Kent Conrad: “I think the chairman of the Budget Committee just summed up the position of his party when he said we have to borrow the…”

“I think the chairman of the Budget Committee just summed up the position of his party when he said we have to borrow the money because we have the debt. That is exactly right. Their party has put us on a fiscal course to explode the debt. And when the Senator talks about deficit reduction, which is on the cover of the book of the matter that we are discussing today--it says deficit reduction--it just doesn't have any credibility because it is part of a package. The package is the budget that was passed earlier this year. This reconciliation process we are going through now was authorized by that budget. That budget didn't reduce any deficit; it increased the deficit. Most seriously, it exploded the debt. Well, here it is. The budget we are working to conclude increases the debt by $3.4 trillion over the next 5 years. The spending cut they have out here right now is $39 billion. By the way, they are about to reduce that because the first amendment from our colleagues on the other side is a spending amendment. But let's look at the whole package, the whole package that our colleagues have offered the country, have offered the Senate. If doesn't reduce the deficit, it doesn't reduce the debt, it dramatically expands the debt--not by my calculation but by their calculation. Here is their calculation of the increase in the debt of their 5-year budget proposal. They are going to run up the debt $3.4 trillion.…”