Byron Dorgan: “I have enjoyed the debate, the discussions today, and I have watched some of it from my office. The budget is a…”

“I have enjoyed the debate, the discussions today, and I have watched some of it from my office. The budget is a discussion about this country's value systems. It is very simple. I have mentioned many times on the floor the proposition that if someone asked you to write an obituary for someone you had never met but who had died and the only information you had about that person was their check register, what would you write? Well, you would write a little something about what that person felt were his priorities in life, what was his or her value system. What did they invest in? What did they spend money on? That would represent their value system. That is what you would tell about that deceased person you never met. One hundred years from now, we will all be dead. Historians will be able to look back at this moment and say: What were our values? What was our value system? By looking at the Federal budget, they will say: Here is what the United States held dear; here is what they invested in; here is what their priorities and their values were. Now, because this budget represents a set of priorities and values, it is important to take a look at the first step in the budget process, and that is the budget sent to us by President. I recall, in the year 2001, the debate on the floor of the Senate about the President's fiscal policy.…”