Kent Conrad: “They said in this article--and I want to read an extended version of this for my colleagues because I think it is…”

“They said in this article--and I want to read an extended version of this for my colleagues because I think it is critically important it be in the Record before we vote. They said: The fiscal outlook is much worse than official projections indicate. These projections assume that the tax cuts enacted in 2001 will expire at the end of 2010. They also assume that discretionary spending, the part of the budget that pays for national defense, domestic security, education and transportation, will shrink continuously as a share of the economy. Neither of these assumptions is realistic. Moreover, the official projections do not include the costs of war and reconstruction in Iraq. And they ignore the inevitable need to reform the alternative minimum tax, which is not indexed for inflation and will apply to some 40 million households within 10 years--up from two million today.”