Don Nickles: “some people will say that $113 billion reduction was a direct result of the deficit reduction package that passed last…”

“some people will say that $113 billion reduction was a direct result of the deficit reduction package that passed last year. My colleague from North Dakota said he was proud to have voted in favor of that package. I was proud to have voted in opposition to it because it contained over $2 in tax increases for every $1 of spending cuts. For fiscal year 1995, the spending cuts that were projected by CBO as a result of last year's package totaled $5 billion. The tax increases totaled $46 billion; plus $2 billion in debt savings. Economic changes were $15 billion and technical and others were $45 billion; in other words, we are not going to spend so much money on S&L's. But the point I am making is that of the $113 billion, only $5 billion of it was spending cuts. I might add for the Record we are ultimately not going to have $5 billion in spending cuts because we just passed an urgent supplemental that is going to increase spending by $8.5 billion. So finally there are not going to be any spending cuts according to CBO, in 1995. Also, Mr. President, there are no spending cuts in 1994 or in 1993. In the first 3 years of this administration there are no spending cuts whatsoever. In 1993, there was a $4 billion spending increase. There was also a $4 billion spending increase for 1994. So, I did not support the Clinton tax package because I did not feel it was balanced.”