why did the administration insist that this was fiscally responsible?

the question before us is whether or not the American people were almost duped into thinking that this was $70 billion of revenue

I would urge the Congress to focus on developing the consensus, passing legislation to reduce the deficit.

This actually is a very sexy and exciting hearing. That is how sick and twisted I am.

Congress created a budget process that was intended to prevent this kind of ad-hoc policy making.

There's a lot we can do to fix our broken budget process, but process reform can't work unless members of Congress have the will to make it work.

Americans deserve a real debate about our fiscal future and the budget process is an appropriate form for that debate.

It has been 874 days since the Senate even bothered to try to pass a budget.

only principled compromise can help move us forward for the good of the country

Thank you very much. Thank you for your indulgence and your time. This is something we have to wade into, because I think all of us agree the system is not working to the extent that it needs to.

We are out of time, but the same debate occurs on the tax side of the ledger, which is do we get reality based scoring based on dynamic changes in personal behavior because of changes in the law?