Senator Conrad Calls for Balanced Fiscal Policy

Dear Phillip: Earlier today the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, released its latest budget and economic outlook. Their deficit projections are jaw-dropping. This is one of the worst budget forecasts I have seen in my lifetime. President-elect Obama is being handed an absolute fiscal disaster.  Projections by the CBO now show a deficit of approximately $1.2 trillion in 2009, more than two-and-a-half times last year's record deficit.  And notably, CBO's estimate does not include the cost of the economic recovery package now being considered.  CBO's ten-year outlook confirms that with current policies we will see record deficits for years to come.  And over the long-term, the combination of the retiring baby boom generation, rising health care costs, and inadequate revenues will make matters even worse - exploding deficits and debt to clearly unsustainable levels. Our economy has been in recession for more than a year now and the downturn is likely to last longer than any since the Great Depression.  We must act quickly to pass an economic recovery package that will create jobs and jumpstart economic growth.  While it is understandable that this proposed stimulus package will worsen our near-term budget picture, we should not enact provisions that will exacerbate our long-term deficits and debt. And as we address our economy, it is vital that we simultaneously take steps to put our budget back on a sound long-term fiscal path.  That is why I have proposed linking the economic recovery package to the creation of a bipartisan process designed to tackle our long-term budget imbalance.  Our nation's economic future will remain at risk until we confront this long-term challenge. In my role as the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I will continue to focus my efforts on returning the nation to a balanced fiscal policy.  We need to ensure that future generations won't be burdened by the debts of those who came before them. Click here to see me speaking about the CBO report at a press conference today. Sincerely, KENT CONRAD United States Senate You have received this e-mail because you have signed up for Budget Issue Updates. If you do not want to receive future updates, you can remove yourself from this mailing list by visiting my Web page at http://conrad.senate.gov/issues/signup.cfm. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to others who you think would be interested in this information. If this e-mail was forwarded to you and you would like to sign up to receive future updates directly from me, please visit my Web page at http://conrad.senate.gov/issues/signup.cfm.