Don Nickles: “I cannot help but think, when I listen to the Senator from Montana and he talks about changing the baseline, that he is…”

“I cannot help but think, when I listen to the Senator from Montana and he talks about changing the baseline, that he is really saying the Federal Government has a baseline that has built-in escalating spending. That does not happen in the businesses in Montana nor in Oklahoma nor in 99 percent of all the businesses in America or in families. When they use budgets, they say what are we spending this year? What are the actual dollars this year? And they use that as a baseline, not what is anticipated growth, expected growth. That is not the case with the Federal Government. That is very unfortunate. So I compliment my friend from Montana for saying that we should have some common sense budget reform, and we have not seen that yet. Mr. President, I want to address a couple of things concerning the President's budget. One is a lot of the rhetoric that we have heard from various administration officials. I serve on the Budget Committee, and I have heard people taking great claim for the deficit that is coming down. They are saying this administration is responsible for it largely as a result of the deficit reduction package that passed last year. They incorrectly state it is the largest deficit reduction package in history. CBO says that is not the case. CBO says 433, not 3,500. I think it is important we talk about facts.”