Lateefah Simon: “let me say that there is no absolute guarantee that this will work. I think what we can virtually guarantee is if we do…”

“let me say that there is no absolute guarantee that this will work. I think what we can virtually guarantee is if we do not pass this, we are continuing down the same slippery slope and we are not going to get things done. In 1981 I was in the House. I was not in the Senate. But in the House we ended up with a bidding war between President Reagan and the Democrats on a tax cut. I voted against both the Reagan tax cut and the Democratic tax cut because the numbers just did not add up. We were saying by 1984 we will have a balanced budget. Third grade arithmetic told you that was not true. Just a few other quick comments. One is the details of where we are heading. Concord Coalition put together a package. By the time this debate is over we will have a rough idea. One way to do it, for example, is to live within the limits that we have established right now through 1998, and then make some policy decisions that would combine the total of the Bush package, I think it was 1991, and the Clinton package, 1993. Not that onerous. People are being told, ``This is going to hit every group.'' Senior citizens are being told it will come out of your Social Security. I had a man this morning, a hospital executive, tell me, We have been told $500 billion of this is going to come out of hospitals. Every group is being told that. It just is not true.…”