That will make a difference. Agreeing with him is Charles Schultze, who was Jimmy Carter's chief economist. We'll have higher incomes and higher wages. Now, for the first four, five, six years you won't even notice it. It'll never be massive, but the next generation may have as much as 1,500 bucks a family extra income, just from balancing the budget.
Modest improvement is the majority view.
A minority of economists disagrees. There's really no reason to balance the budget in 2002, or really in any particular year. Government borrowing for roads, airports and education can improve the economy, he said, and a growing economy can afford some government borrowing. Our deficits are now running about two percent of gross domestic product. That, he said, is less than that of any advanced country in the world except possibly Japan.