Yesterday, Jeff Zients, Obama's budget director appeared at a Senate Budget Committee hearing where he was forced to defend the administration’s new plan. He was grilled by Jeff Sessions (R-AL) about the fact that the budget would increase the debt by $8.2 Trillion over the next ten years. Unfortunately, Zients didn't seem to have any idea what his own budget would do to the soaring national debt.
Pressed for a dollar amount that would be added to the debt should his budget be adopted, Zients said "I don't- I'd need to check the..."
Sessions shot back "You don't know what's in your own numbers? How much you increase the debt?"
"There's a lot of numbers there...." Zients replied, before launching into a diatribe about how the figure doesn't matter. Instead, he thinks we should only focus on the deficit as a percentage of the overall economy, no matter how high it pushes the nation's total debt.
The budget does reduce year-over-year deficits by a meager $119 Billion over a ten year period so, despite adding $8.2 Trillion to the debt in same time frame, the administration is calling it a major cut. Contrary to his feigned ignorance, we're guessing Zients is acutely aware of this fact, and just doesn't want to be caught on tape admitting it. Either way, this is pathetic.
For the record, here's a link to the actual dollar amounts, about which Zients would rather not talk.
