Thomas Daschle: “the President's fiscal year 1997 budget builds on the immense economic success of his 1993 budget. Since the enactment…”

“the President's fiscal year 1997 budget builds on the immense economic success of his 1993 budget. Since the enactment of that historic deficit reduction package, the Federal deficit has been cut in half--from $290 billion to a projected $144 billion in 1996, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit as a share of the economy is down from 4.7 percent in 1992 to 2.3 percent today. Last week CBO projected the 1996 deficit may be even lower--down to $130 billion. These favorable reports serve as testament both to the effectiveness of the 1993 deficit reduction package and a strong Clinton economy. Actual total deficit reduction achieved by the 1993 budget package is now estimated by CBO to be approximately $800 billion over 5 years. All this progress has come from a deficit reduction package that was enacted without a single Republican vote. Although most of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle predicted the 1993 package would bring about job loss and recession, economic indicators have improved vastly since the Bush recession. Unemployment is down from 7.3 percent in January 1993 to 5.4 percent in April 1996. Inflation has been remarkably low during these times of sustained economic growth, with the consumer price index increasing less than 3 percent in each of the last 3 years. Since January 1993, 8.5 million jobs have been created, and more than 90 percent of those were private sector jobs.”