Byron Dorgan: “it is Monday today, and somewhere deep in the bowels of this Capitol building, the budget people are meeting to finalize…”

“it is Monday today, and somewhere deep in the bowels of this Capitol building, the budget people are meeting to finalize a budget agreement in something called the reconciliation bill, which deals with both spending and taxes. These are the budgeteers, the people that come from the Budget Committees, and they work on the budget; they know the budget. They deal in almost a foreign language, speaking to each other in a language that most Americans would not understand. Somewhere down in the recesses of this building, they are now meeting, finalizing two reconciliation bills--one on spending and one proposing tax cuts. The issue that brings me to the floor today for a moment will also bring me to the floor tomorrow morning on an amendment that I have offered. It deals with something that most Americans will not recognize; it is called the universal service fund. Somewhere in this room, where these budgeteers are working, they have a hole in their budget plan. In other words, it doesn't quite add up. So when something doesn't quite add up, what do you do? Well, in this case you get a different adding machine. You can actually build an adding machine that adds it up the way you want. So they plug this hole with a plug number, and the plug number they use in their budget hole is called the universal service fund.”