Kent Conrad

The actions of this administration are making things worse.

The plain fact is the budget doubles our gross national debt, never once produces an annual deficit of less than $600 billion in its 10 years.

Right now we are in the midst of a growing fiscal crisis, and it is crucially important that we have an honest conversation about the challenges we face.

I do not understand why a measure of success is comparing one third grade to another third grade.

Spending as a share of our national income is the highest it has been in 60 years.

Let's get real. Yes, we have to do spending and yes, we have to do revenue.

We do not just have a spending problem, although we do have a spending problem, we also have a revenue problem.

I do not see any way around, and the question is timing.

We are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that we spend.

I am serious about cutting spending and I voted to do it on the Commission.

All of us--all of us--have to be in on the solution.

Revenue as a share of our national income is the lowest it has been in 60 years.

I believe that we are already in the early stages of a fiscal train wreck.

I think it has been inappropriate for the administration to raise the specter of a default on our debt.

The President has to lead. The President has to say, 'This is what I would do to fix this problem.'

We did get 11 of 18 to agree--five Democrats, five Republicans, one Independent. And we reduced the debt $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

The only thing worse than being for this is being against it.

I give him credit for stabilizing the debt, but it is stabilized at a level that is too high.

I believe history will condemn us all if we do not do substantially more for the decade than is in this budget.

The risk to this country is untenable. Absolutely untenable.

What we need, I believe, is an entire package with everything on the table that deals with fundamental reform of our tax system.

100 percent of GDP is too high.

The debt is stabilized, but it is stabilized at a level that is too high.

I applaud the President for those proposals. I wish there had been even more.

I think you need to have a plan that takes a series of votes now that makes these changes over time.