Political Quotes

“this conference report comes before the Senate in an atmosphere of near euphoria. While I have signed the conference report--I was a Democratic conferee from the Finance Committee on these matters--and while I will vote for each of the bills, I cannot share the elation. I say this with the greatest respect for the Senators who managed this through the Budget Committee and, of course, for our own revered chairman of the Finance Committee--Senator Roth--and others who have worked so very hard on the legislation. Surely, there is much to applaud in both bills. But the agreement does little to address, in a serious way, either short run or long-run budget problems. In the short-run, the Federal budget is already on the verge of balance. This is due to a strong 7-year economic expansion. The expansion is attributable, in part--very probably in large part--to the budget decisions made by the President and this side of the aisle in the Senate in 1993. Indeed, my respected colleague, Bob Kerrey, suggests that the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 be renamed the Balanced Budget Act of 1993. The deficit reduction brought about by OBRA 93, as our usage has it, is expected to reduce the deficit by a cumulative $924 billion through 1998. That is almost a trillion dollars. I stood on the floor at this desk, with my great and good friend, Senator Sasser, as the chairman of the Budget Committee at that desk. I was chairman of the Finance Committee.”