Thomas Daschle: “Mr. President, it is with some disappointment that Democrats offer any substitute at all. The times when we work best…”

“Mr. President, it is with some disappointment that Democrats offer any substitute at all. The times when we work best are the times when we can find agreement in the Budget Committee, as we did last year. We were disappointed that agreement could not be reached to everyone's satisfaction. So we find ourselves compelled to offer an alternative to the budget now being proposed by the majority. Our plan very simply does what the President of the United States said we should do in his State of the Union address a couple of months ago. We put Social Security first. We provide targeted tax cuts for working families. We make very important domestic investments so that working families across this country can experience the tremendous economic gain and economic vitality that this country has realized in the last several years. We stay within the spending ceilings established in last year's budget agreement. We maintain balance in 1999 and produce budget surpluses well into the next century.”