"It's a budgetary time bomb--a return to voodoo economics. Or, as one of my aides said, it's like deja-voodoo all over again," quipped Lieberman. The senator stressed the hospitality industry's ability to motivate and sustain growth. The hospitality industry employs 18 million Americans and contributed $17 billion towards the trade surplus. Travel and tourism is the second or third largest industry in over half of the United States.

"Over the past few years, the government created a climate for growth, and the private sector prospered. As a pro-business democrat, I believe our first priority is expanding opportunities for the American people," said Lieberman. "And we can do that with strong and focused leadership." He added that some of the surplus should be used towards debt reduction, some on the materials of the new economy (i.e., technology and education), and some on "purposeful tax cuts."

"Instead, what we have is imbalance and lack of vision," argued Lieberman. "This tax bill asks the wrong kind of questions. We need to ask what kind of country do we want to be ten years from now? We will be judged in ten years by the decisions we make today."