Byron Dorgan: “Senator Conrad has offered an amendment that is simple, devastatingly simple, and right. I talk often about going to a…”

“Senator Conrad has offered an amendment that is simple, devastatingly simple, and right. I talk often about going to a very small school, probably not the smallest school that anyone in the Senate attended, but it must be close. My entire high school, four grades, was 40 kids, and the senior class in my high school was 9. I kid that I was in the top 5 somewhere in a high school class of 9. We did not have Ph.D.s teaching math. I didn't need a Ph.D. to tell me how to add 1 and 1; 1 and 1 always equals 2--except in Washington, DC, during a budget debate. Let me talk about what is happening with respect to fiscal policy in this country. This is a chart that shows what is happening with respect to Federal surpluses and deficits. We were in the go-go 1990s, turbocharged 1990s; our economy was building, creating new jobs and producing tax revenues, and we began to have surpluses. We had people say: We have surpluses as far as the eye can see; let's provide very large tax cuts. President Bush was the leader of that $1.7 trillion effort. Some said we ought to be a little more conservative, if something happens. But the President got his way, we had a very large tax cut, and guess what. We then had a recession.”