Kent Conrad: “So, we get lost here in the details, but the overarching truth is the Republican budget, over 6 years, cuts $296 billion…”

“So, we get lost here in the details, but the overarching truth is the Republican budget, over 6 years, cuts $296 billion out of domestic discretionary spending. The pool of money for domestic discretionary spending is reduced by $296 billion. The President's budget reduces it by $229 billion over 6 years. I point out the centrist budget, which a bipartisan group of Senators, Republicans and Democrats, have agreed to, is $179 billion over 6 years. Frankly, I would say both the Republican budget and the President's budget have unrealistic reductions in domestic discretionary spending. They are unlikely to ever occur. One of the reasons is, in both of those budgets, that the overall pool of money available for domestic discretionary spending is so sharply reduced that future Congresses are unlikely to adhere to the spending path outlined in either one of those budgets. The fact is, the bipartisan group, which has tried to put together a budget alternative that would really have some prospects of actually holding course, holding to the course set for a 7-year period, has lower domestic discretionary savings than either of the other budgets. It is also true the President has less in the way of domestic discretionary savings than the Republican budget has.”