The budget negotiators now promise to get serious next month.
And his budget negotiators have sounded the same note ever since.
But the budget negotiators have been particularly wary of one another this year.
Such thinking puts pressure on the budget negotiators to reach an agreement.
Republican and Democratic budget negotiators have yet to announce their plans for this week.
If the money holds out, the budget negotiators have picked some good things to spend it on.
On Thursday, budget negotiators are to meet to discuss tax cuts.
"If it was up to Dole himself," one of the budget negotiators said last week, "this would have been done weeks ago."
The budget negotiators, on the other hand, have talked little if at all about how to settle their disagreements.
Budget negotiators said this change would save perhaps $10 billion to $15 billion from 2000 to 2002.