Russ Feingold: “the finishing touches have been applied to the leadership's Presidential election year budget, and as many of us on both…”

“the finishing touches have been applied to the leadership's Presidential election year budget, and as many of us on both sides of the aisle feared, the cornerstone of that election year budget is not balancing the books but cutting taxes. Even the few fig leaves that were carefully placed on last year's budget resolution have been removed. The special reserve fund from which tax cuts were to be funded only after CBO certified that we were on a glidepath to a balanced budget has been removed. Instead we have a Rube Goldberg construction of reconciliation bills, leading to a massive tax cut which, we are told, totals $122 billion, but which might actually be closer to $180 billion if one believes the Chairman of the other body's Budget Committee. If anything, the conference version of the budget resolution provides even more opportunities for enacting a tax cut before the budget is balanced. As I understand the conference report, Congress can now consider tax cuts as part of the welfare-Medicaid reconciliation bill, or as part of a separate tax cut reconciliation bill. It is readily apparent that the goal of this year's budget resolution is not to balance the budget in 7 years, in 6 years, or even sooner. The goal is to pass an election year tax cut. Mr. President, the goal, and thus the budget as a whole, is entirely political--a defect that is not unique to this budget resolution.”