David Minge: “I do not wish to oversell this budget agreement. There is certainly much to criticize in the agreement. Some of the…”

“I do not wish to oversell this budget agreement. There is certainly much to criticize in the agreement. Some of the previous speakers have dwelt on these shortcomings, but I would like to begin my remarks by pointing out some of the positive qualities of this agreement. First and foremost, it is bipartisan. There are many Democrats and there are many Republicans who will not vote for this agreement. But conversely, the majority in both Caucuses will no doubt be supporting the agreement, and it will pass by a substantial margin in this body. That is important because we need a budget agreement that will survive the next election, whoever may be the majority in this body, and bipartisanship is critical if we are going to make some of the tough decisions and expect to make them stick for the length of time necessary to reach our goal; namely, eliminating the deficit. Second, this budget agreement does rely on realistic economic assumptions, forecasts about what the economy will do, forecasts about the demands that will be placed upon the Federal Government for programs that are already well-established.”