Kent Conrad: “I find it really rather incredible that we have a circumstance in which one person is going to be able to decide the…”

“I find it really rather incredible that we have a circumstance in which one person is going to be able to decide the defense budget for the United States--one person in the Senate, one person in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, the Budget Committee chairman for 1 year will be able to decide what number goes in, and in the House, the chairman of the Budget Committee there can decide for 10 years what the defense budget is going to be. It is fairly breathtaking. Think about what we read in the textbooks: That we have a representative democracy, that every State has two Senators and they have Members of Congress determined by the population of their States. They come here, they vote, and they decide. But in this circumstance, with the Republicans in control of the House and in nominal control of the Senate, because they have the Vice President prepared to break a tie, they are in complete control. They are in total control. This is their document.”