Heidi Alexander: “the Senator from Arizona and I and Senator Barrasso, who will be here in a few minutes, had the privilege of being…”

“the Senator from Arizona and I and Senator Barrasso, who will be here in a few minutes, had the privilege of being invited by the President to a lengthy health care summit a couple of weeks ago at the Blair House, a historic location right across from the White House. Over the 7rac{1}{2}-hour discussion, there were some obvious differences of opinion. In fact, my friend, the majority leader, said: Lamar, you are not entitled to your own facts. I think he is right about that. We want to use the real facts. But the American people, once again, seem to have understood the real facts. In the Wall Street Journal yesterday, March 10, there was an article by Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen. Mr. Rasmussen is an independent pollster, and Mr. Schoen was President Clinton's pollster. Here is one of the things they said. We were saying, with respect to the President: Mr. President, your plan will increase the deficit. This is a time when many people in America believe the deficit is growing at an alarming rate and will bring the country to its knees in a few years if we do not do something about it. The President and his Democratic colleagues said: No, the Congressional Budget Office says we do not increase the deficit. The American people do not believe that, according to Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. Schoen. They say: . . . 66 percent of voters believe passage of the President's plan will lead to higher deficits. They are right about that.”