John Sarbanes

I inquire of the Senator, when the Bush administration came in in 2001, wasn't the Federal budget in surplus?

This borrow-and-spend policy which the other side of the aisle is pursuing is the direct cause of the runup in the national debt, is it not? This chart which shows the incredible expansion of the national debt is the consequence of…

Only that the 25 minutes that Senator Feingold is going to use will come off the resolution.

I would respectfully request of the leader that he should have a discussion with the minority leader before seeking to set the agenda.

And now they are proposing to take people who get Medicaid because their income is so low that they can't meet their health care needs in any other way, and they are imposing additional burdens on these Medicaid recipients.

The way the Medicaid Program is structured, as I understand it, is that in order to be a Medicaid beneficiary, in order to receive Medicaid to meet your health care needs, you have to be adjudged to be at an income level that is so low it…

In light of what we previously looked at as to how this debt is being financed from outside the country, in effect what is happening is that in order to give tax cuts to very wealthy people, we are borrowing from Japan, China, Korea, and…

There is a wonderful line in a Tennessee Williams play where Blanche DuBois says: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. It seems to me that is what is happening to the fiscal situation of the United States. We are becoming…

This President has added $2.3 trillion in debt, of which $1.1 trillion is being held abroad. So there has been a dramatic shift in who is holding this debt and what that represents in terms of a burden on our society.

Let me go back to this external debt that is being held outside the country. Isn't it important to understand, as difficult as the deficit and debt problems are, that when the debt is held internally, it is Americans owing it to Americans…

This reconciliation process really is a package, in which you have to consider not only the spending cuts but the tax cuts they are pushing through, as well as the increase in the debt. Am I correct that this reconciliation package…

In 4 years, after the President said there would be no deficits, we have incurred deficits of, according to my quick calculation, over $1.2 trillion; is that correct?

So the previous year the President was saying there would be no deficit, and a year later, in the face of what obviously would be a deficit, he said, well, it will be a small and short-term deficit.

That was in March of 2001. At that time, wasn't the Federal budget running a surplus?

So at the time we were running this surplus--and let me just note, it had taken a lot of work to get out of an earlier deficit into surplus--and there was some concern expressed that the excessive tax cuts the President was proposing would…

On questioning the comity of the Senate, the Senator should yield on that point.

As I draw to a close, I just want to underscore what is happening. I had put a question to the Senator from North Dakota and there wasn't an opportunity to answer. Our debt is escalating at a faster rate than the budget deficit, which…

I close with this observation: In one of his plays, Tennessee Williams has a character, Blanche Dubois, who says: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. That is what is happening to the fiscal future of the United States of…

As I understand it, today, after this series of excessive tax cuts the President has pushed through, using this reconciliation process--actually, I think, abusing it, not using it, because it was designed to reduce deficits, not to…

Of course, these were projections. We recognize that. But they were the best estimate that could be made. Over a 10-year period, we were projecting a surplus of $5.6 billion. In fact, some said we were paying down the debt too quickly, if…

Would it be possible to make an opening statement before the chairman of the committee offers an amendment?

It is not every single day hereafter for this administration; it becomes a precedent for every administration. And I suggest to all Members of the Senate that they may find themselves, down the road at some point, seeking information they…

That strikes me as an eminently reasonable position. It needs to be made clear that there is material the executive branch is refusing to make available to the Senate, and which we need in order to be adequately informed in carrying out…

Not substantiated or backed up by the findings of the intelligence community. We have been through this issue. It seems to me a critically important issue.

Well, what rationale is advanced, if any, for this backhanded treatment of the institutions of the Senate, these two important committees, the Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, both of which are trying to conduct…