Bob Kerrey: “I do want to go back to 1993, as many of my colleagues have done, and discuss the Deficit-Reduction Act of 1993. Since I…”

“I do want to go back to 1993, as many of my colleagues have done, and discuss the Deficit-Reduction Act of 1993. Since I only have 10 minutes, I will not go into detail about the one that happened in 1990 under President Bush's watch. Both of those were very unpopular budget resolutions. I noticed when I went home, in both cases, there was substantial criticism from people who did not like various aspects of it. One of the unique things about this particular budget resolution compared to those is that I do not expect to find a similar sort of outcry against it. I think it tells us a lot about what is in this one as well as the progress that we have made toward reduction over the last 4 years. That resolution, Mr. President, that act, OBRA, 1993, brought the deficit down by 77 percent, a substantial reduction in the deficit. It occurred, it must be said, as a consequence of the economic recovery that had begun in 1992. It did not produce all of the growth by any measure. I do not argue that the economy turned around as a result of that Deficit-Reduction Act, but there is no question that we had demonstrated in 1993 that there was a connection between growth and deficit reduction.”