Charles E. Grassley: “I want to talk to my colleagues about what has become the No. 1 issue for that conference and that is the Exon-Grassley…”

“I want to talk to my colleagues about what has become the No. 1 issue for that conference and that is the Exon-Grassley amendment. It is a $26 billion cut in the President's budget, and that is opposed to the House of Representatives rubber-stamping that budget this year. The administration just released its March report on economic indicators. The news is somewhat troubling. Civilian employment fell 221,000 in March; interest rates for 3-month T-bills were 3.06 percent in January 1993, and are now at 3.5 percent; 10 year T-bills were at 6.6 percent in January 1993, and now at 6.72. The administration's budget estimated that it would be at 5.8 percent for the next 5 years. So already there is a lot of additional costs there just from underestimating what interest rates would be. In addition, CBO reported that the February deficit was $1.6 billion higher than projected. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial points to the latest economic indicators and the market and suggested that a major factor in this is that there have been no efforts to cut the deficit--no efforts to cut the deficit.”