Reflections On the Budget

摘要

On Feb. 11 testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the national debt In preparing my testimony, which took place on my daughter Emily's 12th birthday, I reviewed the staggering leaps in the national debt that had occurred since her birth and since I'd served in the Reagan Administration. When I joined the government in 1984 the $1.5 trillion national debt (40% of GDP) was already a hot economic issue and political problem. Work was under way on the Gramm-Rudman effort to limit spending, and Fed Chairman Paul Volcker was encouraging deficit reduction, hinting at looser monetary policy if Congress would cut back. The country had survived the inflation crisis of the 1970s—but just barely.