February 3, 2004 - U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14) condemned the 2005 federal budget that President Bush submitted to Congress yesterday.

“The President’s budget plan is mind-numbingly irresponsible,” Congressman Doyle said today. “You might not reach that conclusion if you just listened to this administration, but the more deeply you look at it, the more irresponsible it is.”

“Don’t take my word for it,” Doyle added. “The President’s own budget documents say so - although you do have to dig a little to find it. The administration itself admits that ‘the budget is on an unsustainable path’. I’m not even talking about the President’s priorities, where we obviously have a difference of opinion. I’m talking about the big picture - policies that will produce a geyser of red ink for decades to come.”

The devastating long-term consequences of the Bush Administration’s fiscal policies are discussed in Fiscal Year 2005 Analytical Perspectives of the U.S. Government, one of three supplemental documents that the President submitted as part of his 2,000-page budget request to Congress yesterday. The quote Congressman Doyle cited can be found on page 191 of this document, and charts on the following pages dramatically illustrate the rapid elimination of federal budget surpluses over the past 4 years and their replacement with massive federal deficits that shrink slightly before growing larger and larger for decades to come - producing a national debt so large that it would devastate our economy. A table on the same page (Table 12-2) shows that under this plan, annual interest payments on the national debt - the product of our annual federal deficits - will eventually dwarf all other federal government spending, including Social Security or Medicare benefits.

“The budget never gets balanced under President Bush’s plan,” Congressman Doyle observed. “Under the Bush budget, the federal government will run up huge deficits for decades to come. Such massive federal borrowing would have a devastating effect on our economy and our children’s quality of life.”

“And yet, the President is still calling for more tax cuts,” Doyle added. “I learned a long time ago that when you’re stuck in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. Make no mistake - there is no free lunch. Our children will pay a heavy price for our self-indulgence. I will work with like-minded Members of Congress in the weeks and months ahead to prevent this administration from mortgaging our children’s future.”

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