Kent Conrad: “I believe this budget really is a triumph of ideology. And it is a sad--a sad--commentary on this body that we pass…”

“I believe this budget really is a triumph of ideology. And it is a sad--a sad--commentary on this body that we pass something that is this disconnected from reality. At some point we are going to have to join together to try to dig out of this mess because this is going to damage the country in a profound way. I just hope that at some point reason returns. This is not a conservative document. There is nothing conservative about this. This is radical and reckless and dangerous, and it should be defeated. We should go back, and we should restrain spending, and we ought to restrain our appetite for tax cuts. We ought to have the courage to stand up and tell the American people what we all know is true: That when this Nation is already facing record budget deficits, and we are at war--the cost of which we cannot know--and on the brink of the retirement of the baby boom generation, we simply cannot do everything they would like us to do. We cannot have every spending program that they would like. We cannot have every tax cut that they would like and be responsible to the future. The result will be a weakened America, not a growth package.”