So your budget perhaps had to increase to take care of the welcome addition. Yet if it could not increase enough to care for the welcome addition sufficiently, that's a cut. Seven percent under the Senate plan, Senator Daschle, five percent under the House plan. It simply can't be done. We've talked about this before.
People have very short memories.
The truth of the matter is it's probably not possible at all to balance the budget without degrading the social services unless taxes are also raised. This all comes at a time when the Jesse Helmses of the world are anxious to cut back or cut off funding to groups like the World Health Organization. The group calling itself the Christian Coalition is aligned with hard-right stands on issues ranging from gay rights to school prayer, and it's demanding its due for its help in getting Republicans elected. They no longer have to worry about being shipped to Siberia for defying the old communist state. They may have to come to Moscow, where the chances of dying in a car crash are greater than expiring in Siberia.