Kent Conrad: “look, now we are starting to talk about amendments that are just critically important if we are going to start to do…”

“look, now we are starting to talk about amendments that are just critically important if we are going to start to do something about the skyrocketing deficits and the accumulation of debt. The pay-go provisions are budget disciplines to make it harder to add to deficits. We have used these provisions in the past successfully to move from record deficits to record surpluses. In just a few moments, this body is going to vote on whether it is going to renew those disciplines or we are just going to abandon the ship and keep right on running up an ocean of red ink. This year, we are poised to run a deficit in record terms of over $470 billion--$100 billion more than last year. And last year's deficit was almost $100 billion more than the previous record. This is an opportunity for Senators to stand and be counted and be held accountable. Are we going to go back to the budget disciplines that have worked in the past or are we going to let them lapse? They lapsed in 2002, they have not been reinstituted, and the deficit has skyrocketed. What this amendment does is to put back in place the fundamental disciplines that say simply this: If you want new mandatory spending, if you want new tax cuts, you can have them, but you have to pay for them. It is that simple.”