Rod Grams: “I should like to talk a little bit about today's budget vote and some reasons why I had to anguish over it and vote no…”

“I should like to talk a little bit about today's budget vote and some reasons why I had to anguish over it and vote no on this budget, a budget that I hoped we could all be proud of and we could go home and really tell our constituents we had done the best job we could and we were providing an honest budget that was going to provide the things we had talked about--smaller Government, less taxes, et cetera. But, Mr. President, there is an old saying that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. In Washington, that scene can be taken one step further. If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is and the taxpayers are somehow going to get stuck paying for it. Such is the case with the budget resolution passed by the Senate earlier today. On paper, the plan purports to eliminate the deficit by the year 2002 by reining in Federal spending while providing significant tax relief for America's working families. I appreciate all the efforts that were made to try to reach a good budget agreement I hoped I could support, and I know how hard Senators Domenici and Lautenberg and the leadership on both sides of the aisle worked to bang out this budget. But in reality, this budget will ultimately create bigger Government, a budget that is going to demand more dollars from the taxpayers rather than giving them most of the tax relief they have been promised.”