Pete Domenici: “First, let me say I am very pleased this afternoon to be on the floor with Senator Conrad. I think those who watch the…”

“First, let me say I am very pleased this afternoon to be on the floor with Senator Conrad. I think those who watch the Senate as it conducts business are probably, in the next 3 weeks, going to see a lot of us because we will have the whole budget up here for at least a week. Senator Conrad manages it for the other side of the aisle, and I manage it on this side. I am very hopeful that, while this is a very interesting and somewhat difficult issue today, we will handle it in a very civil manner between the two of us as to what we ought to do. First of all, everybody should know that when we offered a lockbox on Social Security on this side--it is the only one you could really call a lockbox--the other side of the aisle opposed it because it was too rigid. And they found out from the Secretary of the Treasury it may have been even too difficult for the U.S. Government to manage in terms of managing its debts. So we have come from that point to what we generally call a lockbox here, to make any expenditures from that fund that are not authorized in that law itself subject to a 60-vote point of order. That generally is called a lockbox because it will call it to the attention of those affected, and it will require a supermajority to vote for it. That is what our amendment does for both Social Security and Medicare. But what it does in both programs is exactly what the House did. It passed by over 400 votes.…”