Lincoln Chafee: “The arguments, I believe, have been very, very forcefully set forth this evening by the speakers on our side, Democrats…”

“The arguments, I believe, have been very, very forcefully set forth this evening by the speakers on our side, Democrats and Republicans. What are we talking about? We are talking as a bipartisan group that something has to be done about the deficit of this Nation or future generations are going to be in terrible trouble. We heard the statistics from the Senator from South Dakota in connection with this, and others likewise who talked about what Social Security is going to look like or Medicare or the other entitlement programs unless in some fashion we get control. This budget that we are presenting does that. This budget not only balances itself in the 7 years, but in the outyears, that is where the tremendous savings are. So I commend my colleagues to come forward and join us. As the Presiding Officer in his remarks pointed out, there are those who are saying, 'We would be with you, but we're not sure you have enough votes.' If we spent all our time going only with those who have a majority, we would not stand for anything. We are not sent down here as weather vanes to go where the majority is. We are sent down here, it seems to me, not only to look after this generation, but future generations as well. So, Mr. President, we put forward a tough program, but the solutions to the problems of this Nation are not going to be sugar candy. They are going to have to be by facing up to difficult decisions. Is reducing the CPI by 0.5 percent a difficult decision? Sure it is.”