Mike Levin: “I will support the Balance Budget Act of 1997 which takes us the final step in a process begun in 1993. It reflects a…”

“I will support the Balance Budget Act of 1997 which takes us the final step in a process begun in 1993. It reflects a considerable bipartisan accomplishment. While I don't agree with it in every specific, it gives a significant boost to education, provides for the largest investment in health care for children in 30 years, protects Medicare and Medicaid, and it reaches a balanced budget by the year 2002. 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 1 percent of the gross domestic product. Over the 5 years from 1993 to 1998, the deficit has been reduced by about $1 trillion 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 5.9 percent rate, with an inflation rate of 2.7 percent. The unemployment rate is now 5 percent, the lowest in 24 years. This compares to an unemployment rate in 1992 of 7.5 percent. More than 12 million new jobs have been created since President Clinton took office.”