David Price: “What you are saying about leadership, I think, really is important, because it is pretty easy to get cynical about…”

“What you are saying about leadership, I think, really is important, because it is pretty easy to get cynical about Congress and the budget process over the 1980s and the 1990s as so often action was pretty ineffectual. But there were three times, were there not, when Congress rose to the occasion: once in 1990, on a bipartisan basis when the first President Bush joined with the Democratic congressional leadership and concluded a significant budget agreement; in 1993, with Democratic heavy lifting alone, an agreement that was actually rather similar to 1990 and moved the ball further; and then the 1997 agreement led by President Clinton, but with some bipartisan support. Looking back to that 1990 agreement, which I think most of us remember as a difficult time, but a very positive achievement, is there any prospect that this present administration or this present congressional leadership has any inclination to undertake this sort of tack?”