Dan Coats: “I also want to use this opportunity to explain why I would have, if I am to miss the vote, opposed the budget…”

“I also want to use this opportunity to explain why I would have, if I am to miss the vote, opposed the budget resolution. I have examined this very, very carefully. In fact, I have tried to come up with sufficient reasons to support the budget. I know that the leader, Senator Lott, the leadership of our Congress, of the Senate, the work of Senator Domenici has been honest, it has been an honest effort at finding a true balanced budget. They have toiled for hours. There have been compromises that have had to be made as a consequence of not controlling the executive branch and the turmoil that will result for the rest of the year if a budget agreement is not reached. This budget clearly makes some important steps in the right direction, and there is much to commend about the efforts of those who have put this together. However, I have been here since 1981, and there have been a lot of promises about balancing the budget. When I first ran for Congress, one of my top three priorities was to balance the budget. I felt that it was unconscionable, immoral to pass on to future generations a debt burden so that this present generation could enjoy benefits without having to pay for them. I have toiled now for 17 years to attempt to achieve a balanced budget in the Congress and have not been able to do so.”