Steve Watkins: “first I want to thank the leadership on the majority side, the Republican side, and also I want to express my thanks to…”

“first I want to thank the leadership on the majority side, the Republican side, and also I want to express my thanks to the Democrats, the minority, for working out a bipartisan budget. I want to express to my colleagues in my 15 years this is the best budget that I have seen based on credible economic assumptions. It is the best budget in order to balance the budget. That is No. 1, and something we have to address quickly. But second, it is the best budget for economic growth as we enter the 21st century and a globally competitive world to build a future for our children and grandchildren. We must not be overtaxed or overregulated to compete in a global economy. When I say based on sound economic assumptions, I want to address this to my colleagues on the majority side. This budget, by far, is better than Reaganomics. It is a lot better. It is based on sound economic assumptions. The budget David Stockman put together in 1980-81 was based on erroneous figures. He confessed to that in the Atlantic Monthly of December 1981. Let me give my colleagues some figures. In 1981, under Reaganomics, the GDP was at 1.1 percent growth at the time. They projected the GDP in 5 years to be 5.2 percent. It could not be done. Ours is based on a budget of conservative 2.1 percent. Right now it is 5.4 percent. We can see that we have conservative figures. They are credible figures. The same way when we look at inflation. The budget in 1981 was at 11.1 percent inflation.”