Kent Conrad: “Let me just say, the Senator has put his finger on what to me is so stunningly irresponsible about this budget. If this…”

“Let me just say, the Senator has put his finger on what to me is so stunningly irresponsible about this budget. If this money was not being taken and used for other purposes, the surplus money, it could then be used in one of two ways. It could be used to pay down debt that would better prepare us for what is to come, or it could be used, some portion of it, to prepay the liability of what we know is to come. That is what other countries are doing. Other countries, recognizing the same demographic time bomb, are taking the surpluses being generated now in their trust funds and are investing them or they are prepaying the liability. Instead of paying down debt or prepaying liability, we are using the money for tax cuts and for other expenditures of government that leave us less capable to deal with what is to come. That is a profound mistake, and we will live to regret it. And we will then face a circumstance in which we will be asked to make even more draconian reductions in the benefits of those programs, or drastic tax increases. Let me say, the President told us 2 years ago his budget would pay down a record amount of national debt. He said: We will pay off $2 trillion of debt over the next decade. That will be the largest debt reduction of any country, ever. He said then: Future generations shouldn't be forced to pay back money that we have borrowed. We owe this kind of responsibility to our children and grandchildren.…”