Byron Dorgan: “The budget resolution brought to us from the committee has large, biting, permanent budget deficits. It includes very…”

“The budget resolution brought to us from the committee has large, biting, permanent budget deficits. It includes very large tax cuts. At a time when we are asking this country to sacrifice, especially with its sons and daughters, at a time when we are sending America's sons and daughters to war, this Congress is saying we will have our sons and daughters make tough choices, but we will not make tough choices. It is not the fair thing to do. I do not want those soldiers to come back to bear the burden of the costs of a war we would not cover. A little over a year ago, I was in Afghanistan. I recall visiting on the edge of Afghanistan an old Soviet airbase. I believe it was called Kanabad. At that Soviet airbase, we had soldiers. At that point, there were still a lot of activities in Afghanistan when we fought the Taliban and kicked the Taliban out of Afghanistan. We were then searching for al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. When I visited that base and spoke to the soldiers, the men and women living in a tent city were walking around in mud up to their ankles, snow, conditions that were not good, but I could see the pride in their eyes. They understood why they were there.”