Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask, through the Chair, a question to the Parliamentarian. Is this amendment germane to the budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. The amendment is not germane. Mr. President, if this amendment were adopted, is it corrosive to the privileged status of the budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, if this amendment were adopted and came back from conference, would it be fatal to the privileged nature of the budget resolution?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I suggest the pending amendment is not germane; therefore, I raise a point of order that the amendment violates section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. CONRAD. I would be constrained to object.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, if you want to blow a hole in the budget as big as all outdoors, here is your opportunity--a trillion dollars not paid for, a trillion dollars that we are going to go out and borrow from the Chinese and Japanese. That makes absolutely no sense. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, if Senator Snowe's staff is in the Chamber, we need the modification to Senator Snowe's amendment sent to the desk. Senator DeMint has an amendment on deductibility. If the Senator can describe that amendment and if he would be willing to take that amendment on a voice vote, we can accept it at this point. Amendment No. 4339

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have to return to regular order if we can. Perhaps the best way to unwind this situation, as I understand, Senator DeMint's amendment then will require a vote; is that the case? Then I think what we should do is ask Senator DeMint to take his 1 minute to explain the amendment. Then we will ask for 1 minute in opposition by perhaps the two Senators from California, vote on the DeMint amendment, and then perhaps we can go to Senator Vitter's amendment, if that is OK.

Mr. CONRAD. No, no, that is fair. I think we need to agree to that request. That has to be done. That is fair.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, for the purpose of helping us move along effectively, in order to get this done it is very important that both sides have copies of the amendments that are offered. We can't do business efficiently if we don't--both sides--have copies of the amendments. I say this because both of us are in such a rush to conclusion that sometimes we neglect to make sure the other side--we have done it, which we apologize for, and it is very easy to happen in this hectic ending. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, since we have had argument on both sides, I wonder if it would be fair now to have 2 minutes for those in opposition, 1 minute by each of the Senators from California.

Mr. CONRAD. I think we have to cut this off at this point, if I can say that to my colleague. So Senator Feinstein.

