Charles E. Grassley: “now that the smoke has begun to clear from a recent adoption of the budget resolution in the Congress, I can say as…”

“now that the smoke has begun to clear from a recent adoption of the budget resolution in the Congress, I can say as always, when you look back on the Record, it allows us to compare what was the rhetoric during that debate and the predictions of that debate against what really happened. I am thinking in terms of the arguments that were used during the Exon-Grassley debate that, No. 1, the cuts were not specific enough, and that they should be more specific and across the board; and second, if Exon-Grassley were to be adopted, all the cuts would come out of defense. Mr. President, we are beginning to see that some of the wild comments made by opponents of Exon-Grassley were baseless and unfounded. I would like to speak to what has happened now since the budget resolution was adopted to prove what I had said during that debate did materialize. I want to remind my colleagues that the 'Chicken Littles' in this town claimed that defense would be slashed and burned under Exon-Grassley. They claimed that 75 to 80 percent of the cuts would come out of defense. Now, we have had in the meantime the House Appropriations Committee determining its 602(b) allocations. Defense outlays have been reduced by only $500 million. And that is out of a total of more than $3 billion in savings. Thus, the defense cuts were only 16.5 percent of the total savings, not the 75 to 80 percent that the people in this body said that defense would be cut.”