John Sarbanes: “It seems to me what Senator Byrd is underscoring is that the Senate, when they first passed the Budget Act, made a great…”

“It seems to me what Senator Byrd is underscoring is that the Senate, when they first passed the Budget Act, made a great exception to the process of unlimited debate in order to try to bring the deficit under control. The guiding rationale for making that exception was limited to accomplishing deficit reduction. No one, in their wildest dreams, ever imagined we were going to be out here trying to deal with reconciliation instructions which would lower the surplus or potentially increase the deficit.”