Cord Byrd: “the debate about budget deficits is taking place all across this country. Ironically, the one place where debate is…”

“the debate about budget deficits is taking place all across this country. Ironically, the one place where debate is discouraged on this matter is right here in the world's greatest deliberative body. My amendment would strike the tax reconciliation instructions to the Finance Committee that would shield tax cut legislation that worsens the deficit from a thorough debate in the Senate. To use reconciliation to increase the deficit is an abuse of the budget process. It doesn't matter whether it is an $81 billion tax cut, a $350 billion tax cut, or a $1.35 trillion tax cut, the Budget Act framers--and I was one of them--did not contemplate all this difficulty, did not contemplate reconciliation would ever be used to worsen the deficit. Not until 1999, after 25 years of restraint, was this abuse of the process first perpetrated. If this budget resolution passes with these reconciliation instructions included, the Senate will be denied the opportunity to forge a consensus that would allow it to extend these tax cuts and pay for them. That is the issue on which we vote today. A vote to strike the reconciliation instructions is a vote to allow the Senate to work its will and to permit the further worsening of the deficit. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment, and I thank the Chair.”