Kent Conrad: “I support bonus depreciation. I support Medicaid assistance to the States. But I do not support 2 years of bonus…”

“I support bonus depreciation. I support Medicaid assistance to the States. But I do not support 2 years of bonus depreciation. I do not support 2 years of additional spending on Medicaid for the States. The reason is very simple. On the question of bonus depreciation, the whole purpose of this package is to encourage economic recovery, additional economic activity now. A 2-year provision reduces the stimulus, reduces the incentive to act now. That is not only my opinion, that is the opinion of the Congressional Budget Office that examined the various options before us and said: Don't do multiple years; you reduce the incentive to act now. This is the time we need additional economic activity. Second, the history of fiscal stimulus is always that we have acted too late. We are on the brink of doing that again. A 2-year provision falls right into that trap. The cost of this provision is $45 billion this year; $37 billion next year. That is digging the hole deeper when we have just been informed by the Congressional Budget Office that every penny of these resources will come out of the Social Security trust fund. For that reason, I will raise a budget point of order against this provision.”