Bart Stupak: “Today we are considering a plan which balances the Federal budget by the year 2002. We should be proud that Democrats…”

“Today we are considering a plan which balances the Federal budget by the year 2002. We should be proud that Democrats and Republicans have been able to work together to create this plan, but it is important that we review the facts and understand how we got ourselves in a position to balance the budget in 5 years, while protecting Medicare, Medicaid, investing in education, the environment and health care for children. When President Clinton arrived in Washington in 1993, he inherited a $290 billion budget deficit--the largest deficit in our nation's history. Job growth was stagnant, and unemployment was over 7 percent, and Washington was unable to find a solution to the exploding deficits and sluggish economy. But in 1993, President Clinton proposed a budget plan which included $500 billion in savings over 5 years. The plan was criticized by many of our Republican colleagues, who argued that deficits would explode, jobs would be killed, and our economy would crash if we adopted the President's budget plan. In fact, not a single Republican--in the House or the Senate--voted for the 1993 budget plan. But today, 4 years later, the plan has worked, and has put us in a position to balance the budget in 5 years. Today our deficit is just $67 billion--the lowest amount since 1979. The budget deficit today makes up just 0.9 of 1 percent of the gross domestic product [GDP]--the lowest level since 1974.”