Kent Conrad: “The budget I offered that passed the Senate Budget Committee fully funded defense for 2003 and 2004. After that, it…”

“The budget I offered that passed the Senate Budget Committee fully funded defense for 2003 and 2004. After that, it increased defense by the rate of inflation and set all of the additional defense spending aside that the President has requested in a defense reserve account. Every penny of that money that is not needed for defense goes to debt reduction. The Senator has said it goes to porkbarrel projects. That is absolutely false. Every penny of that money--every penny--either goes for defense or it goes for debt reduction. When the Senator makes statements, I hope the Senator will at least be constrained by the facts.”