Kent Conrad: “I appreciate that. My argument still holds because the way pay-go works, because the existing tax cuts are sunset under…”

“I appreciate that. My argument still holds because the way pay-go works, because the existing tax cuts are sunset under current law, to extend them, costs money. It has to come from somewhere. Pay-go says you have to pay for it. That is what we are seeking to do. The amendment of the Senator would gut that attempt. What we are saying is to extend the current tax cuts, you have to pay for it. If you want new mandatory spending, you have to pay for it. Let me indicate very quickly, under the current GOP pay-go rule, the Republican pay-go rule, it exempts all tax cuts and mandatory increases that are assumed in any budget resolution, no matter how much they increase the deficits. Our pay-go rule says all mandatory spending and tax cuts that increase deficits must be paid for or require 60 votes. That is a budget discipline that worked very well in the 1990s and we need to restore it. One of the reasons we have this, when we had strong pay-go in effect, here is what happened to the deficits. Each and every year they were reduced until we actually went into surplus and even, for 2 years, we stopped using Social Security money to pay bills around here. Then the weakened pay-go rule went into effect right here and look what happened: Right back in the deficit ditch big time, record deficits, record increases in debt.”