Neil Abercrombie: “I wish I could say it was a pleasure to be here today, but I intend to discuss the 1997 budget today. Mr. Speaker, you…”

“I wish I could say it was a pleasure to be here today, but I intend to discuss the 1997 budget today. Mr. Speaker, you may recall that I analyzed the 1996 budget activity in the context of an extended debate that took place on this floor, and in the other body, and you may recall, Mr. Speaker, that I invoked Members from the other body, like Mr. Hollings and Mr. Dorgan, covering the full range of opinions certainly in the Democratic Party. I indicated in that discussion that I had in conjunction with the Congressional Record in 1996 that there was no such thing as a balanced budget being prepared, let alone put forward in 1996, and we have the same situation today. Mr. Speaker, I do not doubt that it is very important for Mr. Dole to resign from the Senate to run as citizen and/or candidate Dole, because I do not think that in his role as Senator, let alone majority leader, that he would have the opportunity to have much credibility in the way of putting forward a balanced budget amendment, let alone putting forward a balanced budget for 1997. My fundamental point, Mr. Speaker, is that the budget that will be presented to us shortly, possibly this week, and be dispatched as quickly as possible, as opposed to 1996, dispatched as quickly as possible because it is not a balanced budget.”