Charles E. Grassley: “it is not easy for me to rise against an amendment by Senator Nunn and Senator Domenici because Senator Nunn has been so…”

“it is not easy for me to rise against an amendment by Senator Nunn and Senator Domenici because Senator Nunn has been so helpful to me on so many different initiatives I have had on defense procurement reform. Also, Senator Domenici has been a very good leader in this area of exposing waste in the budget. And, of course, as Senator Gramm said, I also supported the substance of this amendment yesterday. But when you get right down to it, the basic question is whether or not we are going to do more today or wait until tomorrow. I think there is some legitimacy to what the Senator from North Dakota said, that this is a back-loading of the Nunn-Domenici amendment, but ours is front-loaded. The exact figures are that outlays under Exon-Grassley would in 4 years be cut $17.9 billion, and Mr. Domenici's amendment would cut $6.5 billion. What the people want is for us to make the cuts now, not put it off until future Congresses and future years when the cuts will not be made. Last year, we Republicans made a very strong point on the floor of this Senate--and I made it myself as well--that we found fault with President Clinton's first budget because he actually increased taxes before he was sworn into office, while about 80 percent of the spending cuts came in the outyears after his first term in office. So that is not the responsible way to budget. We ought to bite the bullet today.…”