Kent Conrad

I have been looking forward for a long time to this opportunity because the Senator from Pennsylvania makes a lot of aggressive assertions. Unfortunately, he is aggressively wrong, wrong, wrong. Let's start with the question of when the…

I believe we have to both restrain spending and work the revenue side of this equation. I don't think it is going to work without that. Let me start with a little different take on what has caused this dramatic flip in where we are with…

If we look at 2005, the cost of the tax cuts for those who are in the top 1 percent, those who earn over $337,000 a year, for the 1 year it is $45 billion. The amount the President is shorting No Child Left Behind for that same year is $9…

The top 1 percent earns over $337,000. That costs $45 billion. But he does not have the money, he says, to fund No Child Left Behind.

The tax cut for those earning over $1 million a year is $140,000. The average middle-class individuals, those who are in the middle 20 percent of the income spectrum... they get about $560 of tax benefit in that year. The person earning…

Chairman Greenspan now says we have to cut these benefits because we are overcommitted, because we have, in part, taken the money, the President has taken the money under his plan from Social Security to finance income tax cuts that have…

You have the same pattern on the alternative minimum tax, as the Senator showed. Interestingly enough, that costs $658 billion over the 10 years. The President only provides for 1 year in his budget--$23 billion. He shows the $23 billion…

Yes. It is hard to believe, but it is true. The President is telling us he has put nothing in the budget because he says it is hard to estimate how much it will be. I have said to these representatives, the thing we know is the right…

It is truly stunning. It is not just the tax cuts that have that same pattern. Fixing the alternative minimum tax, which was the original millionaire's tax, is rapidly becoming a middle-class tax increase that has that same pattern. In…

The Senator makes a very powerful point. As you can see just on the tax side of the ledger, the President's tax cut proposal explodes right beyond the 5-year window.

My amendment would have replaced the provision shifting corporate estimated tax receipts with an extension of IRS and Customs User fees, and with several tax loophole closers that are included in S. 1637, the JOBS Act. These measures have…

The Senator has mentioned that the President has come before us and asked for $21 billion to reconstruct Iraq. In addition to that, the President is saying there is another $40 billion to $50 billion of needs next year for the…

I believe the President is taking us down a road that is fraught with real danger for the country. The President asked this Congress--the Senate and the House--for authority to launch a preemptive attack on another nation, an attack before…

I thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I welcome that initiative and I thank you for thinking outside the box.

The need is not being met. Would you agree with that?

In your judgement, how much money would be needed to really meet the need?

I do not think there is a bigger gap anywhere in the Federal Government.

This bill increases the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 effective back at the beginning of this year. My amendment simply takes it back another year to the beginning of 2002. This is an efficient way of targeting money to those who…

The amendment increases the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 and makes it retroactive to the beginning of 2002 instead of 2003, as called for in the bill. To offset the cost, the amendment would delay the rate reduction for the 1…

I conclude by saying not only is this plan ineffective in terms of giving lift to the economy and irresponsible in terms of the exploding deficits and debt, but it is also unfair. It is unfair because it overwhelmingly gives the greatest…

This is a budget that is going to explode the deficits and debt of the United States at a time of already record deficits. It takes $1.3 trillion away in revenue and increases expenditures by $1.1 trillion. There can only be one result…

I want to respond to something my colleague from Idaho indicated during his remarks when he stated that marriage penalty relief has been attacked as a tax cut for the wealthy. I know of no example of that. I do know that on our side…

I say to my colleague, as I indicated, we on this side moved to accelerate that relief in 2001. In fact, I offered the amendment.

I tried to be as frank and forthcoming as I could be. When the Senator says there were no categorizations, there were. I would be happy to enter it into the Record. It is not true to say there were not. There were. You had the…