Kent Conrad: “we have heard speeches this morning that suggest because the balanced budget amendment has been defeated, we somehow…”

“we have heard speeches this morning that suggest because the balanced budget amendment has been defeated, we somehow have to wait to balance the budget. I simply say that there is no need to wait. There is nothing that prevents us from moving to write budgets that balance the budget. We can do that in the normal process of the Congress--and we should. Mr. President, no one should use as an excuse that the balanced budget amendment failed. Mr. President, we have an obligation--all of us, Democrats and Republicans--to now go to work to move this country toward balance. And there is no time to spare, because we face a demographic time bomb in this country; that is, when the baby boomers start to retire and the number of people who are eligible for Medicare and Social Security doubles. That requires that we go to work and write balanced budgets. Mr. President, I want to just put in some perspective why some of us felt so keenly that the balanced budget amendment that was before us was flawed. I come from a financial background. I was a tax commissioner of my State before I came to this body. In that position, I fought the looting of trust funds at the State level. I thought it was wrong then. I thought it was wrong when I came to this Chamber that we were doing the same thing with respect to trust funds.”