Max Baucus: “Mr. President, I have the highest regard for the Senator from New Mexico and also for Senator Conrad, chairman of the…”

“Mr. President, I have the highest regard for the Senator from New Mexico and also for Senator Conrad, chairman of the Budget Committee. They do an excellent job in a very difficult situation trying to keep us on track with the budget matters. They are very good Senators. I think people from their home States know that. But I just wanted to state that. The question here is, does this cost any money? If you assume it does cost money, then there is an argument against directed scorekeeping; that is, there is an argument we do have outlays of maybe $15, $17 billion. What is it we are addressing? We are addressing that the tier 2 retirement trust fund buys securities; that is, stocks and bonds, rather than buying Treasury bills. The question is, Is buying equity securities the same or different from buying Treasury notes? Under the rules, they are different; that is, one is an outlay and the other is not. So it will be a $15 billion outlay cost under the budget rules if the trust fund invests in securities; that is, equity securities, and no outlay, no cost when the trust fund buys Treasury bonds.”