Kent Conrad: “If we go back to the budget that is before us and put back the defense buildup the administration is going to call for…”

“If we go back to the budget that is before us and put back the defense buildup the administration is going to call for and which is authorized in this budget, although the numbers are not included, if we would go back and correct the alternative minimum tax that is going to affect over 35 million taxpayers in this country, one in every four taxpayers who think they are going to get a tax cut but are going to be surprised when they find out they are caught up in the alternative minimum tax and it costs $290 billion to fix it; if we put in the education amendment that passed on the Senate floor last week on a unanimous consent basis; if we put in the emergencies that we all know are going to occur that run on average $5 billion a year; and if we put in the associated interest costs with those items, what we find is that we would be deep into the Medicare trust fund; that we would be deep into the Social Security trust fund. That is the reason all of those items have been left out--because this budget does not add up.”