David Durenberger: “I rise today in opposition to the fiscal 1995 budget resolution. I commend the Budget Committee for reporting a budget…”

“I rise today in opposition to the fiscal 1995 budget resolution. I commend the Budget Committee for reporting a budget resolution which reduces the deficit by $38 billion over 5 years. In particular, I commend the Committee for adopting the Exon-Grassley amendment, which increases the President's proposed deficit reduction of $12 billion by $26.1 billion. That is a good start, but we must do better--despite the efforts of Senators Exon and Grassley, the budget resolution will only cut the deficit by $1.6 billion in outlays for fiscal 1995. For some reason, both the President and Budget Committee Chairman Sasser believe that we should take a rest from significant deficit reduction this year. I acknowledge the fact that a $173.5 billion deficit projection for fiscal 1995 is a significant improvement from the $235 billion deficit in fiscal 1994. However, we must bear in mind that this reduction is largely a consequence of the economic recovery that began under President Bush. As former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker advised members of this body last week, during periods of recovery we should strive for a surplus. In other words, we should act now. I do not suggest that a surplus like that advocated by Chairman Volcker is realistic in the immediate future. But we must begin to work towards that goal. We should not defer hard budget choices until later in the business cycle, when general economic conditions may impair our ability to act.”