Kent Conrad: “look, this isn't that hard. The President said in his budget he was going to raise $14.8 trillion. In my budget, I say…”

“look, this isn't that hard. The President said in his budget he was going to raise $14.8 trillion. In my budget, I say $15 trillion. That is a 1.2 percent difference. I don't believe for a minute that we can't raise that difference by going after these abusive tax shelters, these offshore tax havens, this looming tax gap. The tax gap alone is going to be well over $2 trillion over these 5 years--$2 trillion. It seems to me it is very clear. I used to be a tax commissioner. I have audited the books--Senator Dorgan and I are perhaps the only ones here who have audited the books and records of companies operating on an international basis. I went to my legislature and told them I would produce this kind of additional revenue if they would increase my budget. They did, and I did. I know this can be done. This isn't an imagining to me. I have done it. Senator Dorgan has done it. We have actually checked the books and records of companies. We have found extraordinary sums of money for the little State of North Dakota. My goodness, if it can be done for North Dakota, it can certainly be done for the United States.”