Mr. CONRAD. Senator Biden.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are on the budget resolution. We will complete work today or tomorrow at some point. It is important we complete the business. Let me indicate this is the circumstance we inherit: The last balanced budget was in 2001. Since then, this administration has run up record deficits and record debt. Mr. President, 2004 was the largest dollar deficit in history. In fact, we have now had the five largest deficits in our history under this administration. That dug a very deep hole as we began to write this budget resolution. This is what has happened to the debt: At the end of the first year of the administration--we do not hold them responsible for the first year because they inherited a budget from the previous administration-- the debt of the United States stood at $5.8 trillion. It will be, at the end of 2009, over $10.4 trillion. This administration will nearly have doubled the debt of our country. In terms of who is financing that debt, increasingly we are dependent on the kindness of strangers because increasingly this money is being borrowed from abroad. I show this chart: There are 42 Presidents pictured here. It took 224 years to run up $1 trillion of U.S. debt held abroad. This President has more than doubled that amount in 7 years. In fact, he has far more than doubled foreign holdings of U.S. debt in 7 years. That brings us to this budget, which recognizes the economic weakness our country is confronting. So our first priority is to strengthen the economy and create jobs. We do that by investing in energy, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We invest in education, knowing we cannot be a first-class nation unless our people are the best educated, best trained in the world. We invest in our infrastructure, to help make us more competitive. We also expand health care coverage for our children because that is a wise investment that pays off over a lifetime. And we provide tax cuts for the middle class. At the same time, we restore fiscal responsibility by balancing the budget in 4 years, and maintaining balance in the fifth year. We also seek to make America safer by supporting the troops by providing for veterans' health care, and by protecting the homeland by rejecting the President's proposed cuts in law enforcement, the COPS Program, and our first responders. We all know the economic weakness the country is currently experiencing. Economic growth, in 2006, averaged 2.6 percent; in 2007, 2.5 percent. The Congressional Budget Office is now estimating for 2008 the economic growth will only be 1.6 percent. Many of us believe the economy is not growing at all at the present time. In fact, we may well be in a recession. So in order to strengthen the economy, we have provided for stimulus in this budget resolution: some $35 billion in an insurance policy, standby authority in case this economy weakens further; providing relief in the hard-hit housing sector, where we know they are not in a recession, they are in a depression; also having the option of extending unemployment insurance; providing for additional resources for food stamps; and also having the opportunity for additional funding for low-income heating assistance, the WIC program, and infrastructure funding for 2008--projects that are ready to go: road building, highway construction, bridge construction, school construction--projects that are designed, that are engineered, all of the land has been acquired; they just need the money to begin construction and to hire people and to create jobs. There is also substantial tax relief in this budget resolution: alternative minimum tax relief, so an additional 20 million families are not caught up in the alternative minimum tax; additional energy tax incentives, again to reduce our dependence on foreign oil; additional education tax cuts, in order to make college more affordable; the stimulus provisions we have discussed, especially targeted at the housing sector; and, of course, the all-important extenders--those tax provisions that are expiring that need to be extended. The first amendment to the budget resolution will also extend the middle-class tax relief. It will extend the marriage penalty relief, the child tax credit, the 10-percent bracket. It will also provide for estate tax reform, providing for an exemption of $3.5 million a person--and all of that to keep pace with inflation as well. It also contains an important new property tax relief measure that the chairman of the Finance Committee will describe, tax relief for our troops and veterans, and tax relief for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. All of that is against the backdrop of a budget that is balanced. Once the Baucus amendment is adopted that extends the middle-class tax relief, we show that we are able to balance the budget in the fourth year, and maintain balance in the fifth year, showing a positive balance in the fourth year of $4 billion, and a similar amount in 2013. We are also, under this resolution, once the Baucus amendment is adopted, taking the debt as a share of our national income down each and every year, from 69.6 percent, down to 66 percent in 2013. So we have the debt going in the right direction, going down as a share of our national economy. We also have spending going down under this budget resolution as a share of our national income, from 20.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, stepped down each year, until in the fourth and fifth years we have reduced Federal spending as a share of our national economy to 19.1 percent. Now, we will hear on the other side assertions that this budget spends hundreds of billions of dollars more. I don't know what budget they are talking about because it is not this budget. This shows the difference between our budget and the President's budget in terms of spending. The red line is the President's spending line. The green line is the spending under this resolution. My colleagues can see, in relative terms, they are very close. There is only a 2-percent difference in spending over the 5 years, the difference between what is in the President's budget and what is in this budget. We use those additional resources for energy, for education, for infrastructure, for our veterans, and to maintain law enforcement programs such as the COPS Program. One percent: What does this signify? One percent is the difference in the spending level for this next year between our budget and the President's budget. There is 1 percent more spending in our budget in total for 2009 than is in the President's budget. Again, those additional resources are devoted to primarily education, reducing our energy dependence, infrastructure, and veterans health care. Those are the primary areas of difference. Here