(Manchester, NH) – Yesterday, the Bush Administration announced the largest budget deficit in our country's history -- $454.8 billion.  It is more than double the deficit recorded in 2007 and it broke the previous record, $413 billion, also set by the Bush Administration and their allies in Congress in 2004.  Analysts estimate that next year's deficit could hit $700 billion, thanks to the enormous Wall Street bailout bill that Congress approved earlier this month and the budgetary impact of the struggling economy.

"George Bush and John Sununu have managed to take the biggest surplus in American history and turn it into the biggest deficit in American history," said Kate Bedingfield, communications director for Jeanne Shaheen for Senate.  "They've pulled off this feat by squandering billions on tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, subsidies for Big Oil and no-bid contracts for companies that fail to perform, to name just a few.  And on top of it all, they shepherded through another $850 billion in spending to clean up their mistakes on Wall Street.  Something's got to change.  We need a new fiscal direction in Washington and that means we need a new Senator."

Since 2001, George Bush and John Sununu Have Turned a $236 Billion Budget Surplus Into a $454.8 Billion Budget Deficit. [Congressional Budget Office]

Since 2001, George Bush and John Sununu Have Nearly Doubled the National Debt to Over $10 Trillion.

Sununu Voted for an $850 Billion Bailout to Pay for the Economic Mess He Helped George Bush Create.  [Senate Vote #213, 10/1/08]

Sununu Voted to Protect $45 Billion in Tax Incentives for Companies That Send Jobs Overseas.  [Senate Vote #63, 3/17/05; Senate Vote #90, 5/11/2004]

Sununu Voted Four Times Against Allowing Medicare to Negotiate Lower Drug Prices.  [Senate Vote #132, 4/18/07; Senate Vote #50, 3/15/06; Senate Vote #302, 11/3/05; Senate Vote #60, 3/17/05]

Allowing Medicare to Negotiate for Lower Costs Could Save American Taxpayers and Seniors Up to $30 Billion a Year.  Data based on Veteran's Affairs' drug prices.  [Institute for America's Future, The Waste and Inefficiency of the Bush Prescription Drug Plan, 4/4/2007]

Sununu Supported $70 Billion in Offshore Tax Loopholes.  [New York Times, 8/1/06; S 681, 2007; S 1565, 2005]

Sununu Voted Four Times Against a Commission to Investigate How Federal Contracts in Iraq Were Awarded. Despite numerous reports of wasteful spending during the Iraq reconstruction process, Sununu voted four times against establishing a Truman-style commission to investigate how contracts were awarded. [Senate Vote #228, 9/14/05; Senate Vote #259, 10/19/05; Senate Vote #316, 11/10/05; Senate Vote #176, 6/20/06]

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  • Federal audit: $180 million paid to Bechtel for projects it never completed. [MSNBC, 7/25/07]
  • Special Inspector General Report: $5.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction charged without documentation. [Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction report, 3/19/07]
  • Government Accountability Office: $10 billion spent in Iraq was wasteful or poorly tracked. [GAO report, 2/15/07]

Sununu Did Nothing As Bush More Than Doubled No-Bid Contracts. A 2007 report by the Center for American Progress showed that spending on no-bid contracts had more than doubled under the Bush administration to over $145 billion in 2005 alone. [CAP Report, 5/11/07]