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Florida is recognized for four minutes. Thank you, Mr President. Mr. President, I strongly concur in the statements that have been made by each of my colleagues this morning. This is the time for public officials in Washington to stop the procrastination, the bickering, the confrontation and to start the process of governing for the benefit of the people of America.

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I am encouraged at the reports this morning that indicate that we may be on the verge of reaching a resolution for the budget for fiscal year 1996. I deplore the fact that it took until the 25th of April to reach a budget resolution which sort of should have been realized prior to October 1st of 1995.

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But later is better than never at all. Mr. President, we are at a historic moment in terms of our opportunity to balance the federal budget, the leadership of the House and the membership of the House. One a balanced budget. The same is true in the Senate.

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The President wants a balanced budget. We are on the verge of producing the first balanced budget that we have had in almost two generations missing this premier opportunity muddling along into the election and beyond is a sure path for continued public disdain of our commitment and our ability to achieve an important national purpose.

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It would be a tragedy to let this opportunity drift away. In some ways, it would be more than a tragedy. It would be a disgrace and an outrage. It is for exactly the avoidance of those negative perceptions that the centrist coalition was formed to see if it was not possible to put together a reasonable plan to bring our federal budget into balance and to keep it there and to do so on a bipartisan basis.

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One of our principles was that if you are going to have sustained government programs at the domestic or foreign level that it is critical that they be premised on a foundation of bipartisanship, let me just mention what I think are a few of the principal aspects of this centrist coalition budget.

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The budget is honest. It brings us into balance with a reasonable annual movement Towards that balance, it does not postpone all the tough decisions to the last year. The budget also sustains this balance by making critical structural changes. It will help assure that we stay in balance into the future, and this balanced budget will produce broad economic benefits for the nation.

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Virtually every economist agrees that if we can have a balanced budget plan that we are committed to realizing that it will result in noticeably lower interest rates over the next period than those interest rates will be. If we fail in this effort, that will mean every month in the wallets of American families additional dollars that they can spend rather than spending on interest for their home mortgage.

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It will mean for young people coming out of College University that they will have lower interest costs for their student loans. Virtually every American will benefit by this contribution, Mr President, Just briefly in the moments left to me, let me say that I particularly worked on the section of this budget plan that relates to Medicaid.

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It is a complicated area which, with our recommendations, will be explained in more detail later. But basic principles that were preserved in this important area include the safety net for low income and elderly Americans has been preserved a continuing federal role in assuring that safety net is maintained.

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But substantial additional flexibility is given to the states in order to innovate and to assist in realizing the significant savings which we think are possible in this program. So, Mr President, I conclude by commending my colleagues who have joined in this effort who provided such effective leadership.

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We do not purport that this is biblical. Uh, this is the product of men and women, fair minded, trying to develop a compromise in the best traditions of Democratic government. We hope that this will serve to stimulate others to move forward and bring a plan for balanced budget to the American people in 1996.

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Thank you. Who is president ru four minutes to the senator from Maine, senator from Maine.