Kent Conrad: “Sense of the Senate really became absurd... it is purely messaging, and it is a giant waste of time.”

It lifts the bottom. It asks those of us at the top to take a little less of an increase than we might have expected.

All the talk in the world doesn't matter if you don't actually get something done in the real world.

I urge you to vote for the confirmation of Dave Turk. I urge you to do it quickly.

We also increase the payroll tax very modestly, from the current combined rate of 12.4 percent to 13.4 percent over 10 years.