Kent Conrad

This addiction to foreign oil is a direct threat to our national security.

I do not believe it has ever been more clear that our Nation's economic and national security are directly linked to our energy policy.

Those who suggest it was not fiscally responsible, I do not think they are very aware of the history.

I just spent the last year and a half getting a farm bill passed, and we paid for the farm bill.

I have tried to say that publicly. But, you know, we have got a responsibility here, too.

Please don't be drawing lines in the sand.

I have had enough colleagues now tell me that about enough provisions in this budget to absolutely assure we cannot pass a budget.

I hope people are open to understanding that, you know, everybody has their own view, but to accomplish big things takes compromise around here.

I find it unlikely that climate change legislation will pass that does not have some allocations reserved for especially hard-hit industries.

All politics is local.

If we are not the best educated people in the world, we cannot long expect to be the most powerful country in the world.

I do believe there are important priorities here in energy, reducing our dependence on foreign energy.

The proposal here is to expand in health care and put in place $636 billion in new spending

What we are really doing here is giving them a government that is not sustainable or affordable

We will pass on to our children in the very near future, at about the end of 4 years from now, a debt-to-GDP ratio which is unsustainable

You are creating a situation which is probably untenable for our children because of the size of that debt

This is not going to be solved with one step. There are going to have to be many significant steps taken for us to be rebuilding for recovery.

It will again. But it needs leadership.

I do not want to be part of any papering over or slipping by or not facing up to... a fundamental threat to the economic security of the country.

If you do not deal with the long-term imbalances, our country is going to look like a Banana Republic.

The right answer is not zero with respect to the housing crisis and the financial sector.

I have now voted twice for the TARP money because I thought President Bush needed it and I thought President Obama needed it.

Wouldn't it be better to cut that so-called stimulus bill in half?

I am still stunned that the President would ask us to spend $1 trillion.

We have got a big problem, maybe $2 trillion or more with bad assets.