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It seems from his comments on Marketplace Radio that Senator Conrad doesn’t realize that the economy is in a serious downturn. If he did, his complaint that the government borrows 40 cents of every dollar it spends would make no sense. The reason that the economy has a large deficit at present is that the economy has an 8.9 percent unemployment rate and is operating well below its potential level of output. If the government were not borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends the economy would be weaker and the country would have a higher unemployment rate. Senator Conrad should have been asked about this issue during his interview.