Mike Levin: “the budget resolution which the Senate is now considering represents the next step forward in a process begun in 1993.…”

“the budget resolution which the Senate is now considering represents the next step forward in a process begun in 1993. It reflects a considerable bipartisan accomplishment of the congressional leadership and the President. While I don't agree with it in every specific, it represents the best opportunity to reach a balanced budget by the year 2002, in a way which protects Medicare, Medicaid, funding for education and environmental protection. In 1992, the deficit in the Federal budget was $290 billion which represented 4.7 percent of the gross domestic product. The most recent estimate of the deficit for fiscal year 1997 is $67 billion, approximately eight-tenths of one percent of the gross domestic product. Over the 5 years from 1993 to 1998, the deficit has been reduced by about 1 trillion dollars from the deficit for those 5 years projected at the time. This remarkable progress has come about in large part as a result of the deficit reduction package which President Clinton presented in 1993, and which this Senate passed, without a single Republican vote, by a margin of one vote, the Vice-President's. The economy has responded to the steady reduction of the deficit. The economy grew for the first quarter of 1997 at a 5.6 percent rate, with an inflation rate of 2.7 percent. The unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, the lowest in 24 years. This compares to an unemployment rate in 1992 of 7.5 percent.”