Bob Dole: “When the Senate passes the fiscal year 1997 budget resolution, it will be doing important work because no policy is more…”

“When the Senate passes the fiscal year 1997 budget resolution, it will be doing important work because no policy is more important to the economic future of all Americans, and particularly to the future of our children, than a balanced budget. We will also be fulfilling our promise to the American people to balance the budget by the year 2002. I am proud of our achievement in keeping our promise to the American people and I am proud of this budget. The fiscal year 1997 budget resolution balances the Federal budget in 6 years. It reduces overall Federal spending by more than $700 billion over the next 6 years. It provides family tax relief of $122 billion for a $500-per-child tax credit to help America's working families. It provides for real welfare reform. And it would prevent the Medicare program from pending bankruptcy. The Medicare trustees reported last week that Medicare is going broke more quickly and in this budget we save Medicare from bankruptcy in the year 2001. That's why this is a good conference agreement.”