News/Lawmaker News

Gregg: Obama can’t blame Bush for deficits

Former President George W. Bush can’t be blamed for the deficits projected down the line in the Obama administration’s budget, the president’s onetime commerce secretary nominee said Tuesday.

“You certainly can’t blame year 4, 5 and 6 of his budget, and the next four years, which he’s proposed, on George Bush,” Gregg said this morning in an appearance on Fox News. “No, the problem in this budget is self-inflicted.”

Gregg has ramped up his criticism of Obama and the budget in recent days, threatening recently that the administration’s proposals would bankrupt the U.S. While having made nice toward the administration in the aftermath of his withdrawal as commerce secretary nominee, Gregg’s comments have taken on a biting tone, underscoring the differences between the budget hawks and the administration.

Gregg said that Obama will have been president for three years by the time his budget is in effect, when deficit spending is still projected in the proposed budget.

“You know, it’s really inappropriate for us, as one generation, to pass onto our children and our children’s children a government they can’t afford, which will basically be too expensive for them to pay for,” Gregg blasted. “And that’s what we end up with here in this proposal, this blueprint of this budget.”