Judd Gregg: “I want to speak briefly this morning about the status of the President's budget. Obviously, this is always a very…”

“I want to speak briefly this morning about the status of the President's budget. Obviously, this is always a very significant event when the President presents a budget. This year, I think the climate and the substance of the budget is significantly different than what has occurred in past years. There is a commitment by this Congress to get to a balanced budget by the year 2002. A year ago, we sent a budget that would have accomplished that to the President, and he, regrettably, vetoed it. Now the President has come forward and accepted this challenge and said that he also believes that we should get to a balanced budget by the year 2002. He sent up to us a proposal to accomplish that. His budget, as proposed, has many constructive functions in it. It also has many questions. Regrettably, it has a lot that is left undone and unaddressed. On the constructive side, he does get to a balanced budget --at least as he claims-- using his numbers. Unfortunately, the questions that are raised by the way in which he gets there are significant. For example, next year, the deficit will go up and the following year the deficit will go up, under his budget. Even in the following year, the deficit goes up under his budget. It is not really until he is about to leave office that he alleges or represents he is going to put in place programs which would bring the deficit down. That, to me, is not what I would call a good glidepath to a balanced budget.”