audience. critics in and out of the republican party aren t laughing. charging that the bush administration is definitely not a good approximately of fiscal restraint. this is a bush administration that also ballooned the national debt. and some sees it as a negative thing. to be part of the bush administration. to bring up the bush years. in the current environment. what do you say to that? i was fortunate, i guess, to be part of, you know, some good fiscal discipline of the bush administration. i came in, as you know, in 2006, 2007. a budget i proposed was a balanced budget. can you believe that? a five-year balanced budget. it was hard to put it together. as i said, i put together budgets. i know it s hard. that s what we ought to be doing in congress, putting together a budget, one over time that balances. so the year i was there in 2007, deficit was about 1/8th of the deficit today. $161 billion.
cnn saturday morning. it is 11:00 a.m. in the east, 8:00 a.m. in the west. good morning, everyone. i m randi kaye. here s what s happening now. as rockets pound the city of syria, help is on the way to try to slow down the bloodshed. i m not responsible for this plane crashing. a flight attendant threatens crash on an american airlines flight. we ll talk to a passenger who shot this video. and check out this new video showing a tornado striking kentucky. look at that roof blowing right off. it was part of the killer storms that hit the nation last weekend leaving a huge path of destruction. new violence in syria is overshadowing high-stakes diplomatic efforts to stop the bloodshed. assad sat down with general kofi ahman in damascus today but even as they talked peace, activists say tanks and artillery attacks the city. nic robertson is there talking about this. they re calling today s talks positive. do you see any progress here? reporter: certainly not on the gro
douglas was mccain s chief economist. these numbers are pretty shocking wouldn t you say? yes. what is it? $410 million an hour. an hour, yes. everybody but colmes, maybe the wall street protestors, but everybody else who is not ideological is going to say you have to put a lid on it or we are going to be greased. no matter what spin or excuse you use you have to go back it was 161 billion. they were worried about 161 million in spending. that s how crazy it is. you put this budget reverting back to 2007.
douglas was mccain s chief economist. these numbers are pretty shocking wouldn t you say? yes. what is it? $410 million an hour. an hour, yes. everybody but colmes, maybe the wall street protestors, but everybody else who is not ideological is going to say you have to put a lid on it or we are going to be greased. no matter what spin or excuse you use you have to go back it was 161 billion. they were worried about 161 million in spending. that s how crazy it is. you put this budget reverting back to 2007.
even douglas eakin who is. bill: paul krugman. egan. how douglas chief economist says that. okay? bill: these numbers that are pretty shocking, wouldn t you say? yes. stunning. bill: what is it? $410 million an hour? an hour, yeah. bill: so everybody but colmes, everybody and maybe the wall street protesters. maybe that crowd. but everybody else, who is knot i d logical got to say put a lid on it or we are going to be grease. can t pay our bills. didn t pay it back or no matter what spin or excuse you use you have to go back to 2007 when it was 161 billion. back then they were worried about 161 billion being deficit spending. that s how crazy this is put the whole budget reverting back to 2007.