Dems pin CBO numbers on Bush and GOP By Michael O'Brien - 01/26/10 01:09 PM ET Democrats pinned a new budget report Tuesday showing high deficits and a "muted" economic recovery on GOP control of the White House and Congress over the past decade.
House Democratic leaders said a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing a $1.35 trillion deficit in 2010 was the result of policies put in place by President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress, who controlled the House and Senate until the 2006 elections.
"Today’s CBO report is a clear reminder of the Bush and Republican Congress-era policies that have resulted in the loss of millions of jobs, led to the worst recession since the Great Depression, and turned record surpluses under the Clinton Administration into record deficits," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
The CBO report also predicted a "muted" economic recovery in the coming years, which Democrats in the House and Senate hope to address through a new spending bill focused on job growth in the coming weeks.
"90 percent of the projected deficit is due to the cost of the Bush economic collapse and Bush policies like his unpaid for tax cuts for the wealthy," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.), the fourth-ranking member of the House. "The devastating fiscal hole he left us in was far worse than anyone could have imagined."
To deal with budget deficits, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are considering a number of options to rein in federal spending. The Obama administration announced a freeze in non-military discretionary spending on Monday evening to kick off that effort, and the administration will release its full budget next week.
On the congressional end, leaders have urged passing statutory PAYGO legislation, which would require new spending to be offset by cuts or taxes. Obama has also endorsed legislation to establish a bipartisan deficit reduction commission, though the Senate voted that down on Tuesday.
