Kent Conrad: “if I could say this to the Senator, the problem I think he has with his amendment is he has assumed the CBO baseline…”

“if I could say this to the Senator, the problem I think he has with his amendment is he has assumed the CBO baseline unadjusted. I know this sounds like inside-the-beltway gobbledygook, but let me say this to the Senator. There was a supplemental appropriations bill approved last year of $86 billion. I think all my colleagues will remember that. The problem with the numbers the Senator from Ohio has chosen is he has built that supplemental appropriations bill--that was a one-time increase of $86 billion--into that baseline figure. He has that $86 billion built in, going out all the years into the future. As a result, what you wind up with is much higher deficits than if you used the adjusted baseline the chairman of the Budget Committee has adopted. The chairman of the Budget Committee quite wisely and with strong support from the ranking member adjusted the CBO baseline by taking out the future years' adoption of the one-time supplemental. The effect of the Senator's amendment is to create higher deficits--or at least the potential for higher deficits--in each of the next 3 years by the amounts that I talked about. These are the amounts: $256 billion over the baseline that was adopted by the chairman. I say to the Senator, I think that would just be a profound mistake.”