pay-as-you-go rules that ensure that legislation we pass now will not saddle our children and grandchildren with unsustainable debt in the future. We are digging out of the Republicans’ deficit ditch, but significant challenges remain.”

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