Kent Conrad: “let me indicate this is the estimate of what this budget would do. It would take the deficit from $252 billion to a…”

“let me indicate this is the estimate of what this budget would do. It would take the deficit from $252 billion to a balance of $41 billion in 2012--a surplus in 2012 of $41 billion. It would reduce spending as a share of gross domestic product from 20.5 percent in 2008 down to 18.9 percent in 2012. It would begin to control the growth of the debt after 2010. It would bring down gross debt as a share of gross domestic product from 67.7 percent to 66.5 percent in 2012. On the question of revenue, I go back to this point because it is inescapable. The President, when he produced his budget, said he was going to produce $14.826 trillion of revenue over the next 5 years. Ours produces $14.828 trillion. There is virtually no difference. The President said, when he put out his budget proposal, that was a responsible amount of revenue to raise, $14.826 trillion. Our budget raises virtually the identical amount that he said was the responsible amount to raise for this 5-year period. Now, it is true CBO later came back and said: Mr. President, your budget doesn't raise as much as you said it would. That doesn't take away from the fact that the President, when he proposed his budget, thought that the amount of revenue that should be raised over this 5-year period is $14.826 trillion. It doesn't take away from the fact that our budget raises virtually the identical amount.”