We have made positive progress in the annual deficit. and we must continue to make progress without extreme actions. Todays budget agreement. hammered out by President Clinton and the Congress. demonstrates that we can pursue fiscal balance without creating social imbalance. It extends the Medicare trust fund. even while adding several preventative benefits such as annual mammograms. protects the Medicaid Program. enacts the most significant expansion of health care in three decades. and reinstates fair benefits for legal immigrants lost in the name of reform in 1996. Without the need of a majority vote. each of us no doubt would change this budget. But we must examine and judge Ihis budget based on what is possible politically and practically today. against the backdrop of 199596. when polarization and the shutdown of the Federal Government were employed to achieve the ends that the Republican majority in Congress sought. those goals were wrong.
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