are the lines which show the difference between the revenue in our proposal and the revenue in the President's proposal. We will hear there is a $1 trillion tax increase somehow buried in this budget. There is no such thing. They made the same claims last year. There was no $1 trillion tax increase last year; there is no $1 trillion tax increase this year. I said yesterday that if I brought up the menu from the dining room downstairs and introduced it as a budget resolution, our colleagues would say there is a $1 trillion tax increase because that is what they always say. The fact is the difference in revenue between the two is 2.6 percent. Here is the difference between the revenue in the President's budget and the revenue in our budget: 2.6 percent. That means we are able to pay the debt down more. That means we are able to balance the budget. That means we are able to put some additional resources in these high priority needs such as veterans health care, education, energy, and infrastructure to help create jobs and stimulate this economy and also position America to be fully competitive in the years ahead. So how could we get 2.6 percent more revenue than the President and not have a tax increase? Well, I suggest we can do it by going after things such as the tax gap, the difference between what is owed and what is paid. The vast majority of us pay what we owe; some don't. That amount of money has become very large. The IRS says in 2001, that gap between what is owed and what is paid was $345 billion. However, that is not the only place there is money that is not being secured. We have offshore tax havens. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has told us we are losing $100 billion a year to these offshore tax havens. Here is an example: A building in the Cayman Islands, a 5-story building that claims to be home to 12,748 companies. They all say they are doing business out of this little building. Does anybody believe that? The only business they are doing down there is monkey business. What they are doing is avoiding and evading their taxes in this United States. We ought to shut it down. If we do shut it down, there is a tremendous amount of money there, according to our Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This article appeared on March 6 in the Boston Globe: ``Top Iraq contractor skirts U.S. taxes offshore.'' It is a perfect example of what I have been talking about. This story indicates that: Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. I wish that was the exception. Unfortunately, our Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says it is no exception. It is increasingly the case. Let me close by saying on the other side, our colleagues will say a $1 trillion tax increase. They made the same claim last year. Now we can go back and check the record and see what actually happened. With Democrats in control of the House and the Senate, did they increase taxes by $1 trillion? What actually happened? Well, if you go check the record--this isn't a forecast, this isn't a projection, this isn't a claim; this is a fact--this Congress reduced taxes by $194 billion. They increased revenue through loophole closers by $7 billion, so a net reduction in taxes of $187 billion. That is what the Congress did. Congress, controlled by the Democrats in the House and the Senate, didn't increase taxes, as was claimed by the other side last year. They make the same claim this year. The fact is we cut taxes, and we cut taxes quite dramatically. The stimulus package that will lead to checks being sent out to 100 million Americans, that was a tax cut. In addition, fixing the alternative minimum tax so more than 20 million American families weren't hit with increased taxes are in those numbers. This is a budget resolution worthy of our colleagues' support, and I encourage each of our colleagues to carefully evaluate it and to support it. Might I, before my colleague begins, thank him for his many courtesies during consideration of the budget resolution. As always, we have differences. My colleagues will hear them now, I am sure. On substantive issues, we have places where we disagree, but he has been an absolute professional in the conduct of the work of this committee and the handling of this resolution on the floor. I thank him for it.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, with my time remaining, let me answer a few of the things that were said by my colleague. No. 1, we fully fund the President's defense and war costs request. So let's not have any misunderstanding about that for the troops.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, the Graham amendment, well-intentioned as it is, is the road to fiscal irresponsibility. This will absolutely blow a hole in the budget. We now have balance by 2012, and we maintain balance in 2013. If you adopt the Graham amendment--because none of it is paid for, there are no offsets, no spending reductions, no other revenue--it is put on the debt. So if you want to borrow more from China, if you want to borrow more from Japan, vote for the Graham amendment. If you want to balance the budget, if you want to get this country back on the road to fiscal responsibility, vote no.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to lay that motion on the table.

Mr. CONRAD. I don't have time for a question. No. 2, the Senator says it is not our money, it is the people's money. He is exactly right. It is also the people's debt, and unfortunately the other side has run up the people's debt. Finally, there are no tax increases assumed in this budget. In fact, there are significant tax reductions assumed in this budget in AMT, energy tax, incentives, college tax--all of that is in the budget. A final point. Mr. President, when our colleague says over and over there are these tax increases, those tax increases must be in the President's budget, too, because there is only a 2.6-percent difference in the revenue. I thank the Chair and our colleagues. I yield the floor.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we want to announce the first 10 votes for the information of our colleagues. This has been cleared on both sides. The Baucus amendment will be followed by the Graham amendment, followed by the Bingaman amendment, the Conrad amendment, the Specter amendment, the Salazar amendment, the Kyl amendment, the Conrad amendment, the Bunning amendment, and the Specter amendment. Those are the first 10 in order. That takes us now to Senator Baucus. Amendment No. 4160

Mr. CONRAD. On opposition time, I yield 30 seconds to the Senator.

Mr. CONRAD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we can thank Senators Bingaman and Alexander for setting a very good example, of taking an amendment on a voice vote. Amendment No. 4190