Kent Conrad

No. It is unfortunate the Senator did not hear my remarks. I made it very clear in the remarks what I think will happen. We were missing one Senator because of a family obligation, missing another Senator because of illness. Senator Reid…

If I might just for 30 seconds say that when the Senator calls this the Wizard of Oz budget, I would accept that characterization of courage, brains, and heart. That is this budget.

I want to just say this--and I fully anticipate the Senator may be critical of this budget, so I certainly respect his views. But I just want to say, after going through this budget process, that the Senator from New Mexico has been…

Let me just say that the spending in this budget, as I have said over and over--and I will be happy to put up the chart again--spending as a share of gross domestic product goes down under this budget each and every year. It goes down from…

I thank Senator Murray for the extraordinary contributions she has made to this budget resolution. There is no more valuable member of the Senate Budget Committee than Senator Murray. She was a conferee. She has participated throughout the…

First of all, in answering the question of the Senator, I would say what you find is quite stunning. We went on the Internet, I would say to my colleague--first of all, I thank him because the picture of this building down in the Cayman…

I might say I even extend that to the Senator from Iowa, the esteemed ranking member of the Finance Committee, whom I have grown fond of. Let me say this: We don't have any tax increase in our proposal. The reason we resist the motion of…

But as the Senator's chart demonstrates, if you adjust that for inflation, what your GDP figure does, there is virtually no difference in tax burden--virtually none. There is 18.6 percent in GDP tax burden in 2007 and 18.8 percent in 2012.

I am ready with a question. I say to the Senator, I look at this ``Building a Wall of Taxes'' and the numbers don't match the visual. The Senator's chart shows under our budget that taxes would be 18.6 percent of GDP in 2007 and 18.8…

I ask the Senator, in conclusion, isn't it the case that the history in the Senate has been that emergency matters, of whatever type--whether they flow from a war or whether they flow from natural disasters--in this country are dealt with…

I ask the Senator, is it not a curious thing that the President, in his proposal on the supplemental appropriations bill, has a plan to rebuild Iraq but has no plan to rebuild parts of America that have been devastated by disaster? Is that…

Let me alert colleagues, if this amendment is adopted, we will be here until 2 o'clock this morning. I hope that sobers everybody's consideration on this matter. On a serious note, the Lott amendment blows a hole in the budget because it…

The reality of the budget resolution is this may not have anything to do with eliminating the alternative minimum tax. The one thing it will do is reduce the revenue of the Government over the next 5 years by $533 billion, plunging us…

The fact is, none of those rates change until 2010, No. 1. No. 2, the Senator's amendment also would not have the effect described by the Senator. The effect the amendment would have is to reduce revenue by $117 billion. It would put us…

This amendment, while well intended, would create a serious problem for the body. This amendment prevents the Appropriations Committee from reporting a bill with more than one type of emergency designation. Let me give my colleagues a…

This amendment, if it were adopted, would cut Medicare and Medicaid by $58.8 billion. It would cut the Homeland Security Committee by $5.8 billion. It would cut the Agriculture Committee by $3.6 billion. Beyond that, Mr. President, the…

The Senator is wrong. I know why the Senator is reading it to conclude that. My tax experts tell me that the way the interactive effect occurs, the top effective rate is never more than 35 percent. I know why the Senator is reaching that…

The Sessions amendment would increase taxes in fiscal year 2008 by $2.6 billion. It would increase taxes in fiscal year 2009, for a total in those 2 years of $11.7 billion of tax increases. In later years, the Sessions amendment would…

I will not object. This, frankly, is a complicated amendment. I am not sure I fully understand all the implications or ramifications of it, but the basic notion that we try to make certain that reconciliation is used for deficit reduction…

Might I say the Senator now has hurt my feelings. Would the Senator's staff put up the caveman chart? That now has hurt my feelings. I don't know how I am going to be able to get through the day after the caveman chart. I don't think that…

What I have done is offered a deficit-neutral reserve fund that gives the committees the greatest latitude to actually fund it. Mr. President, 920, which is his offset, is oversubscribed, and if we go to conference with it, we will be…

I was asking that we pay for these very worthwhile initiatives with a deficit-neutral reserve fund instead of using section 920.

This amendment is absolutely well intended, but it will create unintended consequences. This will give the Budget Committee authority over nonbudgetary matters. This amendment, if it were adopted, would create a supermajority point of…

I think in section 920, we are at about $38 billion. That is over 5 years. The $7 billion I was referencing is for 1 year. The comparison I was making is that the President had given us similar offsets of about $7.5 billion for 1 year. The…

First, the budget resolution does not make these individual policy determinations. The effect of this amendment will simply be to cut domestic discretionary spending $18 billion. Understand the programs that have been identified in the…