Kent Conrad

We can put together a credible, responsible, realistic bipartisan budget plan, and this year we need to finish the job.

I did not see the kind of leadership I hoped for in the State of the Union.

We knew we were right.

The Obama administration has failed miserably in that regard. It has focused on consumption and fiscal stimulation that will give us 4-percent growth in 2011.

I believe this debt threat is an imminent threat to the Nation.

The budget problem that presents us with, instead of having several hundred billion dollars a year coming in from Social Security that we could send somewhere else, those days are over.

The problem that we run into in a budget context is those bonds that Social Security holds that are real assets.

I believe that the deficit and debt reduction plan assembled by the President's Fiscal Commission on which I served got it about right.

I do not think Congress, the House or the Senate, are going to be very interested in bailouts to States.

I supported extending the tax cuts. I supported extending all of them because I believed the economy was in such weak condition.

The Congress and the policymakers, we have to walk and chew gum at the same time.

I just want to make a correction.

I think that demonstrates that we can reach across the aisle to do things that are critically important for the country.

I personally believe the Federal response did avert what could have been a financial collapse.

If we are going to take on this issue, it is going to require dramatic cuts in Government spending, but it is also going to require meaningful tax reform.

I hope history will record the same for your leadership.

You have to have everything on the table. Spending, revenue, and every part of Federal spending has to be dealt with.

There is nobody that could have participated in this process that did not conclude this tax system that we have is just completely out of date.

You have to adopt a plan. You have to put it in place.

Clearly, that cannot continue for very long.

I personally believe you and then Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, followed by this administration, have taken steps that were critically important to averting a financial collapse, not only here but globally as well.

We are on an unsustainable course, and we have an obligation, we have a very serious and somber obligation to come up with a plan and to do it sooner rather than later.

We have seen some progress made--in fact, important progress made.

My own belief is that we need to put in place a plan this year to get our fiscal house back in order.

I am in the Sessions camp on this.