In our brief, which I would invite you to look at, we prove that the $12.9 billion spent on paying down the debt this year—or $81 billion total since 1996-97—has had a minimal effect on increasing wealth. Actually, the debt to DGP ratio went from over 67% in 1996-97 to 35%.
Even if the government had not paid down the debt, the percentage would have gone from 67% to 41%. Most of the work on debt reduction is due to an increase in wealth. We believe that this trend will continue and that we could have used the $81 billion for better purposes, namely to increase federal transfer payments for health care and education. That type of measure would provide for good services to the public and ensure a more just society.