Lincoln Chafee: “Every Member of this Chamber believes that running up huge deficits year after year and passing the debt on to our…”

“Every Member of this Chamber believes that running up huge deficits year after year and passing the debt on to our children is just plain wrong. Every Member of this Chamber knows we must restrain the entitlement programs. The proposal I am offering on behalf of myself, Senator Breaux, and 19 of our colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, balances the budget in 7 years. It makes significant reforms to entitlement programs. It extends the solvency of the Medicare trust fund and provides modest tax relief for working families. These are all sound reasons for supporting it. But there is an additional strong reason I wish to call to your attention. The President's budget was rejected on nearly a straight party-line vote. The Republican proposal will pass on a straight party-line vote, I expect. But the implementing legislation to the Domenici proposal, the implementing legislation will undoubtedly be vetoed. Thus, its entitlement reforms will not become law, just like last year. Our budget, however, has a realistic chance of becoming law. Today with a 'yes' vote on the alternative, we can transform talk about deficit reduction into action. If we pass the Chafee-Breaux alternative, a balanced budget agreement can be reached this year. If this effort fails, then we will go through another year without solving our Nation's fiscal problems.”