Kent Conrad: “It goes to the fundamental problem of the Bush budget and the fundamental problem of the Republican budget which is…”

“It goes to the fundamental problem of the Bush budget and the fundamental problem of the Republican budget which is trying to match the Bush budget. Of course, we don't even have the Bush budget before us. But with the kind of rudimentary outline he has provided us, it simply doesn't add up because the tax cut is so large. When you try to adjust the spending provisions, as both Republicans and Democrats now want to do--we saw that yesterday; Republicans agreed that we need twice as much money for a prescription drug benefit. Today we see the Republicans agree we need substantially more for agriculture. Unfortunately, what they have proposed is inadequate. It provides $64 billion over the 11 years. Our proposal would provide $97 billion. But the biggest problem is the source of the funds.”