J. Exon: “Let me just note a few highlights that are quite evident from that report. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that…”

“Let me just note a few highlights that are quite evident from that report. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that unless we take action right now, the deficit will rise to $322 billion in the year 2002. In order to balance the budget between now and then, the Congressional Budget Office tells us that we will need to achieve some $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, and if we add into the plan tax cuts in the Republican-controlled Contract With America and, to a lesser extent, the tax cuts suggested by the President of the United States, that figure will easily exceed $1.5 trillion in cuts that we are going to have to make between now and then. Let us get on with it. To achieve this herculean task, we must begin to act now. Maybe we are already too late. To quote the CBO report: If the budget is to be balanced by the year 2002, it is vitally important that Congress and the President begin immediately to put into effect policy that will achieve that goal. That, Mr. President, is what my amendment is all about. My amendment will force Congress to start dealing with this challenge now, not in the year 2002.”