Frank Lautenberg: “It is a big deal; a giant deal. I think, without breaking our arms or patting ourselves on the back, there was a lot of…”

“It is a big deal; a giant deal. I think, without breaking our arms or patting ourselves on the back, there was a lot of goodwill that was injected into the discussion and into the debate. My colleague from Idaho, who is a man who has a way with words, kind of laid it on us and included the President in there as someone who did buy into the balanced budget notion but was dragged kicking and screaming. Mr. President, I wish it was 1 o'clock in the afternoon and we were all energized and we had a chance to talk a little bit. But I will not prolong the process except for a minute or two to say, since it took what I thought was a slight partisan turn--it makes me unhappy when things have gone this well this way to say that I have been here long enough to remember Presidents Reagan and Bush. I like them both. They are nice people. But people on their watch, as we say, who managed to have this deficit of ours skyrocket right up into the air--turn up the tax cuts and let the deficits run. That is what they did. When our President and the Democratic Party took over in 1992, 1993, he inherited a deficit that year of $290 billion without a balanced budget amendment but with the interest that was generated. Yes, we were profligates, and we spent too much money, and perhaps we did a few things wrong. But it was an honest try all the way. And the assertion or the insinuation that these guys didn't care or those guys didn't care, it is not a way to do business.”