Byron Dorgan: “The budget that is brought to the floor of the Senate truly establishes what this country perceives to be its…”

“The budget that is brought to the floor of the Senate truly establishes what this country perceives to be its priorities. The one thing that is certain about all of this is 100 years from now, none of us will be here. No one. Not anyone within the sound of my voice will be here 100 years from now. If those living 100 years from now wanted to look back and understand a little bit about what we were about, what we treasured, what we valued, what we thought was important to our country, one way for them to evaluate that would be to look at the Federal budget. What choices did this group of Americans make about how to educate their children? How did we provide for their health care needs? What kind of a defense system did they need, and at what cost? How did they respond to the issues of poverty and hunger? You could look at the Federal budget and make some judgments about what priorities did this particular Senate or did this Congress think were important and were dear to it.”