Senator says U.S. could be on path to a banana republic!
WASHINGTON - October 18th, 2009 - A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces.
“This deficit is driven by us,” New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked about the federal government’s projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.
“You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States,“ the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, “that we’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children. We’re going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this.”
“Now you can’t blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush,” Gregg said, noting that using the illegitimate Obama regime’s projections, the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40% - which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” - up to 80%.
The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country, and you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. You can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.”
Gregg added, “Standards of living will drop if we keep this up.”
“This deficit is driven by us,” New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked about the federal government’s projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.
“You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States,“ the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, “that we’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children. We’re going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this.”
“Now you can’t blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush,” Gregg said, noting that using the illegitimate Obama regime’s projections, the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40% - which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” - up to 80%.
The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country, and you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. You can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.”
Gregg added, “Standards of living will drop if we keep this up.”
