Judd Gregg: “let me echo the comments of the Senator from North Dakota relative to his staff and himself. They are extraordinarily…”

“let me echo the comments of the Senator from North Dakota relative to his staff and himself. They are extraordinarily professional. As he mentioned, we do have some disagreements, but we do it in what I think is an appropriate way. We discuss the policy. We disagree on policy. But it is never personal, and there is always a cooperative spirit to try to do the business of the Senate. I greatly admire his professionalism and his staff's professionalism. I understand the Senator from North Dakota has another 4 hours. I regret we are not going to hear him speak for that entire period of time because this last hour was certainly ``chartlizing''; not scintillating but ``chartlizing.'' The Senator has made a number of points, some of which I actually agree with but most of which I must say I find inconsistent with the facts that are on the ground. With what do I agree? I agree with the fact we are headed toward a fiscal problem of immense proportions primarily driven by the fact that we have a tremendous baby boom generation that is about to retire. Yesterday I spoke at some length about that. That is why we need to initiate efforts to get under control spending of the Federal Government, especially in the mandatory accounts--mandatory accounts being those accounts which people have a right to, simply because of their situation, whether it is a fiscal situation or personal situation.…”