to accommodate the tax cuts being made, but few of the spending cuts were actually approved by Congress. Shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, Daniels gave a speech to the National Press Club in which he challenged the view of those who wanted to continue typical spending while the nation was at war. "The idea of reallocating assets from less important to more important things, especially in a time of genuine emergency, makes common sense and is applied everywhere else in life," he said. Despite such efforts, during Daniels's 29-month tenure in the position, the projected federal budget surplus of $236 billion ballooned to a $400 billion deficit, due to the recession of 2001, tax cuts, the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), and Iraq War. Nobel economics Laureate Paul Krugman noted Daniels is "held up as an icon of fiscal responsibility" without having earned it. Commenting on Daniels leadership he wrote "what I can't forget is his key role in the squandering of the fiscal surplus Bush inherited. It wasn't just that he supported the Bush tax cuts; the excuses he made for that irresponsibility were stunningly fraudulent. So I just can’t take his current pose of deficit hawkishness seriously." Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Congress passed legislation authorizing the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Just before the legislation was signed by Bush, Republican lawmakers inserted language into the bill that authorized protection from liability corporations that manufactured thimerosal, a controversial vaccine preservative that has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. Eli Lilly was once the largest maker of thimerosal and is a major target of the lawsuits. Daniels was the budget director at the time of the bill's passing and some have raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Congress repealed the thimerosal provision following expressions of public displeasure. Conservative columnist Ross Douthat stated in a column about Daniels's time at OMB that Daniels "carried water, as director of the Office of Management and Budget, for some of the Bush administration's more egregious budgets." But Douthat, while calling Daniels "America's Best Governor," defended Daniels against accusations that Daniels inaccurately assessed the costs of the Iraq war. In 2002, Daniels helped discredit a report by Assistant to the President on Economic Policy Lawrence B. Lindsey estimating the cost of the Iraq War at between $100-$200 billion. Daniels called this estimate "very, very high" and stated that the costs