Larry Craig: “let me make a comment to the concerns of the Senator from North Dakota and other concerns that have been brought forth…”

“let me make a comment to the concerns of the Senator from North Dakota and other concerns that have been brought forth in the last hour on the floor that are significant. And they are important. I do not think there is any question that we are very intent on doing the right thing. We also understand that the process has to have an element of flexibility and, in that element of flexibility, the Congress of the United States must work its will. Certainly that is an important part of any budget process. The Senator from North Dakota has been involved in making budgetary estimates, as have others, and has used the Gramm-Rudman example as a target by which to argue estimates. Let us cast estimates in an entirely different light from which they have ever been made before. We all know that estimates before to project revenue for a Federal budget, although I am not arguing that they were not made with a sense of accuracy, did not necessarily have to be accurate because they always knew that there was an open end in that process.”