T. Gorton: “there are, in my view, two remarkable aspects to the budget resolution conference report before the Senate this…”

“there are, in my view, two remarkable aspects to the budget resolution conference report before the Senate this afternoon. The first is, I believe for only the third or fourth time since the Budget Act was passed, the promptness with which the Senate is dealing on a final basis with a budget resolution that is the springboard from which we will do the substantive work of the appropriations for the balance of this year. For that promptness, for the efficiency with which the Senate has dealt with this issue, we owe our deepest and sincerest thanks not only to the chairman of the committee, my friend, Pete Domenici, but to the staff who have labored so long and so hard on a highly technical and complicated task. More significant perhaps than the significance of finishing our work on time is the substantive nature of this budget resolution. It is exquisitely balanced among three separate needs: The need to adequately fund those programs that are already major responsibilities of the Federal Government; the need to provide for additional programs of considerable interest, the most significant of which being the Medicare program about which Senator Domenici spoke earlier, but also including priorities with respect to education--particularly close to my heart-- and to our national defense. The second substantive element of this budget resolution is the dramatic reduction in the national debt it will cause.”