Political Quotes

“If we can start afresh, let me thank my distinguished colleague from Washington and warn my good friend from Nebraska that I am going to agree with him. I know that maybe this will help the process move along. But we have before us the President's budget. This is a massive work that would cost about a hundred dollars if you want to buy it. It has the numbers in here that the President proposes. Mr. President, in one sense, the Senator from Washington is right. The numbers here do not balance. The numbers in the book do not come to balance. Now, the President has done something in this budget. You have to look at the supplement to see what he has done. He said, if it does not work, I have a trigger. On page 13, it says, ``In case the new assumptions produce a deficit in 2002, the President's budget proposes an immediate adjustment to the annual limit, or caps on discretionary spending, lowering them enough to reach balance in 2002.'' I agree with the Senator from Nebraska. When you impose those caps, the President's budget does come to balance in 2002. I am not going to call that automatic cut a gimmick, or that trigger a gimmick. Let us just take it for what it does. The President has presented a budget, and he said if it does not balance, you take a whack at it. Well, that whack is a $16 billion tax increase on families in the year 2002. It is a $67 billion cut in spending, 10 percent in 2001 and 18 percent in 2002.”