Byron Dorgan: “I wanted to make a couple of comments following those of the Senator from South Carolina, Senator Hollings. He knows…”

“I wanted to make a couple of comments following those of the Senator from South Carolina, Senator Hollings. He knows that I certainly agree with him on the issue of the Social Security trust funds and the unified budget. There are some definitional issues about the budget. I was at the White House this morning, at the invitation of President Clinton, when he made a presentation on the budget that he released today. Frankly, the budget contains a lot of good news. The Senator from South Carolina is correct about the unified budget. But it is also correct to say that this President, beginning in 1993, said that we are going to change courses here and we are going to set this country on a different direction. Between then and now, we have wrestled the Federal budget deficit to the ground. Is our job over? No. There is more to be done because of the Social Security trust funds and some other issues. But this President deserves substantial credit for deciding that we are going to change courses, change directions, and wrestle this budget deficit to the ground.”