Kent Conrad: “I have no interest in saying it is something it was not. But I would say to the Senator, this was our best chance to put…”

“I have no interest in saying it is something it was not. But I would say to the Senator, this was our best chance to put in place a budget framework to give the Appropriations Committee an indication of what was available to them to spend and not to spend more than that and to put in place the pay-as-you-go restrictions and to put in place the other budget enforcement mechanisms so that the functioning of the Congress could go forward. I understand the Senator, for whatever reason, decided to oppose that. I just say to him, that was our best chance of putting in place the framework for a budget. It didn't happen. All of us can take responsibility. I will take my share of responsibility. I regret very much that the budget that I took out of the committee didn't come to the floor and we didn't have a chance to conclude action on it. I was pleased that we were able to get bipartisan agreement, at least with respect to that budget framework. I wish it would have passed. I think that would have been a good thing. But it did not.”