Bob Dole: “let me reinforce the statement made by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Roth. I have been meeting with…”

“let me reinforce the statement made by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Roth. I have been meeting with Republican Senators throughout the afternoon. We are, I think the Senator from New York would appreciate, acting in good faith. We believe we can resolve this. Having been chairman of the Finance Committee and having to deal with debt ceilings, I know there is always a problem. When there is a Republican in the White House, the problem is on that side of the aisle; when there is a Democrat in the White House, the problem is on this side of the aisle, the problem as far as the administration is concerned. I remember going to conference with amendments on Nicaragua. I think there were 19 amendments--foreign policy, everything you could think of was on the debt ceiling. I assure the Democratic leader on the floor and the former chairman of the Finance Committee, as I did Secretary Rubin the night of the State of the Union Message, we believe we can get this done in a timely fashion so no checks will be late, nothing will be interrupted in any way. Having said that, as one who did not favor the shutting down of the Government in the first place, I do not think we ought to risk doing it on a Friday afternoon.”