Kent Conrad

This hearing and others like it that I've been holding is especially important as we consider a new transportation bill for the country.

The President and Congress have acknowledged that the bulk of our budget problem lies in the health care, the area of health care entitlements.

It is so clear to me, it is beyond question to me that you have to have a special process.

I think this is going to be tough politically.

There is an increasing disconnect between the public and Washington.

I do not want reductions in social programs. But I recognize there is no alternative.

The No. 2 issue of concern to Americans exceed only by the economy was escalating deficits and debt.

As you have said, put bluntly, the decisionmaking process in Congress is broken. It must be fixed.

We are trying to organize it so that in the end there has to be a bipartisan agreement.

The regular legislative process is simply not going to get it done.

The American people know there is waste in Government, and they expect us to do something about it.

I think the public has hit a tipping point here, too.

We must make tough choices and solve our own problems.

But in addition to reducing our long-term problems by facing health care reform, we need to face many of our other problems in order to truly lower the cost curve or bend it downward in the right direction.

My answer to this question is a resounding and unequivocal yes.

In my opinion, the result of all this is we have fiscal cancer, and it is metastasizing at the rate that very soon no surgery, no chemotherapy, no radiation will be able to cure the problem.

We simply have to start saying no.

$1.4 trillion. That should sober us all.

Some kind of special bipartisan process is going to be needed.

The regulatory and administrative burden upon mineral development on Fort Berthold caused considerable economic harm.

There are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been.

There are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been.

There are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been.

Next year, we think we're about $10 billion short in the Trust Fund of meeting the requirements from the previous transportation bill.

The Trust Fund is running out of money, will run out of money, we estimate, in August.