Connie Mack: “Initially, I thought the Commission would be in place long enough to get us to a balanced budget. That would be around…”

“Initially, I thought the Commission would be in place long enough to get us to a balanced budget. That would be around the year 2000, according to the Congressional Budget Office, if we make the kind of reductions that are called for, and that is roughly $34 billion a year from the Congressional Budget Office baseline. But I think it would be important to keep it in place whenever there was a time when there was a projected deficit so that we would have a means on which to fall back. That is point one. Point two. I would like to make this comment. We are not taking away Congress' authority. Congress can go ahead and carry out their responsibility for making $34 billion a year in spending cuts. If they do that, there is nothing for the Commission to do. But if the Congress fails to meet that target, then the Commission goes into effect.”