Mr. President, I urge my colleagues, if we want to repeal the estate tax and pay for it, to vote for the Warner amendment No. 693. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time in opposition? The Senator from South Dakota.

Mr. President, the chairman of the Budget Committee has done an excellent job. While I appreciate the comments of my colleague from South Dakota, I actually think that in order to deal with the budget challenges facing the country, we have…

Thank you. So I hope my colleagues will support the amendment. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Ayotte, and the other opponents of this amendment. Senator Alexander said that States should be able to decide what to do about taxes. Well, in New Hampshire we…

Mr. President, I thank my colleague Senator Isakson. I was a Governor for three budgets, and we were able to balance them every other year every cycle because biennial budgeting gives us an opportunity to prioritize scarce resources and…

Mr. President, I wish to just take one moment before I yield time to the Senator from Delaware. (Disturbance in the Visitors' Galleries.) The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will be no expressions from the gallery.

I commend my friend, the Senator from Oklahoma, who has made this a passion. I would acknowledge this is a challenge that transfers between administrations. When I was Governor of Virginia, under the previous administration, we tried to…

I wish to thank my colleague from Georgia Senator Isakson for his eloquent and thoughtful remarks in support of the biennial budgeting amendment. I am proud to join him as a cosponsor of this amendment and a cosponsor of the legislation we…

I wish to thank the Senator from Hawaii for the real stories of how these sequester cuts are affecting folks in her State of Hawaii, and, obviously, my friend, the Senator from Virginia, has expressed those challenges as well. Let me be…

Mr. President, let me, first of all, thank the chairman of the committee for her great work in putting together what is this first step toward getting this issue that has plagued this body and plagued this country behind us. This budget…

I would ask the Senator, I know he has seen and is very familiar with these installations and their families because of his tenure as Governor. You may also want to make the point: in an area such as Hampton Roads where you put these folks…

I will vote today for H. Con. Res. 25, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, because we have a duty to address our nation's looming fiscal obligations. As I have repeatedly said, we cannot continue to kick the proverbial can…

Mr. President, I thank Senator Levin for the work he has done to look at the tax loopholes that should be closed and to bring attention to really the fairness we should have in our Tax Code. I am here to join my colleagues in talking about…

I thank the Senator from Virginia. I ask unanimous consent to engage in colloquy with my friend, the Senator from Virginia, the Senator from Hawaii, and the Senator from New Hampshire as well. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without…

To briefly respond--I don't want to keep returning to the ``Blazing Saddles'' analogy, other than the fact these cuts were set up to be the stupidest way possible. No rational group of folks would allow them to come to pass. The only other…

Mr. President, I rise today to raise my voice in this important dialogue about the budget currently pending before this body. I am thrilled as, first, we are actually having this debate. It has been 4 long years since we passed a budget. I…

Absolutely. I am pleased the Senator brought this up. When folks are furloughed and they see their pay reduced, they will spend less at the drycleaner and less at the restaurant. They will delay the purchase of the automobile they planned…

Mr. President, I thank my colleague Senator Warner. I do want to pick up on one of the last points he made, which is the balanced way of getting to where we all want to go. We want to have a growing economy with a lowering unemployment…