Cord Byrd: “Let's take a look at this chart. The green line, the horizontal line, means that the estimated revenues were right on…”

“Let's take a look at this chart. The green line, the horizontal line, means that the estimated revenues were right on target. They were not overestimated. They were not underestimated. The revenues were exactly estimated to be exactly on target. Note the chart which the Senator says makes his case. The chart says that in only one year, 1987, did the estimates even come close to being on target. They were off just $2 billion. So the chart makes my case. The committee says you can do it by estimates. "Estimates of outlays shall not exceed estimates of receipts in any given fiscal year." The chart shows that you cannot depend upon the estimates, that the people who have the most expertise of any in the world cannot be accurate in their estimates. Why? Because we cannot foresee what the unemployment rate is going to be, we cannot foresee what the rate of national economic growth is going to be, and we cannot see what interest rates are going to be in a year or more down the road. That is why people cannot be accurate in their estimates. So this committee language makes my case--makes my case when it turns to the use of words like "estimates," and then defines the word "estimates" as meaning "good faith, responsible, and reasonable estimates made with honest intent to implement section 1." Let me ask the question of my dear friend, who will be making up these estimates? The Congress will make the estimates. The Congress will enforce the amendment.”