The 60 Second Update with

Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis

3. What about the federal budget deficit?

When the government spends more than it collects in taxes or other revenues, it is operating under a deficit. The federal budget deficit was bad enough in January, when the Congressional Budget Office estimated that our deficit for 2009 would be $1.2 trillion. But President Obama, in concert with the Democrat Congress that has approved the last two annual budgets, has since presided over a $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Moreover, the President signed a $410 billion, pork-laden omnibus spending bill that is the largest increase in annual discretionary spending since the Carter Administration.

As a result, the “budget blueprint” released by President Obama estimates that the deficit will balloon to $1.8 trillion this year, the highest as a percentage of our gross domestic product since World War II. In a mere two months, President Obama has widened this year’s deficit by $540 billion, a deficit increase larger than any total deficit in the nation’s history.

 Question 4. What about paying down the national debt?