Jerrold Nadler (D): We Don’t Have a Deficit Problem

By Nicholas Ballasy

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) argued at a news conference with the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus that the United States does not currently have a budget crisis.

"That’s the real crisis – the unemployment, not the deficit. We don’t have a deficit problem right now. In the long term, we have a deficit problem – we’ve got to get it under control but not right now," said Nadler at the Capitol on Wednesday.

"Right now we’ve got to get unemployment under control. If we got unemployment down to 7 percent, down to 5 percent, which is what it was in 2005, and 2007 rather before the recession hit, if we got it down to 5 percent, half the deficit would be eliminated just by that – half the deficit without cutting a nickel from the budget. So, we have to address the real problem. The real problem is we are not taxing properly."