Dusty Johnson: “If I may follow up on that, the Senator from North Dakota has been one of this body's leaders relative to budget…”

“If I may follow up on that, the Senator from North Dakota has been one of this body's leaders relative to budget responsibility, fiscal responsibility, and the overall effort that we have gone about in bringing the annual Federal budget deficit from $292 billion only 6 years ago to at least a unified budget surplus this year. I think the Senator from North Dakota was deeply involved in the crafting of the legislation that set up the framework that allowed us to bring this country to the current point of much greater fiscal responsibility. But it is my understanding, in the context of that debate and setting up the pay-as-you-go budget mechanisms that were established in the early 1990s, which have been so successful, that one of the underlying premises and understanding of that legislation was that there would be from time to time emergency needs that would be met with the request from the President with the concurrence of the Congress, and that it is not inconsistent with the underlying legislation and the progress that we have made towards reducing the deficit.”